đĽ SECONDS AFTER THE BLAST
Smoke.
Shattered glass.
Screams in the code den.
Ansha grabbed a sidearm from her belt and shoved Rafi behind a metal pillar.
"Who tracked you?!"
Shohan stood perfectly still in the center of the chaos, eyes locked on the jagged hole where the back wall used to be.
Three figures stepped through.
They wore no Frame sigils.
Just matte-black body armor, no facial featuresâjust visors glowing faint blue.
Mindless.
Ansha aimed. Shohan raised a hand.
> "Don't. They're not here for a fight. They're here to scare."
> "Scare who?"
Shohan didn't answer.
He stepped forward instead.
Between the Mindless and Rafi. Between the system and its glitch.
---
đ§ THE MOVE
The lead Mindless agent's visor blinked red once.
A warning.
Shohan raised his voice, calm and steady.
> "Tell whoever's watching that their intel leak ends here. The kid's information dies with me. And if I'm lyingâ"
He pulled something from his jacket.
Not a weapon.
A chip drive. Translucent.
He tossed it onto the floor and crushed it beneath his heel.
> "Now no one gets it."
> "Shohanâ!" Ansha started.
> "Shh."
He turned back to the Mindless.
> "Tell them: the price of this secret just went up. I don't trade truth for safety. I trade it for respect."
For a moment, no one moved.
Then the Mindless backed away. Slowly. Deliberately.
And vanished into smoke.
---
đ§ AFTERMATH
Rafi looked pale. Shaking. "You⌠they left?"
Shohan finally exhaled. His hands were trembling slightly.
> "They weren't here to kill. They were here to see if I'd break."
> "And?"
> "I didn't."
---
đŹ PRIVATE â ANSHA & SHOHAN
She dragged him aside. "You just sacrificed real data. You could've exposed whoever's behind Mindless."
> "I could've. But the moment I did, we'd be dead. You know how Frames work. You only play the truth when the board is set."
> "So what now?"
> "Now I leak a different truth. One they don't want seen. One that costs them nothing in powerâbut everything in perception."
> "A distraction?"
Shohan smirked. "No. A decoy truth. A riddle inside a confession. Let them chase the wrong ghost while I build the real trap."
Ansha stepped back, looking at him differently.
> "You're scarier than I remember."
> "And yet you missed me."
She didn't answer.
---
đ THAT NIGHT â MIRPUR SECTOR ROOFTOPS
Shohan stood at the edge of a flooded rooftop, overlooking the smog-choked city. Rafi was asleep below. Ansha was tweaking code.
He was alone for a moment.
And he thought about it.
Not the manipulation. Not the framing. Not the plan.
He thought about the question Rafi had asked earlier.
> "Why do you care?"
Shohan didn't know.
Maybe because nobody ever cared for him. Maybe because Rafi reminded him of someone. Maybe because this city had chewed up too many kids already.
Or maybe because the Frames thought intellect could be bought.
And he was here to prove it couldn't.