Shadows in the Neon Maze

Jakarta, 2:17 AM. The city outside Kiran’s window was alive, yet she had never felt more isolated. The black sedan hadn’t moved for the last five minutes.

Her heart pounded. Was it paranoia? Or was she already in their sights?

She took a slow breath, forcing her instincts to override her fear. The Nine Dragons were too powerful for mistakes. If they knew she had these files, they wouldn’t waste time watching. They’d act. Kiran pressed her lips together and returned her focus to the screen. The decrypted Project Ember files scrolled before her.

In another part of the city, Eka’s fingers danced across her keyboard, launching a deep-dive trace into Nine Dragons’ hidden servers.

She had just begun cracking through their firewalls when an anomaly appeared—something she had never seen before.

A ghost file, shifting locations faster than she could track.

"That’s impossible," she muttered, her stomach tightening.

She tried to isolate the packet, but the second she touched it, her entire screen blinked out—not just her hacking rig, but every device in the room.

Her backup generator kicked in, restoring partial systems, but before she could recover, a message appeared on her secondary monitor.

YOU ARE SEEN. TURN BACK OR BE ERASED.

Her pulse spiked. This wasn’t just a defensive firewall. This was an active, human response. And whoever was on the other end knew exactly who she was.

Luo Jian leaned back in his chair, watching Eka’s screen from his hidden control center. The hacker was good—maybe one of the best he had seen in years. But no one could outmaneuver the master of digital shadows.

"She took the bait," he murmured, fingers adjusting the glasses on his face. With a flick of his wrist, he launched a silent digital tracker. It wouldn’t just monitor Eka’s movements. It would rewrite what she thought was real. Then, he switched feeds to the black sedan outside Kiran’s apartment.

"Time to see what she does next."

—

Kiran felt her breath catch as the black sedan finally came to life. Its headlights flared, the engine growling softly against the silence of the street. Then—it didn’t drive toward her. It turned the corner and vanished. Her body relaxed, but her instincts screamed that something was still wrong. She pulled up her phone. Lian Zhu needed to know.

They were here. Watching. Who else has these files?

Lian Zhu: You. And now, maybe them.

That was not the answer she wanted. Then, another message appeared. Not from Lian Zhu.

A new number. Unfamiliar.

UNKNOWN:

You are about to make a mistake, Kiran.

—

Across town, Bintang adjusted his earpiece. They had just finished intercepting communications from a Nine Dragons outpost, but something wasn’t right. Eka’s voice broke through the encrypted line.

We’ve got a problem. Luo Jian just baited me. He knows who we are.

A cold weight settled in Bintang’s chest.

If Luo Jian was tracking them in real-time, that meant their mission had just gone from covert to exposed.

We’re compromised.

He turned to Thalia and Clarissa, his mind racing through options.

"We need to pull out. Now."

Clarissa frowned. "We haven’t even—"

Before she could finish, every streetlight around them flickered.

Then, Jakarta went dark.

Kiran froze as the city outside her window collapsed into darkness. A total blackout. She barely had time to react before her phone vibrated one more time.

UNKNOWN: Now you have no choice but to listen.

Kiran swallowed, then, for the first time that night, she turned her camera toward the reflection of the window. And saw a man standing behind her.

—

Jakarta, 2:17 AM. The city outside Kiran’s window was alive, yet she had never felt more isolated. The black sedan hadn’t moved for the last five minutes.

Her heart pounded. Was it paranoia? Or was she already in their sights?

She took a slow breath, forcing her instincts to override her fear. The Nine Dragons were too powerful for mistakes. If they knew she had these files, they wouldn’t waste time watching. They’d act. Kiran pressed her lips together and returned her focus to the screen. The decrypted Project Ember files scrolled before her.

—

In another part of the city, Eka’s fingers danced across her keyboard, launching a deep-dive trace into Nine Dragons’ hidden servers.

She had just begun cracking through their firewalls when an anomaly appeared—something she had never seen before.

A ghost file, shifting locations faster than she could track.

"That’s impossible," she muttered, her stomach tightening.

She tried to isolate the packet, but the second she touched it, her entire screen blinked out—not just her hacking rig, but every device in the room.

Her backup generator kicked in, restoring partial systems, but before she could recover, a message appeared on her secondary monitor.

YOU ARE SEEN. TURN BACK OR BE ERASED.

Her pulse spiked. This wasn’t just a defensive firewall. This was an active, human response. And whoever was on the other end knew exactly who she was.

—

Luo Jian leaned back in his chair, watching Eka’s screen from his hidden control center.

The hacker was good—maybe one of the best he had seen in years. But no one could outmaneuver the master of digital shadows.

"She took the bait," he murmured, fingers adjusting the glasses on his face.

With a flick of his wrist, he launched a silent digital tracker. It wouldn’t just monitor Eka’s movements.

It would rewrite what she thought was real.

Then, he switched feeds to the black sedan outside Kiran’s apartment.

"Time to see what she does next."

A voice broke through his earpiece. Cold. Precise.

"No need."

Luo Jian’s fingers hovered over his controls. He recognized that voice immediately.

Haruto.

—

Haruto stood in the shadows, his sharp eyes locked on the glowing apartment window across the street. Kiran was inside. Alone. Unaware.

He had watched her for nearly an hour. Studying her. Measuring her fear.

It wasn’t fear that killed people like Kiran. It was hesitation. She had the files now. She had a choice. And Haruto would ensure she made the wrong one.

"Blackout is in effect," Luo Jian’s voice crackled through his earpiece. "Orders?"

Haruto ran a finger along the edge of his knife, watching as the city lights flickered… then died.

"Let her stew in the darkness," he whispered. "She’ll break faster that way."

A moment of silence.

Then—Luo Jian chuckled.

"You always were the patient one."

Kiran felt her breath catch as the entire city collapsed into darkness. A total blackout. Her laptop flickered, then died. The streetlights, the traffic signals, everything—gone. She barely had time to react before her phone vibrated one more time. A new message. Unknown number.

UNKNOWN: Now you have no choice but to listen.

Kiran swallowed, then, for the first time that night, she turned her camera toward the reflection in the window.

And saw a man standing behind her.