"What they have built, you will not let it fall. No matter who your opponent is."
"So what's your plan?" Ale asked, his gaze sharp and unblinking toward Kayla.
Kayla responded with a faint smile, then reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a silver chip, no larger than a SIM card.
"You know what this is," she said, smirking.
Ale exhaled slowly. He knew exactly what Kayla was holding. It wasn't just any chip. It couldn't be bought, not even from the deepest black markets. This was a unique piece of hardware containing thousands of sensitive data files—everything from criminal records of the Russian mafia in the past, illegal arms trade documents in the South China Sea from eight years ago, to top-secret military operations long buried in classified archives. This chip was the ace card of the Cakra gang. As long as they held it, not even a criminal empire like Anubis—the former ruler of the black market—could make a move.
It was a vault of the underworld's darkest secrets.
And now, a double agent wanted to buy it.
"Mr. Alex isn't just anyone. If he gets his hands on that chip, everything Cakra ever built could be erased," Ale said firmly.
"Relax. I've prepared something special," Kayla replied with a sinister grin, pulling out another identical-looking chip. "This one's going to be Mr. Alex's worst nightmare."
Ale narrowed his eyes at the two chips in her hand. He knew better than anyone—in their world, illusion could be far more lethal than reality.
"Don't tell me you cloned the original?" he asked, half impressed, half worried.
Kayla nodded. "Not just a clone. This second chip... it's been modified. The data looks legit—but it's a trap. Once Mr. Alex tries to access it, his system will lock down, and a hidden backdoor will activate. A Ghostnerve—first generation—will breach his core, undetected."
Ale went quiet. The name Ghostnerve Gen-One wasn't tossed around lightly. It wasn't just software; it was a living virus, a parasitic algorithm created by Tommy, the former leader of Cakra—a legend whispered in the darkest corners of the cyber underworld. If Kayla truly had it, this wasn't just data warfare anymore. It was the beginning of a digital war.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Kayla. Mr. Alex once collapsed Myanmar's entire intelligence network overnight… just because they lied to him."
Kayla chuckled dryly, confident despite the tension.
Silence fell over them. The wind slipped through the cracks of the old warehouse, as if reminding them time was slipping away. Out there, Mr. Alex was already making his move. And Cakra... had only one shot at taking him down.
"Give me forty-eight hours," Kayla said with quiet determination. "Once he reads this chip... Mr. Alex will know he's opened the gates of hell."
Ale stared at her for a long second, then nodded. "I'm in. But if this fails... we vanish from the map."
Kayla smiled. "If we fail, Ale... we become legends."
"You sure you can still control the Ghostnerve?" Ale asked, rising from his chair and walking toward an old wooden cabinet.
"I've considered the worst-case scenario," Kayla replied.
Ale pulled out a small wooden box and returned to the table. Inside was a cube-shaped device, about the size of a Rubik's Cube.
"This is military-grade tracker tech. Eye of Infinity," Ale said, placing it on the table.
Kayla immediately pulled her laptop from her bag and began connecting to the Eye of Infinity. The device let out a soft hum as the temperature surged, but thankfully, her machine was built for this—cooled by a high-performance system and packed with hardware equivalent to ten computers.
Within seconds, a terminal window appeared. The Eye of Infinity was online.
Lines of code scrolled across her screen, her fingers moving like a symphony of commands no ordinary hacker could comprehend.
Suddenly, the screen blinked. A signal had been detected.
Encrypted Message:
{"trace":{"target":"Alex987","status":"tracked","heading":"south","last_ping":{"lat":-6.21462,"lon":106.84513},"next_update_in":"1h"}}
Kayla entered the coordinates into a digital map and patched into the public CCTV systems surrounding the location.
Ale swallowed hard. "He's fast," he muttered as they watched Mr. Alex exit a small convenience store.
"Faster than we expected," Kayla replied with a sigh. "Good thing he didn't move in the past hour. If he had, tracking him would've been hell."
"We need to move—now—before he realizes we're on his tail," Ale said, rising to his feet.
Kayla met his eyes. Cold, sharp, but focused.
"To the old Cakra base. The one where Tommy built the first Ghostnerve. The only place left with a drive bay strong enough to hold the chip if it goes critical," Ale added, reading her mind.
Kayla squinted. "That place has been abandoned for years. It's full of traps and leftover A.I. defenses from Tommy's time. And if we go there... we risk exposing its location to Mr. Alex."
Ale smiled. "Don't worry. I'll leave Eye of Infinity here—active. Then we'll shut down everything else. Every signal, every line of connection. That way, when Alex traces us, he'll only find this room."
"Clever misdirection. But if he realizes he's being played, won't he retaliate?" Kayla asked, voice sharp.
"He might. But by then, he'll be too late," Ale replied with a quiet laugh.
Kayla nodded, her fingers brushing the compact pistol at her waist. "Alright. If we're heading to hell, I won't let you go alone."
Ale looked her straight in the eye. "I don't need saving, Kayla. I need a partner who'll fall and rise with me."
Kayla nodded slowly.
"I'm ready."
And with that, the two vanished into the shadowed night—heading toward the forgotten birthplace of Cakra, where legends were made, and where the fate of the digital world would soon be decided.