Neighboring Tower, Rooftop
Hitori, The Blade of the Nine, melted into the shadows, his mask filtering the stench of Zhu Fen’s panic. Wei Long’s orders had been clear: Send a message, not a kill. The dagger was a poem, the note a promise.
Hitori to himself. “Loyalty is a blade. And blades… cut both ways.”
He vanished, leaving only the echo of shattered glass.
—
Putri’s bunker beneath Bogor’s rainforest was a crypt of flickering screens and tangled cables, the air thick with the ozone tang of overclocked processors. Her steel-rimmed glasses reflected cascading code as her fingers flew across the keyboard, each keystroke a strike against the Nine Dragons. The coalition’s mission burned in her chest—protect the coasts, expose the rot—but tonight, her tools were lies, not truth.
Eka’s voice over comms. “Mei Ling’s crypto reserves are routed through Ryuji’s offshore nodes. You’ve got a ten-minute window before Luo Jian’s AIs flag it.”
Putri grim. “Ten minutes is all I need.”