While Renji managed his kingdom and Kuro managed his new partner, Hikari was managing the kingdom's future. The recruitment of Zara Al-Jamil had been a success. The brilliant financial analyst, thrilled by the challenge and the tangible impact of her work with the "investment fund," had officially resigned from her bank and joined the Syndicate full-time. She now worked out of a discreet office in Zurich, the legitimate face of their growing financial empire, completely unaware of the assassins and hackers she was now colleagues with.
Hikari was building a company of ghosts. She created firewalls not just in their networks, but between their personnel. Zara knew nothing of Anya Petrova. Anya knew nothing of Julian Thorne. Each new recruit was brought into a small, insulated part of the organization, given a clear and compelling mission, and made to feel like they were part of an exclusive, world-changing enterprise. They were all pieces on Hikari's board, and only she, Renji, and Kuro could see the whole picture.
Her greatest and most delicate project, however, remained Maya. Kuro's decision to bring her into the fold on a practical level was a dangerous acceleration of Hikari's timeline. It was time for a human connection, a real one, to solidify the trust that was forming in the digital space.
She knew Kuro would never initiate it himself. So, she took matters into her own hands.
She booked a flight.
A few days later, Kuro received a message from her.
**[Private Message: Hikari]**
**Hikari:** *Big brother, I'm coming to visit. I won a prize in a youth piano competition—a masterclass series at Juilliard. My guardian is letting me come to the US for a week. I'd love to see your university!*
Kuro stared at the message, a sense of impending doom settling over him. Hikari didn't "win" prizes. She acquired them if they were strategically necessary. A "masterclass at Juilliard" was a cover story so thin it was transparent. She was coming for a reason. And he had a sinking, 99.9% certain feeling that the reason was Maya.
His sister, the Syndicate's master of psychological warfare, was about to descend upon his quiet, academic life. He felt a surge of panic that no amount of data analysis could soothe. He was about to be socially engineered, and he was completely powerless to stop it.