Location: Busan Underground Smuggler's Tunnel
The air was cold and damp, heavy with the scent of oil and salt. Yuna's footsteps echoed through
the narrow tunnel, uneven and frantic, each heartbeat louder than the next.
She didn't know how long she'd been running only that her father's final words haunted her like
a gun pressed to the back of her skull.
"Go. I'll hold them off."
She wanted to turn back. To break down the steel door and drag him with her. But she knew better.
Jung Tae-Min didn't survive this long by being soft.
He survived by calculating the exact moment to disappear.
And now, his daughter had inherited the escape.
Location: Seoul Ricci Korea HQ
Lucien stood before a holographic projection of the port facility. Dozens of red dots blinked along
the perimeter heat signatures, still active, still moving.
He had been silent for twenty minutes, watching, calculating.
Daniel Jang leaned in. "They brought a full strike team. Three exit points compromised. Tunnel
Delta was the only clean exit."
"She used it," Lucien said.
Gabriel's voice crackled in from Rome. "Do we have eyes on Tae-Min?"
"No," Lucien replied. "But Malinov does."
Gabriel paused. "We have another problem."
Lucien turned slowly. "How big?"
"Big enough that one of our European fronts went dark. Sable's moving, Lucien. Whatever TaeMin was hiding, it's more than family secrets."
Location: Gyeongju Safe House
Yuna staggered into a nondescript building hidden in the hills east of Busan.
Min-Jae met her at the door, his expression unreadable.
"Where is he?" she rasped.
"Don't know," he replied, handing her water. "Lucien's tracking movement near the docks. But
no word from Tae-Min."
She downed the water, then looked at the mirror across the room. Her face was smudged with soot
and tears. The reflection was not the analyst who had once filed budget reports for Ricci Global.
It was a survivor.
"What now?" she asked.
Min-Jae pulled out a black duffel and unzipped it. Inside weapons, burner phones, encrypted
tablets.
"Now?" he said. "Now you stop being a civilian."
Flashback: Lucien's Private Memory Naples, Age 19
Lucien knelt in a dim chapel, blood staining the cuff of his white shirt. His father's funeral had
just ended, but no prayers had been said.
Only contracts sealed.
"You want revenge?" the family consigliere had asked.
Lucien nodded.
"Then never raise your voice. Raise your value."
Lucien learned then that the Syndicate did not move with rage it moved with precision. Every
decision, every alliance, every kill... calculated like a chess game played three boards deep.
Location: Seoul – Ricci Korea War Room
Lucien stood in front of six of his most trusted operatives. New faces entered the fold:
Aiko Takahashi: cyber-intel strategist from Tokyo, quiet and lethal with a keyboard or blade.
Carlos Navarro: former Interpol, now Syndicate-cleaner for compromised allies.
Seo Mirae: ex-NIS Korean agent turned double for Ricci; knows Sable's history from the inside.
Lucien spoke.
"Sable has drawn first blood. They tried to kill Jung Tae-Min. They nearly got Yuna. They made
the mistake of thinking I wouldn't retaliate."
Aiko raised a brow. "What's the objective?"
Lucien's gaze was cold. "Burn their Korean network to ash."
Location: Sable Safe House Jeollanam-do
Viktor Malinov stared at a screen replaying the warehouse footage.
"Yuna escaped. Tae-Min vanished."
Beside him stood Kazuo Shin, one of Sable's Asian operatives. Young. Ruthless. Unhinged.
"They'll regroup," Kazuo said. "Lucien doesn't let go of assets."
"She's not just an asset," Viktor muttered. "She's his pressure point."
He lit a cigarette.
"Let's see how much pressure it takes before he breaks."
Location: Gyeongju Safe House Nightfall
Yuna sat in silence, re-watch a corrupted file Min-Jae had decrypted.
Her father's face appeared, flickering.
"If you're seeing this, I've likely been compromised. The files on Sable's Geneva accounts…
they're fake. A diversion. The real data is stored in Project Phoenix under Ricci Korea's highestclearance vault, hidden under the guise of a decommissioned pharmaceutical lab in Incheon."
Min-Jae leaned in. "That's where the Syndicate used to run bio-intel tests during the K-Bio boom."
Yuna's hands tightened on the tablet.
"Then that's where we go next."
Lucien's Private Jet In Route to Korea
Lucien sat in silence as the city lights of Seoul came into view.
He held two items:
A photo of Yuna from a company gala, when she'd been just another employee with no
knowledge of the monsters under her feet. And a silver ring engraved with the Ricci family
crest.
Daniel entered. "We're landing in twenty. Teams are on standby."
Lucien nodded.
"I let too many ghosts roam free," he said quietly. "It's time I become the monster they all fear
again."
He slid the ring onto his finger.