Chapter 5: The Shadow Awakens
Katelyn’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, her screen reflecting in her widened eyes. That name—Shadow—was a ghost from her past, one she’d buried years ago.
Vincent’s hand closed over hers, his grip steady. “Who the hell is contacting you like this?”
She exhaled sharply. “Someone who shouldn’t exist.”
The email contained no signature, no IP trail—just those chilling words. Whoever sent it wasn’t just skilled; they were elite. And they’d found her.
Neil, still groveling on the floor, let out a choked laugh. “You think you’re untouchable? You’re not the only one with secrets, Katelyn.”
Vincent shot him a glare that could melt steel. “Speak again, and I’ll have you thrown off the balcony.”
Katelyn barely registered the threat. Her mind raced through possibilities—old enemies, blacklisted clients, the underground networks she’d once infiltrated.
Then her phone buzzed. An unknown number.
“Check your safe.”
Her blood turned to ice.
The Safe House
Vincent’s black SUV screeched to a halt outside a nondescript apartment building—one of Katelyn’s hidden properties, bought under a fake name.
She punched in the security code with shaking hands. The door swung open to reveal chaos.
Her safe had been cracked.
Inside, files were strewn across the floor. Blueprints. Medical records. A faded photo of her as a teenager, standing beside a man in a lab coat—Dr. Elias Voss, the disgraced scientist who’d trained her in cyber warfare before vanishing.
Vincent picked up a scorched document, his jaw tightening. “This is a classified military ops sheet. What were you involved in?”
Katelyn swallowed hard. “Things I can’t undo.”
A glint of metal caught her eye—a USB drive left deliberately atop the wreckage. She plugged it into her laptop.
A video loaded.
Dr. Voss’s gaunt face filled the screen, his voice distorted. “Shadow, if you’re seeing this, they’ve found you. The project wasn’t destroyed. It’s alive. And it’s hunting us.”
The feed cut to static.
Neil’s Bargain
Back in the penthouse, Neil had regained some of his bravado. “I’ll tell you who’s after her,” he spat. “For a price.”
Vincent backhanded him so fast Neil didn’t have time to blink. “Try again.”
Neil coughed up blood, grinning. “Fine. But you’ll never see it coming.” He tapped his phone, sending a file to Katelyn’s device.
It was a security feed—Lise, whispering to a man in a black suit weeks ago. “She’s still Iris. Still Shadow. The boss will pay millions for proof.”
The man turned, revealing a familiar insignia on his lapel: a serpent coiled around a dagger.
Katelyn’s breath stopped.
The Syndicate.
Vincent’s Ultimatum
Vincent gripped her shoulders. “Enough secrets. Who are they?”
Her voice was barely a whisper. “The most dangerous black-market syndicate in the world. And I stole from them.”
“How much?”
“Enough to fund a revolution.”
A slow, feral smile spread across Vincent’s face. “Then we burn them first.”
Her phone buzzed again.
“Tick-tock, Shadow. You have 24 hours to return what’s ours. Or we take it from your corpse.”