The Quran lay bloodied on the wooden floor.
Noor knelt beside it, her fingers trembling as she gently lifted it with the edge of her scarf. She whispered an Astaghfirullah beneath her breath, eyes stinging, heart heavy. The weight of that image—her holy book defiled, her parents' photo bound and blindfolded—burned deeper than any threat they'd ever received.
Leonardo paced behind her, fists clenched, fury thick in his throat.
"This is not just a message," he said. "It's war."
Noor wrapped the Quran in white cloth and stood.
"No," she whispered. "This is revenge… from someone who knows us both."
That Night
The wind rattled the shutters as Noor sat cross-legged on the carpet, eyes locked on the flame of a single candle. Across from her, Leonardo sat hunched, bruised knuckles resting on his knees, jaw clenched in silence.
"I know who did it," he finally said.
Noor looked up.
"Not Rahim," Leonardo continued. "Not Gianni. Someone worse."
He slid a name across the table on a piece of paper.
SOREN AZIZ.
"A fixer," Leonardo said. "From Turkey. He's neither fully in the underworld nor fully out. Works with governments, cartels, ideologues. He collects debts… and souls."
Noor's eyes narrowed. "And why would he want mine?"
"Because of me," Leonardo said bitterly. "Because the empire you helped dismantle owed him a favor. And now he wants payment—in blood."
A Trail of Shadows
They traced the coordinates embedded in the image's metadata—an old trick Leonardo had used a hundred times to mark locations invisibly. Noor's parents were in Bulgaria, deep in the southern region near the Rhodope Mountains. An abandoned prison compound, once used to interrogate dissidents, now rented out by private groups for "unofficial work."
Noor stared at the satellite photos, her fingers tracing the rooftop outlines.
"How do we get in?" she asked.
Leonardo studied the blueprints. "We don't."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I do," he added. "You stay here."
Noor's voice dropped. "Leonardo. Don't."
"You've done enough."
"No." Her voice sharpened. "You don't get to decide when I stop protecting my family."
Preparation
They traveled light—Noor disguised in a long forest-green coat and reading glasses, Leonardo dressed as a European courier. With Matteo coordinating from afar, they had one entry point: a maintenance tunnel beneath the facility that led into the east wing of the prison.
But there was one problem.
Soren wasn't just guarding the place.
He was waiting.
The First Breach
Snow clung to their boots as they crept down the hillside. Noor moved like breath itself—silent, eyes forward, reciting ayahs under her breath for protection. Leonardo covered her with a silenced pistol, his ears tuned to every crunch of gravel.
The tunnel was narrow, the air thick with mold.
At the end, a rusted grate. Leonardo knelt, twisted the latch open, and they crawled through into darkness.
Inside the compound, Noor felt it immediately—an emptiness that tasted like decay and old screams. The air carried the scent of dust, ash, and iron. It was a place built to break people.
And now her parents were inside.
Contact
They found them—Noor's mother and father—inside a small, cold cell. Blindfolded, gagged, but alive.
Noor gasped and ran forward, breaking her silence for the first time in hours. She knelt beside them, untied the cloth from her father's wrists, then her mother's. Her hands moved with practiced calm, but her face—her face was a storm.
Leonardo kept watch at the door.
No shots.
No alarms.
Too quiet.
And that's when it happened.
The door slammed shut.
Steel locked.
A low voice echoed from the speakers above:
"You shouldn't have come, Noor Fatima."
The Trap
Soren appeared on screen—a tall man with olive skin, a silver beard, and cold, dead eyes.
"I knew he wouldn't resist," Soren said, nodding toward Leonardo. "That's the problem with men who change. They think the world forgets."
Leonardo raised his weapon toward the screen. "You're already dead. You just don't know it yet."
Soren smiled. "I'm not here to kill you, Leonardo. I'm here to break Noor."
Noor looked up, defiant.
"I've faced devils," she said. "You're nothing."
But Soren only leaned closer to the camera.
"And still… you came for them. You risked your faith, your future, for a man you shouldn't even speak to in daylight."
Noor didn't flinch.
"I came because Allah commands me to protect those I love."
Soren laughed.
"That love is what will destroy you."
The Escape
The trap was meant to kill them in the morning—flood the cell with carbon monoxide, erase all proof.
But Noor noticed the vent in the wall—old, rusted, breathing air in one direction. Leonardo lifted her to it. She unscrewed the bolts with a blade from her sleeve.
When it came free, she looked at him.
"Lift my mother first."
They worked like a clock.
One by one, her mother, her father, Noor.
Leonardo last.
But just as he hoisted himself up, a shadow appeared at the door—one of Soren's guards.
Gun drawn.
Leonardo turned.
A shot fired.
Pain exploded in his side.
But he pushed up—clawed through—fell into the crawlspace bleeding.
Retreat
They reached the forest before sunrise.
Noor's parents were taken by Matteo's team, flown out by chopper.
Noor and Leonardo stayed behind to lose the tail—ducking through streams and dense pine woods, every step a risk.
Leonardo limped.
Noor held him upright.
He was losing blood.
But he kept walking.
Because she was watching.
Sanctuary
They found a small, stone masjid in the woods—abandoned, dusty, broken. Noor cleared the prayer space while Leonardo leaned against a pillar, pale but breathing.
She prayed.
He watched.
When she finished, she turned to him.
"I've never thanked you," she said softly.
"For what?"
"For not letting pain change you into what the world expected."
Leonardo gave a pained smile. "I wanted to. So many times. But every time I saw you praying… I remembered who I was trying to become."
Noor knelt beside him, eyes shining.
"I still don't know what we are," she said. "But I know what I believe in."
He tilted his head.
She whispered: "Us. But only if we earn it."
The Betrayal
Later that evening, as Noor helped bandage his wound, Leonardo's phone buzzed.
A single message.
From Giovanni Moretti.
"Well played, son. But you were followed. I didn't send Soren."
Noor looked up.
"What is it?"
Leonardo stared at the screen, blood draining from his face.
"It wasn't Soren."
"Then who?"
And then Noor's phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A video clip.
She opened it—and screamed.
Because the person in the video… the one giving Soren their location… was someone she had trusted with her life.
Her cousin.
Final Lines
Noor collapse
d onto the ground.
Leonardo caught her, even as blood dripped from his arm.
"I'm so tired," she whispered. "So tired of losing."
He pulled her close, voice raw.
"Then this time… we don't lose."
To be continued in Chapter 17…