POV: Christiana Blackwood
I didn't wait.
The moment that edge in his voice echoed off the concrete walls, I pressed the red button beneath my coat sleeve.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
In under three seconds, the door was blown open, the floor shook, and a sea of Black Axe Military (B.A.M) forces stormed the room with ruthless precision.
Dozens. Then hundreds.
By the time the last wave entered, the cell wasn't just surrounded—it was flooded. Tanks didn't roll in, but they might as well have.
Every rifle, every pair of eyes, locked onto the beggar.
"ON YOUR KNEES!" someone barked.
"GUNS READY!" another roared.
"HE'S A SPY!" I shouted over the tension, my voice sharp as steel.
The beggar didn't move.
Didn't twitch.
Didn't blink.
Not even as a thousand laser sights dotted his chest, his head, his hands.
I stepped forward. My voice trembled—not with fear, but fury. "You think you can wear a disguise and walk into my Empire? You think you can speak to me like you have power?"
Nothing.
"Remove it," I ordered the guards. "Strip the mask. I want the entire BNN to see the face of the madman who dared play with our throne!"
But before anyone could make a move, he finally looked up—slowly, deliberately.
"I warned you," he said softly.
"I asked for a lawyer."
"I asked for mercy."
Then his lips curled into a quiet, knowing smirk.
"But I never begged."
"You are insane," I whispered, my hands trembling as the hairs on my arms stood up.
"I am hungry," he said. "And so are your people."
"You're surrounded," I snapped.
He nodded slowly. "Yes… by my own."
I flinched.
The B.A.M commander stepped closer to him, ready to strike.
And then—he did something that no spy, no thief, no coward would dare do.
He stood up. Calm. Tall. Proud.
Still in rags.
Still playing the part.
And said:
"Before you pull the trigger… ask yourself one thing—what if I'm not lying? What if the man you're about to shoot… is the very one who built the throne you're defending?"
The silence in the room was suffocating.
He hadn't broken character.
But everyone felt it.
Something wasn't right.
To Be Continued…