The Textile Factory in Sector 4 was a rotting skeleton of brick and rusted steel. The rain had turned the surrounding lot into a slurry of oil and mud.
Elena—The Red Queen—moved across the roof of the adjacent warehouse.
She was a silhouette against the grey sky. She wore a form-fitting tactical suit woven from impact-resistant polymer, darker than the night itself. Her face was hidden behind a smooth, featureless ballistic mask painted a deep, blood red.
She crouched on the ledge, scanning the factory below through her scope.
Target acquired.
Inside the factory, on the second-floor catwalk, stood a man.
The Lieutenant.
He was pacing, surrounded by four armed guards. He looked nervous. He was checking his watch.
Easy kill, Elena thought. Two guards at the door. Two with him. A breach charge on the skylight, drop in, slice the jugular, vanish.
She adjusted her grip on her suppressed pistol.
She was about to move when a glint of light caught her eye.
Down on the street level, parked in the shadows of a shipping container, sat a black Audi.
Elena froze.
She recognized that car.
She recognized the woman sitting in the driver's seat, the glow of a tablet illuminating her sharp, blonde bob.
Vix.
Elena's blood temperature dropped ten degrees.
What is she doing here?
Elena zoomed in with her scope.
Vix was watching the factory. She wasn't just a handler; she was supervising. Or maybe she was waiting for her "partner."
A wave of cold, sharp jealousy pierced Elena's chest.
Daniel.
Vix had practically thrown herself at him at dinner. She had touched him in the park. And now, she was here, at a high-level hit.
Is Daniel here? Elena scanned the perimeter frantically. No. He's at home. He's safe in his office.
So Vix is working with someone else tonight?
Or maybe... Vix was just a predator looking for prey.
Elena lowered her scope. The mission parameters shifted instantly.
The Lieutenant was the job.
But Vix was the threat to her home.
I should kill her, Elena thought calmly. Make it look like collateral damage. A stray bullet. No one would know.
She shifted her aim. The red dot of her laser sight drifted from the factory window down to the windshield of the Audi.
It hovered over Vix's forehead.
Elena's finger tightened on the trigger.
One squeeze. And she never touches my husband again.
THE STREET LEVEL
Daniel—The Ghost—moved through the shadows of the alleyway.
He was fifty meters from Vix's car. He saw her sitting there, exposed, arrogant.
Idiot, he thought. She's sitting duck.
He checked his comms. "Vix. I'm in position. Breaching the east door in thirty seconds."
"Copy that, Ghost," Vix's voice crackled in his earpiece. "Target is on the second floor. Be quick. I have a bad feeling about this."
Daniel moved toward the factory wall.
Then he stopped.
His instinct—that sixth sense that had kept him alive for ten years—screamed at him.
Look up.
He looked up at the adjacent warehouse roof.
He saw it.
A shadow. A flash of red.
Someone was up there.
And they weren't aiming at the factory. They were aiming down. At the street.
Daniel followed the line of sight.
They were aiming at Vix.
The Red Queen.
Panic, cold and sharp, flooded Daniel's system.
He didn't care about Vix. He hated Vix.
But Vix was his handler. If she died on his watch, the Agency would audit his entire life. They would dig into his finances. They would dig into Elena.
Vix was the firewall protecting his marriage. He needed her alive.
"Vix! Move!" Daniel screamed into the comms. "Sniper! Twelve o'clock high!"
THE ROOF
Elena heard the shout. Not through comms, but the echo of a voice in the alley.
She flinched.
Bang.
Her shot went wide. It shattered the Audi's side mirror instead of the windshield.
Vix scrambled, throwing the car into reverse. Tires screeched.
Elena cursed. She racked the slide of her pistol.
Who warned her?
She looked down.
A figure in black tactical gear was sprinting across the open lot. He wasn't running away. He was running toward the factory wall, scaling the drainpipe with terrifying speed.
He moved like a demon.
The Ghost.
Elena felt a thrill of recognition.
You again.
She forgot about Vix. She forgot about the Lieutenant.
This was personal. This was the man who had bruised her ribs. This was the man who had invaded her warehouse.
She holstered her pistol and drew her twin serrated blades.
She leaped from the warehouse roof to the factory ledge.
She landed silently.
The Ghost vaulted over the parapet.
He landed ten feet away from her.
He stood up slowly. He was big. Broad-shouldered. He wore a balaclava that hid everything but his eyes.
Those eyes.
They were cold. Lethal. Familiar.
"You missed," the Ghost growled. His voice was a deep, distorted rumble.
"I never miss," the Queen replied, her voice modulated to a synthetic rasp. "I was just saying hello."
"Step away," the Ghost warned. He drew a combat knife. It was huge—a KA-BAR with a matte black finish. "This isn't your kill."
"The Lieutenant is mine," Elena said. She spun the blades in her hands. "And the blonde in the car? She's mine too."
Daniel stiffened.
She wants Vix.
Why?
"The handler is off limits," Daniel said, stepping into a combat stance.
Elena tilted her head.
"Protective, aren't we? Is she your girlfriend?"
The question hung in the rainy air.
Daniel didn't answer. He couldn't.
Elena took his silence as a yes.
Red-hot jealousy flared in her chest.
So she IS sleeping with him. Or working with him. It doesn't matter.
They are a team.
"Pathetic," Elena spat. "I hate office romances."
She lunged.
THE CLASH
It wasn't a fight. It was a collision of natural disasters.
Elena was speed. She came in low, slashing at his femoral artery.
Daniel was power. He blocked the strike with his forearm guard—CLANG—and drove a knee toward her chest.
Elena twisted mid-air, avoiding the knee. She used his momentum to vault over him, slashing at his back.
Her blade caught his Kevlar vest. RIIIIP.
It didn't cut skin, but it ruined the ceramic plate.
Daniel spun, swinging a heavy backhand.
It connected.
His fist slammed into her shoulder—the same shoulder Vix had touched earlier.
Elena stumbled back, gasping. The impact was like getting hit by a truck.
He's strong, she thought. Stronger than last time.
She recovered instantly. She threw a flashbang grenade at his feet.
BANG.
White light blinded the roof.
Daniel roared, shielding his eyes. He swung his knife blindly in a defensive arc.
He felt it connect with something.
Fabric. Resistance. Then nothing.
He blinked the spots from his vision.
The roof was empty.
He looked at his knife.
There was a strip of black polymer fabric on the blade.
And a single drop of blood.
He looked toward the factory skylight. It was shattered.
The Red Queen was gone. She had dropped into the building.
Daniel touched his earpiece.
"Vix. Situation report."
"I'm clear," Vix's voice came back, shaky. "She shot my mirror off. Ghost... she wasn't trying to kill the target. She was trying to kill me."
"I know," Daniel said, staring at the shattered skylight.
"Stay in the car. I'm going in to finish the job."
He wiped the blood off his knife.
He felt a strange tightening in his chest.
Fighting her... it felt different this time.
It felt intimate.
Like a dance he knew the steps to, but couldn't remember the song.
He shook his head.
Focus. Kill the Lieutenant. Go home to Elena.
He leaped through the skylight.