Chapter 696

Deep into the night.

In a forgotten corner to the southwest of the Ol' Mare city lay a tiny port, rarely touched by the bustle of human activity.

The sea whispered against the hull of a cargo ship, heavy with industrial freight as it edged toward the dock. The night was thick around it, the vessel shrouded in darkness and not a single light to betray its presence.

"They're here!"

Two shadows slipped from the watchtower onto the dock, eyes fixed on the approaching ship, their faces etched with an uneasy tension.

Those men were part of Ol' Mare's shadowy underworld, smugglers who dealt in the desperate business of human smuggling and the darker trade of human trafficking. The stakes were sky-high, the profits massive, but the risks? They lived on the knife's edge, every day a dance with death.

Tonight's job was high-stakes—a rendezvous with VIPs from the enigmatic Black Hawk Nation, set to land at that lonely port in the dead of night.

The details were above their pay grade, all they kne