Chike’s hands tightened on the leather armrests as the dim conference room filled with the hum of the hidden projectors. Every wall around him shimmered to life, revealing not one, but a dozen live feeds grainy footage, satellite images, and data streams scrolling in multiple languages.The air was thick with tension. Even the faint mechanical whir of the air vents seemed muffled under the weight of what was being shown. On one screen, a slow motion video captured a convoy of unmarked armored trucks snaking along a fog choked mountain road. On another, intercepted audio distorted and overlapping carried fragments of a conversation in a code only a handful of people on earth could decipher.“Target shipment confirmed,” the System whispered in his ear. Coordinates locked. Risk assessment: extreme.Across the table, Adaora sat stiff backed, her eyes tracking every detail like a hawk. She didn’t speak, but Chike could tell from the faint tapping of her index finger against the tabletop th

The atmosphere inside the penthouse shifted the moment Chike stepped through the door. Every muscle in his body remained taut, his mind calculating a hundred possibilities at once. The encrypted message he had just intercepted on the Red Ledger’s dark communication channel replayed in his head, each word dripping with malice.Target secured. Extraction window: 11 minutes.It wasn’t a bluff. He knew the language they used this was operational, precise, and deadly.“Sir, we’ve swept the place twice,” Kelvin reported, emerging from the kitchen area. “Nothing unusual inside, but the perimeter…” He hesitated. “We caught movement at the southern rooftop access, but it vanished before we could engage.”Chike’s jaw tightened. “They’re already inside the building.”Zuri, who stood by the panoramic window, turned sharply. “How? The security grid”“was compromised the moment we stepped out this morning,” Chike interrupted. His voice was low but sharp. “They’ve been waiting for us to get comforta

The room felt too small for the storm brewing inside Chike’s mind.Every sound seemed louder, sharper the faint buzz of the overhead light, the ticking of the antique wall clock, the distant hum of the city outside. He stood by the wide window, his hands gripping the cold steel railing, watching the traffic snake its way through Lagos as if it were some living, breathing organism.The encrypted message he’d just received still glowed on the tablet screen behind him, its words burned into his mind:“Vault breach in motion. Contact compromised. You have less than twenty four hours before The Red Ledger acts.”He’d expected them to move eventually. He’d even prepared for it. But this… this was faster than any of his projections.Behind him, footsteps sounded soft but urgent. It was Adaora. She entered without knocking, her long coat billowing slightly as she shut the door and crossed the room. Her face carried that unshakable calm she wore like armor, but her eyes betrayed the weight sh

The air in the underground chamber was thick with the weight of secrecy. The Crimson Vault’s massive steel door had just shut behind Chike, sealing him and his small, handpicked team inside. The walls were lined with shelves of aged, leather-bound ledgers, strange artifacts locked in glass cases, and maps riddled with cryptic markings. A low hum vibrated through the stone floor, the unmistakable throb of the vault’s internal power core a reminder that this place was as much a machine as it was a tomb of history.Okon hovered near one of the shelves, eyes wide. “Boss, these aren’t just records… these are war manuals. Strategies, alliances, code names.” His fingers trembled over a file labeled Red Ledger Protocol Omega.“Don’t touch it,” Chike said, his voice sharp but low. “We don’t yet know which of these are traps and which are truths.”From the far corner, Ifeoma’s soft voice cut through the stillness. “Someone’s been here before us. Recently.” She crouched, running her fingers alo

Chike sat in the dim light of his private suite, the city beyond the glass stretching into infinity like a battlefield mapped in neon veins. Lagos never slept, but tonight, its pulse felt too fast, too erratic. His system screen hovered in front of him, glowing faintly in the dark like an omen, yet his eyes weren’t on the statistics or rewards. They were on the reflection staring back at him the man he was becoming.He had faced betrayal before. He had faced enemies who wanted him erased, buried, forgotten. But what gnawed at his chest tonight wasn’t just the external threat of The Red Ledger, it was the hollow space left behind by the people who should have stood by him and didn’t.A notification chimed.[Incoming Transmission: Unverified Channel]Chike leaned forward, his muscles coiled tight. The moment he accepted, a voice filtered through distorted, cloaked in static.“You’ve drawn too much attention, Forgotten Heir. The Crimson Vault doesn’t forgive disruptions.”The Red Ledger.