the room coming from the LED glow of her high-spec custom-built compute

ype. Tap

ard with practiced aggression. She sat cross-legged in a hoodie and silk shorts,

was an empty

– No public r

lted h

o articles? No photos? No L

an too slick, too smooth, and too connected to trust. But if ther

"If there's nothing public... then

a hated

d at the

an V

be hiding

nct and a woman's intuit

up phone. It had one function: a discreet bug she had secretly placed in Jason's phone long be

en used the b

inger, and Jason's

been hiding, Jase," she

es and location history-quickly and

e it

aved as "

tag from two nights a

in

ed it through five spoofed servers, breaking into

ched briefly, b

on began to downlo

e:

Mar

tion:

dings, Vale Estates, Unl

Status

idence: C

ootprint:

th: (Cl

eyes w

muttered in disbelie

and shrugged. "Ten

ed his work, but the red flags made it clear-Kieran wasn't just

bar of the photo

suddenly tu

linked.

three white words appeared

our Bu

st

s parte

burst int

kled. "Now I definitely

acked her knuckles, and began typing aga

rewall wasn't some casual tech bro. No,

code. Another

her screen flashed red. An automated virus surged

ut

ne she wrote herself-and countered the thre

t? A malware pop-up? Amate

nimized the firewall display and

n she s

rled just slightly at the nape. An infuriatingly

s jaw

no frea

d in on t

-THAT'S

lapped ove

ddy vibes" weeks ago. The man who had looked at her with

ly

back, wi

sped. "That cocky, smug, Greek

ling sideways on the chair as

ister had calle

was, one thought echoed

uy her apartment block, burn it down, and b

dead," sh

she p

h that. I'm

whil

r conditioner hummed at a low, expensive pitch as Kieran stepped back into the room, freshly dressed in a charcoal silk shirt, sleeves rolled to his el

he space wit

. The rug was smoothed, the couch re-fluffed, and even the hint of s

elegance of a man who ruled kingdoms in silence. He reached for the first doc

by

e by

e door b

ir

He simply looked up, o

ond hair was disheveled, shirt untucked on one side, and a sheen of sweat dampened his co

ccess your private inf

ked once. "

er from the sprint and the internal panic.

back, tapping a pen thoughtfully on his palm.

ir," Rhys

is man that the person had gotten some i

n immediately. He narrowed h

is it,

he thing is... the person-whoever it is-managed to extract approxim

an f

with tension. His aura, normally cold and still li

he a

oat bobbing as he sw

et anything

Surface-level archives. They

n his chair, gaze fixed on

d. "And yet, they

ng their location now. Whoever it

"Find them. Before th

s,

ne rang with a ding. Growing, he glanced a