Author's POV
The city lights were a distant, flickering memory from the top of the jagged cliff.
Here, the air was cold enough to bite, and the only sound was the rhythmic, metallic clack-slide-click of machinery.
Elara sat on a rusted equipment crate, bathed in the pale, unforgiving moonlight.
Beside her stood a man in a sharp, shadow-gray suit, holding an open reinforced suitcase. Inside, nestled in custom foam, lay a collection of high-caliber handguns and dismantled sniper components.
Elara's movements were mechanical. She picked up a sleek, matte-black pistol, loaded the magazine with practiced ease, and aimed at the void of the dark ocean below.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The recoil didn't even make her shoulder flinch. Her eyes were heavy, rimmed with the exhaustion of someone who hadn't slept in years, yet they remained void of any emotion.
No fear.
No regret.
Just a cold, calculating emptiness.
She set the gun down and reached for a long-range rifle.
She didn't look at the scope; she ran her tongue over her teeth, counting them as if verifying her own existence.
"They are looking for you.," a man spoke, stepping forward from the darkness.
He stopped at a respectful distance, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Keifer Watson has deployed his detectives. Edrix is scrubbing the city's grid."
Elara didn't stop her work. She pulled the bolt back, letting the brass casing fly into the dirt. She watched it spin.
"The square root of a circle is still a zero,"
she whispered, her voice toneless. "If the Llama wants to hunt a ghost, he should start by burying the sun."
She let out a slow, weary sigh—the same sigh she used when Felix told a bad joke, but this one carried the weight of lead.
"It's okay," she murmured, spinning a single silver bullet on the lid of the suitcase. "They had to find out one day. A script is only a cage if you believe in the words."
She stood up, the moonlight catching the sharp angles of her face. She began to walk in a perfect, small circle, her footsteps silent. Three steps forward, two steps back. A code in motion.
"The game is at its end," she said, her eyes fixed on the horizon where the city glowed. "And honestly? The more players there are at the table, the better the ending will be."
She picked up the rifle and slung it over her shoulder with a final, echoing clack.
She turned away from the abyss and started walking toward a waiting black vehicle.
Her steps weren't hurried or tense; they were heavy, like someone walking toward a bed after a long shift.
The man in the gray suit followed closely behind, his pace matching hers.
"Is it ready?" she asked. Her voice was flat—no excitement, no malice, just a boring, tired tone as if she were asking about the weather.
The man checked his watch, the glow of the dial reflecting in his eyes. "Yes. Everything is in place. Three a.m. sharp."
Elara stopped and looked up at the moon, her eyes half-lidded and weary. "Three a.m.," she repeated with a small, exhausted sigh. "So much effort for such a cliché hour."
She rubbed the back of her neck, her shoulders slumping slightly. "Alright. I'll be back by then."
The man paused, a flicker of surprise crossing his professional face. "Where are you going? "
Elara opened the car door, her movements slow and sluggish. She looked like she could fall asleep right there against the frame.
"Just to visit a friend," she murmured, her voice trailing off into a yawn. "I promised I'd say goodbye, and I hate leaving things unfinished. It's... exhausting."
In a world where she was a ghost, a "friend" was just another task on a very long, very tiring list.
The engine purred to life, and the car disappeared into the shadows of the mountain road, leaving nothing behind but the empty shell of a life Section E thought they knew.
Keifer's POV
We found nothing.
Not a fingerprint, not a strand of hair, not a single digital footprint.
It was as if Elara had been a hallucination we all shared at a dinner table. My detectives, my scouts, even Angelo's underground contacts—everyone came back with empty hands.
It was the first time in my life I felt like the city wasn't actually mine.
"Go home," I told the guys, my voice sounding like gravel. "All of you. Lock your doors."
I didn't take any chances.
I deployed bodyguards to everyone's house—discreet men in simple clothes, hidden in plain sight. If Elara was a ghost, I wanted my people to be the ones waiting in the shadows.
I pulled into my own driveway, my head throbbing.
My body was screaming for sleep, but my mind was stuck.
It was only 11:30 PM.
The moment I stepped through the front door, the heavy silence of the mansion was broken by the sound of hurried footsteps.
Kerien, came running down the hallway. He didn't care about looking cool or tough right now.
He threw his arms around me, hugging me tight, his shoulders shaking.
"Kuya!" he choked out, looking up at me with worried eyes.
"Whoa, Kerien, breathe," I said, gripping his shoulders. "What happened? Why are you still awake?"
"Uncle Ryder called," he said, his voice dropping to a terrified whisper. "He said the plane just touched down. He's back, Kuya. He's already on his way to the main estate."
The air left my lungs. I didn't need him to say the name. I knew exactly who "He" was.
Keizer Watson. The monster. My so-called father.
What the fu*k?
Why now?
Elara vanishes, Edrix loses the signal, ... and now my father arrives like he's following a script? This isn't a coincidence. This is a storm.
"Where is Keigen?" I asked, my voice sharp. He's the middle link between me and Kerien—if my father was coming, I needed all my brothers accounted for.
Kerien looked down at his feet, his hands shaking. "I... I don't know, Kuya!"
"What do you mean you don't know?!" I growled, the stress of the last three hours finally snapping my patience. "He's your brother! He was supposed to be home an hour ago!"
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Keifer! You're finally back! Thank goodness!"
A high-pitched, frantic voice pierced through my headache.
I looked up to see Honey, practically vibrating at the top of the stairs.
She was waving her hands around, her voice hitting a note that could shatter glass.
"He's gone to visit his new girlfriend! Can you believe it! Romance in the middle of a crisis! It's like a drama, but scarier!"
"Girlfriend?!" I yelled back, my ears ringing. "At this hour? What the f***ing hell are you talking about, Honey? Since when does Keigen have a girlfriend he sneaks out to see at midnight?!"
"I don't know! I don't know!" Honey squealed, scurrying down the stairs like a caffeinated squirrel.
"He's been so secretive! Very mysterious! Very 'hush-hush'!"
"Kuya, it's true," Kerien interrupted, stepping closer to me, his voice trembling but urgent.
"I've been watching him. He calls her 'Ate' almost every single day."
I froze. My heart did a slow, painful thud against my ribs. "He calls her what?"
"Ate," Kerien repeated firmly. "He sneaks out every single afternoon to go somewhere. He told me she's 'special.'
And tonight... I heard him saying it's not safe for him to be out on the streets alone anymore."
"Exactly! Exactly!" Honey chimed in, her voice getting even higher.
"A scandal, Keifer! A complete scandal! My heart can't take the suspense!"
"And that's not all," Kerien said, ignoring Honey's high-pitched gasping. "He said she's going to drop him at the back door of the house tonight because there are 'monsters' at the front gate."
I stopped dead in my tracks.
Not safe. Dropping him off at the back door. Monsters at the front gate.
The pieces started spinning in my head. If someone was "protecting" Keigen, they weren't just a girlfriend.
They were someone who knew exactly what was happening tonight.
"The back door," I whispered, my face going pale.
"Yes! The back door! Should I go? Should I hide? Should I make tea?!" Honey shrieked, clutching her clipboard to her chest.
"Shut up, Honey!" I barked.