Splintered Loyalties

The warehouse reeked of rust and stagnant water, its corrugated walls shuddering in the wind. Felix tightened the strap of his kevlar vest, the familiar weight doing little to steady his hands. Outside, Jakarta’s outskirts pulsed with the distant growl of traffic, but here, in the belly of decay, the silence was suffocating. Bintang hovered near the exit, his gaze sharp as he scrolled through drone feeds. The rest of the team—Rhea, a wiry hacker named Alya, two brothers from Sulawesi with machetes strapped to their backs—milled around a map lit by a single dangling bulb.

Then the door creaked.

Rafi stepped inside, his grin a sickle moon in the gloom. He wore a Nine Dragons pin on his lapel, polished to a predatory gleam. “Lama tak jumpa, Felix. Long time.”