Chapter 1 No.1

The massive steel gates of the Bradford Estate loomed ahead, black iron spikes piercing the night sky. She didn't have a pass. She prepared to turn around, to find another way. But as she approached, the gates groaned. They swung open slowly, automatically, inviting her into the belly of the beast. They were expecting her.

But two hours ago, her world had been a circle of hell made of steam and steel.

"Faster! You scrub like old woman!"

The scream shattered the humid air of the kitchen. A heavy ladle slammed against the metal prep table, inches from her hand. She didn't flinch. She couldn't afford to flinch. To flinch was to show reflexes, and reflexes belonged to Emily Reyes, the operative. Here, in the grease-stained purgatory of the Jade Garden, she was just Maya. Maya, the illegal, the desperate, the invisible.

She kept her head down, her eyes fixed on the blackened bottom of the wok. Her knuckles were raw, the skin cracked and red from the harsh industrial detergent. Every circular motion sent a sharp sting shooting up her wrist, a physical reminder of her new reality.

"Sorry, Uncle Wong," she mumbled, her voice small. She forced her shoulders to slump, shrinking her frame. "The grease... it is very hard."

"Grease is not hard. You are lazy!" Wong spat, the smell of stale tobacco and garlic rolling off him in waves. He leaned in, invading her personal space, his face shiny with sweat. "You want I call La Migra? Huh? You want go back to cage?"

Her stomach tightened-not with fear, but with a suppressed, violent urge to snap his wrist. She imagined the sound it would make, a dry crack like a fortune cookie. She swallowed the bile rising in her throat.

"No, please," she whispered, gripping the sponge until dirty water ran down her arm. "I need job. Please."

The kitchen around them was a sensory nightmare. Steam hissed from the dumpling stations, shouting in Cantonese bounced off the tiled walls, and the clatter of porcelain was a constant, headache-inducing rhythm. It was hot, suffocatingly so, smelling of old frying oil that clung to her hair and seeped into her pores.

The landline on the wall rang.

It was a shrill, demanding sound that cut through the cacophony. The entire kitchen went silent. The cooks froze, knives hovering over cutting boards. Even the steam seemed to pause.

Wong snatched the receiver, barking a hello. His face, usually flushed with anger, drained of color. He listened, his eyes darting around the room, landing on the two delivery drivers near the back door. They both looked away, suddenly fascinated by the floor.

Wong hung up. The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating.

"Delivery," Wong announced, his voice tight. "For The Fortress."

One of the drivers, a kid named Leo, shook his head rapidly. "No way, boss. Not going to the Zone. Not to that house. Last guy said he saw drones with heat seekers. I ain't getting shot for six bucks an hour."

"You go, or you fired!" Wong screamed.

"I quit then," Leo said, dropping his apron on the floor. He walked out without looking back.

Wong turned his predatory gaze to her.

She felt the weight of it. The trap was closing.

"Maya," he said, a cruel smile twisting his lips. "You want stay? You take order."

Her heart hammered against her ribs-a calculated reaction she allowed to show on her face. "But... I don't have license for scooter."

"Who cares license?" He grabbed a thermal bag and shoved it into her chest. The impact knocked the wind out of her. "Address is on ticket. You go. You come back, you keep job. You keep tip."

He laughed, a dry, hacking sound. He didn't think there would be a tip. He thought she might not even come back.

She looked at the ticket stapled to the bag.

101 Blackwood Drive.

Her blood ran cold. The address itself meant nothing, a random street in the city's most fortified district. But the client name printed below it, 'Aethelred Holdings,' sent a jolt through her system. It was one of the shell corporations she'd found in Elena's encrypted files before Elena vanished. A minor one, a dead end she'd thought, but here it was. Ordering takeout. This wasn't the target, but it was a thread. A live one.

She feigned hesitation, her hands trembling as she wiped them on her dirty apron. "Is it... safe?"

"Safe for you," Wong sneered. He threw a set of keys at her. They hit her shoulder and clattered to the floor. "Go."

She picked up the keys. The metal bit into her palm. This was it. The breach point.

She walked out the back door into the alleyway. The transition was jarring. The kitchen had been a furnace; the alley was damp and cool, smelling of ozone and rotting garbage. The neon lights of the city reflected in the puddles, casting the world in shades of sick green and bruised purple.

She mounted the battered scooter. It looked like it was held together by duct tape and prayers. She checked the hidden blade in her boot, the cold steel against her ankle the only grounding reality she had left.

The engine sputtered to life, sounding like a dying animal. She pulled out onto the street, merging into the chaotic flow of traffic.

The drive was a journey between worlds. She left the crowded, noisy slums of the lower district, where people lived on top of each other in crumbling tenements, and crossed the bridge into the Zone.

The air changed here. It was cleaner, filtered. The streetlights were brighter. The noise of the city faded into a respectful, terrified silence.

She approached the checkpoint for the Restricted Sector. Her heart rate was steady, her breathing controlled. And ahead, the gates of 101 Blackwood Drive waited.