Moments later, a flight attendant approached her with a friendly smile.

"Ma’am, please turn off your mobile and fasten your seatbelt."

Zeynep gave a small smile back. "Sure thing."

She powered down her phone, every little sound feeling too loud in the quiet lounge. She secured her seatbelt, feeling like that was a big step. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reminding herself that she was really leaving. For real. Alive.

But back in Manhattan, a guy with bloodied hands and an intense stare was tearing the city apart, hell-bent on finding her. She had no clue how close he was or how far his obsession would take him.

1 year ago.

Lunel was sitting on her bed, carefully piecing together the complicated trafficking schemes of Michael Arthur. She realized it was time to investigate a hidden terminal that had been untouched for years. Reflecting on his deep involvement in various illegal activities, she believed he was connected to the black market and the criminal underworld. To thrive in that world, one needs significant power, and it was clear he had something important. It also suggested that he had someone backing him. This could explain how he managed to fake his own death and return with a new identity and appearance.

So, she started digging into his possible underworld connections, if they even existed. She had to gather all the info to report to GhostNet in two days, no excuses. They had been pushing her to wrap this up quickly.

When she got into the terminal, she typed in the command: GATE://NoirByte/Vault23/.

The screen lit up, showing a stark black interface with text flashing in an eerie green.

"Search Query: Michael Arthur Syndicate Affiliations MAFIA CIRCUITS."

But nothing showed up. She tried different commands and keys, and it looked like he wasn’t connected to any black market or shady network. After a lot of fussing around, it hit her. She thought, "Maybe he’s going by a different name in the underworld because no one uses their real name there." But she felt pretty lost, trying to think of what his alias could be. Plenty of ideas darted through her head, but she just couldn’t nail down a smart search strategy.

She had been a hacker for years and knew her stuff, but this time, she realized she had to be extra careful before she hit enter. If she searched for the wrong dude, it could cost her big time, and GhostNet wouldn’t be there to bail her out.

Desperate for leads, she hacked into Michael Arthur’s home CCTV footage and closely examined everything, his use of mobile devices, his laptop, and any hints that might reveal his underworld name. After several hours, she saw him using his laptop. She zoomed in, hoping to catch a glimpse of his password, but he typed in his daughter’s name instead. She slumped back in her chair and sighed; that name wouldn’t fly in the underworld.

Rubbing her forehead in frustration, she focused back on the footage. After his wife left the study, he shut down his laptop and pulled out another one. It needed a password too, and again, he typed in his daughter’s name. Then she noticed something on Michael Arthur’s laptop screen, a dark, intense wallpaper with an AD symbol logo. She realized he even had that AD symbol on his hand. "How did I not catch that before?" she thought to herself.

At that moment, her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten. She set her thoughts aside, knowing she finally had a clue, but her hunger had to come first. She headed to the kitchen and opened the pasta she had ordered a couple of hours ago, now cold. She had meant to eat it earlier, but got sidetracked.

After grabbing a quick bite and taking about 20 minutes, she went back to work. She opened the terminal and retyped the command, making sure to add ’AD’ to each one. After spending about 40 minutes cracking codes and decrypting stuff, she fired up her search across four ghost servers, those sneaky digital highways meant to keep her off the radar. It felt like an eternity, but finally, one result popped up on her screen, breaking the stillness of her investigation.

Name: HazardKing

Alias: HK

Status: Active

Location: UNKNOWN

Mafia Class: Sovereign Tier (Rank A1)

Reputation: No Innocent Blood / No Tolerance for Betrayal

Age: 30 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

She had definitely heard that name before. HazardKing wasn’t just a name; he was basically a legend in the world of cybercrime forums. Tales of his exploits spread like wildfire. Some claimed he had a supernatural knack for making people disappear without lifting a finger. Others shared wild stories about how he once threw an entire port city in Italy into chaos by messing with its currency and blackmailing shipping bigwigs into sabotaging their own economy. He instilled such fear that no one dared to cross him or even speak his name lightly. What she was digging into next was bound to be mind-blowing.

As she went through some encrypted files, she stumbled upon the connection: it was labeled Alpha Dark (AD). Confusion set in; when she searched for ’AD,’ it all linked back to HazardKing. She thought about how AD and HK were tied together, but knew that HazardKing had a strict rule against harming innocents. Meanwhile, Michael (AD) was knee-deep in illegal activities and didn’t hesitate to kill for his drugs.

She opened the file that tied HazardKing and Alpha Dark together. As she dove deeper, she uncovered hidden metadata in a folder that Alpha thought was completely erased. From that digital scrap, she painstakingly pieced together a video chat log from over two years ago, offering a peek into a secret world filled with hidden truths and unspoken connections. After successfully recovering it, she hit play.

A man sat in a sturdy chair in a war room that had a stylish Moroccan vibe, filled with rich colors and intricate designs. The atmosphere felt elegant yet serious, fitting for the intense conversations that happened there.