Chapter 1 The Girl in the Red Taxi

The rain came down like broken glass, slicing through the Lagos night in silver sheets.

Traffic growled across Third Mainland Bridge, horns blaring like wild animals cornered. Somewhere beneath it all, in a beat-up red taxi with one working headlight and three broken dreams, Zara Nwachukwu lit a cigarette she wouldn't smoke.

She hated cigarettes.

But she loved the fire.

---

Zara wasn't running. Not officially.

But the gun in her purse and the blood on her right boot told another story.

She'd walked out of her father's compound in Abuja six days ago. Walked out with nothing but a passport, a memory card, and a secret that could burn down the entire Ogene Group - West Africa's most powerful oil-and-arms dynasty.

The dynasty her father built.

The one she was born to inherit.

The one she just betrayed.

---

The taxi driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

"You sure about this place?" he asked, pulling off the expressway and into the slums of Ebute Metta.

"No," Zara said. "That's what makes it fun."

The taxi stopped outside a warehouse that hadn't seen commerce in fifteen years. Zara stepped out, heels clicking on wet concrete, and ducked into the shadows before the driver could change his mind.

Inside, she found exactly what she came for:

The Ghost.

Real name: Darius Ekene.

Former special forces.

Wanted in six countries.

Dead in two.

But there he was - alive, sweaty, shirtless, and wrapping his fists in tape beside a sandbag as if the world outside didn't want him in a grave.

Zara raised an eyebrow.

"You don't look dead."

Darius didn't look up. "You don't look scared."

"Should I be?"

He finally turned. His eyes were sharp enough to cut the tension in half.

"You came to the Ghost for protection. That means someone's trying to kill you."

Zara smiled.

"They'll need better aim."

---

Somewhere else in the city, in a penthouse of glass and gold, General Nwachukwu stared at a paused security feed - his daughter walking through a lobby she shouldn't have survived.

He poured a drink.

"Find her," he said coldly. "Before she finds him."