The apartment was cloaked in darkness, lit only by the dim, bluish glow of Lucy's laptop screen. The rain outside was relentless, pounding against the window in uneven rhythms — the same monsoon pattern that had once lulled her to sleep beside Sid. Now, it only echoed the ache of his absence.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, trembling slightly as she scrolled through encrypted folders and decades of agency data. Each click felt heavier than the last — like peeling back the skin of old wounds she'd tried to forget.
Then she saw it.
A folder tucked deep inside a classified directory.
"Verma Operations – Confidential."
Her pulse spiked. The name alone sent a chill through her.
Nick Verma. The man who had turned every mission into a calculated game of morality and power. Sid's older brother. The man she had once feared more than death itself.
> "Sid wasn't supposed to die," she whispered, voice breaking in the quiet.
Her hands shook as she opened the file.
Blueprints. Surveillance images. Intercepted messages.
Each piece of data was sharp, methodical, and disturbingly organized — Nick's signature style.
But then something else caught her eye — a file marked with her own clearance code. She hesitated, the cursor blinking over it like a pulse.
When she finally opened it, her breath caught in her throat.
It was her mission report.
Every detail she'd ever submitted — communications, operation routes, psychological notes — all of it leaked. Someone had betrayed her. Someone inside the agency had been feeding Nick her every move.
> "No… no, this can't be real," she whispered, pressing a hand to her mouth.
For a long moment, Lucy just sat there, the rain hammering harder, the thunder rolling low and distant.
She could almost hear Sid's voice — calm, teasing — telling her to trust no one.
But she hadn't listened.
And now, he was gone.
Her eyes returned to the screen. Nick's plan wasn't revenge — it was a dismantling. Piece by piece, operation by operation, he was tearing down everything and everyone who had touched Sid's life.
Scrolling further, she stopped cold at a new section:
"High-Value Targets: Educational Institutions."
Her heart lurched.
It wasn't random. It was deliberate. Symbolic.
Nick was going after innocence itself — a statement, not just vengeance.
> "No… not the school," Lucy whispered, horror thick in her voice. "Not the children."
She could see it already — panicked parents, alarms blaring, smoke, chaos.
He wanted to make her watch the world burn, starting with what she'd sworn to protect.
Her throat tightened as tears welled up. She closed her eyes, breathing through the storm raging both outside and within.
> "I won't let it happen," she murmured to the empty room. "I'll stop him, Sid… even if it kills me."
A sudden crackle in her earpiece made her flinch.
The agency frequency came alive, distorted by static.
> "Control to Agent Lewis — we have a situation. Subject Verma has escaped custody. Last sighting: Sector 9."
Her pulse thundered. She turned toward the window, wiping the moisture from the glass.
And there — through the curtain of rain — a shadow moved.
Tall. Still. Watching.
For a heartbeat, she forgot to breathe.
> "Control…" she whispered, voice trembling but resolute. "I see him."
Lightning split the sky, bathing the city in a brief, violent flash. The figure was gone — but the chill in her bones told her he was close. Too close.
Lucy straightened, closing the laptop. Her reflection in the glass looked pale, hollow-eyed, determined.
The storm outside raged on, but inside her, a colder storm was rising.
Nick Verma was free.
And this time, she wasn't just part of the game — she was the prize.