Chapter 1

Three years ago, I took an undercover job: pose as a bottom-tier janitor and infiltrate a crime syndicate.  

But I didn’t fit. My posture, my stride, the way I watched people—none of it looked like a janitor.  

So command made the call: hypnotize me, seal my memories, erase who I was. In three months, someone would come wake me up.  

They never did. My handler died, the line went dark, and I stayed buried.  

I lost myself and spent three years scrubbing this place from the bottom—where anyone could kick me, spit at me, call me useless.  

Until today. A stranger, drenched in blood, was dragged into the hall. He lunged close and whispered one sentence into my ear.  

It was the trigger phrase.  

The lock in my head snapped open. My name is Jack Reynolds—ex–Marine operative—sent here to bring down the Grey Wolf Alliance.  

And everyone who spent three years stepping on my neck is about to learn what that means.

————

The restroom always reeks of dampness, the sharp bite of disinfectant mixed with salty sea air blowing in through the vent.

I bend at the waist and press the mop head into the grout lines, pushing it forward again and again.

The floor’s just been walked over—mud and grease ground in by boots—so after I pass the mop, it still looks like I haven’t cleaned a thing.

“Hey, Eddie.” Someone raps on the doorframe behind me, his voice picking for trouble on purpose. “You missed a spot. If I slip later, you’ll get on your knees and lick it clean. Understand?”

I don’t turn around. I just wring the mop tighter.

I know what they want—to hear me talk back, to see even a hint of defiance on my face, so they’ll have an excuse to swing.

Three years in, the first thing I learned was never to hand them an excuse.

He steps closer and taps the area I just mopped with the toe of his boot.

“You hear me?”

“I hear you,” I say.

He snorts and walks off.

I lift my head and look at my face in the mirror—blank, my eyes like they’re behind a thin layer of fog.

The mop handle has rubbed a ring of callus into my palm. I tighten my grip, then slowly let it go.

This is the Gray Wolf Alliance. They don’t call themselves an alliance on the outside. They use a cleaner name—Port Services Group.

They’ve got contracts, licenses, uniforms, ID badges—the whole package. The dock supervisors even call them “partners” with polite smiles. They handle port cleaning, waste disposal, ship supplies, night security patrols, loading and unloading outsourcing. Truck drivers see their logo and plates and never think twice.

But I’ve been here three years. I know what’s under that respectable coat of paint.

They use those services as cover for trafficking transfers, smuggling and laundering, forged customs declarations, and container swaps.

My name is Eddie. I’ve been here three years, and I’m not here by choice.

Three years ago I owed money. Not an impossible amount, but enough to drag an ordinary guy into the mud. Someone told me they could take care of it, set me up with a “port job”—just show up and report in.

I believed them. Or maybe I just didn’t have another way out. The moment I arrived, they handed me an ID badge, shut the door, and my creditor became my guard. The job became “repayment.” The repayment term had no end.

I do the lowest work. The dirtiest work. The heaviest work.

Restrooms, hallways, the greasy floors by the loading bay, the blood outside the interrogation room—though they don’t call it an interrogation room. They call it the “dark room.”

When I push my cleaning cart through the base, anyone can toss an insult at me. Anyone having a bad day can kick me.

I don’t hit back. I don’t argue. Just like they say—like some useless thing that never fights.

Footsteps sound outside again—steady, deliberately slow, like someone wants you to hear them coming first.

I set the mop back in the bucket and look up.

Roy is here.

Roy runs a crew. Bad temper, thin skin, always eager to show off in front of others.

Three years ago, not long after I got here, he got drunk and vomited all over this restroom. I had to clean it.

That day I couldn’t stop myself. I muttered under my breath that it smelled like dead fish mixed with cheap liquor.

Just one sentence. He heard it.

After that, he treated it like an insult he could never let go. Three years, and he still won’t.

“Eddie.” Roy stands in the doorway, scanning the floor like he’s looking for a flaw only he can see. “Mop the main hall again. We’ve got cargo coming in today. I don’t want to see a single dirty streak.”

I nod, roll my cart out, and start to leave.

“Hold up.” Roy stops me, a nasty kind of amusement in his voice. “I’m using this first.”

