Chapter 186: The Rooftop Wedding
Chapter 186: The Rooftop Wedding
Jack's wedding was held on the base rooftop.
The weather was great that day. The desert sky was so blue it looked transparent, and the sunlight gently bathed the temporary white flower arch.
Leah and May did the decorating together. White roses and light blue hydrangeas were arranged along both sides of the aisle.
Akira personally handled the wedding feast. He started preparing three days in advance, calculating every dish down to the gram.
Seraphina took care of the technical part. She used the base's backup system to build a fully automated fireworks array, with launch timing accurate to the millisecond.
Eli encrypted the entire wedding venue to the highest security level, making sure no outside signals could get in.
Jack wore a custom dark gray suit. Sophia wore a white gown, the hem gently lifted by the breeze.
No priest, no officiant.
May and Arthur stood beneath the flower arch, holding an open old book with worn gold lettering on the cover.
It was something Sophia's mother had left behind—an old poetry collection.
"We're gathered here today," May's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear, "not to witness a ceremony, but to confirm a fact."
Arthur's voice was low as he continued, "These two people, from today on, belong to each other. They chose this themselves."
Jack turned to face Sophia.
He looked into her eyes, which were full of happiness and certainty.
He spoke, his voice soft but audible to everyone.
"I used to be a blade searching for a target. Now, I'm a person with a home to return to." He reached out and took her hand. "From today on, wherever you go, I go."
Sophia's eyes welled up slightly, but she smiled—a smile that shone brilliantly in the sunlight.
She didn't say much, just three words: "I'm with you."
The fireworks launched right on schedule as night fell.
Seraphina's array was precise down to the height and color of every burst, spreading a sea of light made of gold and blue across the desert night sky that lasted a full thirty minutes.
When the wedding ended, the desert night breeze carried a cool touch across the rooftop.
Jack and Sophia stood at the rooftop's edge, looking at the dark blue sky in the distance and the mountains barely visible on the horizon.
The lights stretched their shadows long across the concrete surface, overlapping so you couldn't tell whose was whose.
"Tired?" Sophia asked.
"No," Jack said.
He turned to look at her. Moonlight coated her blonde hair with a silver glow, making her look like she'd stepped out of some distant, peaceful place.
"From now on," he said, "every day is new."
Sophia didn't answer, just tightened her grip on his hand.
On the day of Lawrence and Leah's son's one-month celebration, May's house was packed again.
The living room was filled with toys and gifts. Akira made a huge two-tier cake with a little submachine gun sculpted from fondant on top—Lawrence's request.
Nolan stood in the middle of the crowd, holding the baby wrapped in a light blue blanket, his posture as stiff as if he were defusing a bomb.
"Gray Zakharov." Lawrence stood beside him, his voice carrying an unprecedented, almost unfamiliar tenderness.
He pulled a silver pendant from his pocket and hung it on the baby's blanket—a miniature charm engraved with the Shadowblade insignia. "You'll be a warrior just like your dad someday."
The liveliest person there was May.
She wore that faded floral apron, shuttling back and forth between the kitchen and living room.
Bringing out hot soup, fruit, snacks.
Saying "eat more," "Lawrence sit down and don't move," "Nolan hold him a bit longer while I wash my hands."
Behind her, next to the crib, Zack's folding knife sat inside a small glass case with the date and a short inscription on the base: "Our family"—like a miniature monument.
The family photo with everyone in it was taken in the evening.
Everyone stood in the yard, the sunset turning their silhouettes golden. Little Gray was in front, asleep in Leah's arms.
Lawrence crouched beside them. Jack and Sophia stood in the back row center, with May and Arthur next to them.
Akira leaned against the doorframe. Eli held the selfie stick, Seraphina beside her. Nolan stood in the very back, arms crossed, with a barely visible smile at the corner of his mouth.
The moment the camera shutter clicked, everyone smiled, and all their shadows merged into one in the sunset.
The day Erin sent back an encrypted report from South America, Jack's phone buzzed at three in the morning.
He woke up, reached for his phone. The encryption tag on the screen was the highest level.
He sat up, walked to the window, and opened the report.
The "New Order" sect was building training camps in the South American jungle.
They didn't rely on force or technology—they relied on "ideology."
They were spreading a concept of "giving up freedom in exchange for absolute order," attracting people disappointed with modern society.
War refugees, unemployed youth, former soldiers stripped of their sense of purpose by technology. They didn't call themselves an army—they called themselves "believers."
Jack read through the report and thought for a long time.
The next morning, in Shadowblade Security's operations room, all core members were present.
Jack projected Erin's report on the wall screen, then stood there waiting for everyone to finish reading.
"This isn't Kane." Jack's voice broke the silence. "Kane wanted to rule the world through control. These people want the world to validate them by choosing to be ruled."
Lawrence put his arms on the table and asked, "So are we going to fight or talk?"
Seraphina leaned against the edge of her workstation. "Unless they attack first, forcing intervention will just make locals see us as invaders."
Eli didn't even look up. "This is about ideology. You counter ideology with ideology. Bullets don't work on ideas."
Jack waited for them to finish before speaking again.
"So our approach changes. Intelligence infiltration, narrative pushback, ideological counteraction—this isn't a war we can win with guns."
Akira nodded, one of his rare gestures of agreement.
Lawrence didn't fully understand what "ideological counteraction" meant, but he understood "we don't have to go fight right away," and felt relieved.