Chapter 15 - The Call from the Dark
The words hit Maya harder than any physical blow she had ever taken. The room seemed to tilt beneath her feet. The baton hummed in her hand, casting an eerie sapphire glow over the enforcer’s broken, sweating face.
""You're lying,"" Maya whispered, her voice cracking for the first time. ""Aaron would never work with the people who burned the depot.""
""He didn't just work with them... he built them,"" the enforcer groaned, his chest rattling as he fought against the agony in his shattered leg. ""He burned the depot to fake his death and clear his paper trail. He’s been expanding the southern route for five years. Why do you think your records were sealed, Maya? You thought Internal Affairs cared about your ethics? Aaron pulled the strings from the shadows to keep you clean... until you decided to show off in this damn dojo and make headlines.""
Maya dropped the stun baton. It clattered against the mat, switching off as it rolled away into the shadows. Behind her, Master Vance slowly limped out of the office, his hand clutching his bruised ribs, his face filled with sorrowful resignation. He looked at Maya, unable to meet her searching eyes.
Suddenly, a burner phone tucked inside the enforcer’s tactical vest began to ring.
The vibration buzzed like a hornet against the hardwood flooring. Maya knelt down slowly, her fingers trembling as she pulled the encrypted satellite device from the downed man’s pocket. The screen displayed a single, glowing contact name: OVERSEER.
She swiped the screen and brought the cold glass to her ear, saying nothing.
A low, familiar voice broke through the static on the other end—a voice she had not heard in seven agonizing years, colder and sharper than she remembered, yet unmistakably her brother’s.
May you like
""You should have stayed in the shadows, Maya,"" Aaron said softly from across the void. ""Now I have to come clean up the mess myself.""
The line went dead. Maya stood alone in the dark gym, listening to the silence of the mat, knowing that the war had only just begun."