I stop.

He brushes past me into the restroom without even closing the door. At the urinal, he deliberately splashes water everywhere, even shifts his aim so the stream hits the tile edge and runs down the wall into the corner. When he’s done, he turns to me, lips curling.

“Clean it,” he says. “Don’t let me smell anything. If you can’t get it clean, I’ll take you apart and sell whatever parts still have value. You know what they like—kidneys, corneas, whatever else. You? Your only worth is what you can be sold for.”

He says it like he’s discussing routine business, no heat in his voice at all.

Two of his guys laugh, like it’s the funniest thing they’ve heard all day.

I don’t look at him. I wring the mop again and clean it.

I can feel Roy standing behind me, watching, like he’s checking for even a flicker of resentment.

“Faster,” he urges.

I scrub until the tile shines, then stand and push my cart out.

Behind me, his men’s laughter rolls in waves. I hear Roy say, “See? That’s Eddie. He never bites.”

I push the cart down the corridor, my fingers tightening around the mop handle, then loosening.

Disgust sits in my stomach like a dull needle—never sharp, just constant.

It’s not like I haven’t tried to run.

Over the past three years I’ve tried a few times—slipping toward the outer wall during night shift changes, or trying to blend into a loading convoy and hop a truck.

Every time, they dragged me back. But recently, I found a way.

There’s an inspection hatch in the maintenance room. It stays locked, but if you get through it and go down, there’s a sewage passage running underground. It leads to an outflow by the shoreline.

Three years is enough time to learn the pattern: when no one’s around, when it’s safe to go down, even which screw on the hatch grate is the loosest.

I tell myself to hold on a little longer. Just a little longer and I’ll be out.

Out there, I’ll haul crates on the docks. I’ll wash dishes in a restaurant. Anything—as long as it isn’t here.

I push the cart back into the main hall.

It’s brighter than the restroom, rows of ceiling lights bleaching the floor.

Near the front entrance, several vehicles sit parked with the “Port Services Group” logo on the doors, polished clean like a legitimate company fleet.

People laugh, people shout. Roy’s voice cuts through it like a thorn.

Then the outer door swings open. Cold air rushes in, carrying seawater and diesel.

A few men drag a stranger inside.

He’s covered in blood. His clothes have been torn open, bruises blooming across his skin. His face is swollen so badly it’s hard to make out what he used to look like. His lips are split, foam and blood spilling out.

They drag him like a sack of scrap. His back scrapes the floor, leaving a dark red smear behind him.

The noise in the hall pauses for a beat, then resumes as if nothing happened.

People get brought in here every day. People get taken out, too. Most just don’t live long enough to see the lights again.

My hand tightens around the mop handle, just for half a second.

The stranger’s eyes dart wildly, searching for something.

When they drag him past me, he suddenly gathers whatever strength he has left, jerks free for an instant, and lunges toward me.

I’m caught off guard. He slams into me, I stumble back, my foot slips, and the mop hits the floor. Dirty water splashes out.

Shouts erupt immediately.

“Trying to die?” someone snaps, punching the stranger in the back and forcing him down.

Another man grabs his hair and yanks him away.

I go down hard, my back against my cleaning cart. But the stranger won’t let go. Like he’s grabbed the last rope in the world, he throws himself over me, forehead pressed to my shoulder, lips nearly touching my ear.

His voice is soft—soft as breath—yet it lands like a nail driven into bone.

“Daybreak. Time to wake up.”

In that instant, something deep inside me lurches, like a name being pulled from the bottom of a locked drawer.

Not “Eddie.”

Something older. Harder. Sharper.

My ears ring.

I freeze, and the overhead lights flare white, stabbing at my eyes.

The sounds of the hall slide away, as if there’s glass between me and the world.

They drag the stranger off. His fingers slip from my sleeve, leaving a clear red mark on the cuff.

Dirty water keeps spreading across the floor. The mop lies on its side.

My vision wavers. The ceiling lights smear into white lines. All I can hear is that sentence, looping in my head—Daybreak. Time to wake up.

Then a deeper dizziness drops over me, like someone has pulled open a door inside my mind.