The Exchange — Kandovan We gathered in the lee of the rock wall, wind scraping frost across our boots. Sandi stood at the center, pale but steady, flanked by Tarmo and Mitra. The captors held back, watching. Every rifle lowered but not forgotten. I hung back with Asdar, my hand unconsciously pressed to my belly…
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The COMC Files Book V chapter 40
The Cave Above the Pass The firefight snapped open, splintering through the village and gone before I could count who fell. Sandi survived, swept out of sight into the mountain’s teeth. Kandovan sank beneath dusk; even the air seemed to retreat. We scattered. Not chaos—something colder and learned. Asdar moved beside me, all tension masked…
The COMCO Files Book V chapter 39
Ardabil Road — Mitra & Karim The codes sit at the base of Karim’s pack, wrapped in leather that feels older than it should. We haven’t spoken for half an hour, mountain air cutting thin, the silence thick with certainty of pursuit. Karim finally breaks it. “Whoever that was in the alley—they had Turkish military…
The COMC Files Book V chapter 38
Convergence [23:47 — Kandovan Road] The headlights shear white arcs through black mountain road, slicing sudden shadows past ancient cliffs. Cold Sahand wind claws at every curve. Out here, the world contracts: asphalt, rock faces splashed by pale moonlight, stone villages perched in their honeycomb solitude. Kandovan will be sleeping when we arrive—its cave homes…
The COMC Files Book V chapter 37
The trail curves and doubles back, vanishing more than once. In Ardabil, that means we’re close. Karim leads, every move practiced—border secrets are old currency for him. I keep pace, counting every shadow, every half-open door, stitching details into memory. The hideout isn’t accidental. Down an unlabeled side street, three turns past alleys slick with…
The COMC Files Book V chapter 36
The Dark Wagon The horses carry us long enough that Tehran fades into a dusty shimmer. I sit tall in the saddle, wind pushing hair across my mouth, laughing at Asdar’s teasing shout, the nomads’ voices rough and bright in the cold morning. We stop at the rail siding, where steel lines cut east across…
The COMC Files Book V chapter 35
Wrong Street, Wrong Men The city is loud in the way only a place under watch can be—traffic snared into queues, market calls strangled to half-volume. I read it the way I read a balance sheet: numbers off, pressure lines exposed. Too many stalls closing early for bad weather. Shutters fall with the quiet finality…
The COMC Files Book V chapter 34
The Zargari lead tips his cap. Time. Caravan forms in shadow—horses shifting, Dom carts bleeding into market chaos. Flight in every gesture: a glance, a tap, the syntax of vanishing. Asdar’s hand finds my hip. Signal, not tenderness. My skin still sparks from the interrupted bath, slick and wanting. I shove it down—longing braided with…
The COMC Files Book V chapter 33
The streets are barely awake when we reach Nosrat Bath. A single attendant in a grey vest unlocks the carved wooden doors, glances at Asdar, and then disappears. Inside, the tiles breathe out a century of heat; steam curls from the marble floor vents, carrying damp stone and old cedar. I let my scarf slip….
The COMC Files Book VIII
Chaos MAGIC After Zerzura arriving Zurich – Christmas Eve (Book VIII shard) Snow makes a liar of this city. It softens the glass edges, dusts the tramlines, pretends that money, secrecy, and neatly laundered wars can be made pure under a thin white veil. Christmas lights drip from Bahnhofstrasse like carefully managed miracles; somewhere, a…
The C.O.M.C. Files 