Chapter fourteen: A Brother's Ghost

The rendezvous spot wasn’t anything special—a forgotten parcel of pavement tucked behind the remnants of a collapsed tram station, half-swallowed by creeping moss and shadow. Mag-tech panels blinked with dying light along the walls, casting a dull amber glow across rusted signage that hadn’t meant anything in a decade. This was where Raoul had asked her to come. This was where old wounds reopened.

Zali Cheng stepped into the gloom like it might bite her. Jonah followed in silence, hands tucked into his coat, eyes sweeping the edges. He didn’t say anything, didn’t need to. He knew the weight she carried. He could see it in her shoulders.

Raoul sat at the far end, slouched against a bent support beam like he was part of the trash piled beside him. A cigarette hung limply from his lips, mostly ash, barely burning. His coat was patched but stained. His boots had no laces. His eyes—when they found her—were bloodshot and glassy, framed by the kind of exhaustion that didn’t come from one bad night, but from years of them.

"Zali," he said with a crooked grin. "Didn’t think you’d show."

"I almost didn’t," she replied flatly. "Figured if you wanted to see me, you’d try not disappearing for two years."

Raoul chuckled and coughed immediately after, like the sound had betrayed him.

"You brought company."

Zali didn’t glance at Jonah. "Don’t worry. He’s not here for you."

"So you say."

Jonah stepped forward. "Raoul. You look like hell."

"You say that like I ever looked better."

He wasn’t wrong. Raoul had always worn chaos like a second skin. But this version of him looked more frayed than dangerous. Like a string pulled too far.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"If this is about guilt," Zali said, crossing her arms, "save it. I didn’t come to forgive you."

"Didn’t ask you to," he said, straightening just enough to seem marginally human. "I came to offer you something. A job."

Zali’s jaw tightened. "You think after Seabrook, I want anything to do with your jobs?"

"This one’s different," he said quickly. Too quickly. "It’s big. The kind that puts all this behind us."

"I don’t want it behind us. I want it understood. You used me. Lied to me. Almost got me killed."

Raoul winced. "Yeah. I did. And I won’t pretend I didn’t. But this… this is a clean break. Enough cred to buy out of every debt I owe. Enough to vanish. For real, this time."

Jonah eyed him. "What kind of job are we talking about?"

Raoul looked at both of them, suddenly more sober.

"Couriers are going missing. High-tier ones. Not run-of-the-mill drop-and-dash types. The ones trusted with vault codes, embedded glyphs, executive-level hush. No one’s saying it out loud, but someone’s hunting them."

Zali frowned. "What does that have to do with you?"

"Because someone offered me a contract to take one of those couriers out. I said no. They didn’t take it well."

Jonah crossed his arms. "And you think bringing us into this makes it better?"

"I think if I’m already dead, I might as well make it mean something," Raoul said. His voice was low, for once without the bravado. "I got intel. Drop points. Movement maps. It’s big. Bigger than I can handle alone. So I reached out. To the only person who still might care."

Zali looked at him. Not with sympathy. Not even with anger. Just cold understanding.

"And if I say no?"

"Then I disappear. And when this thing spreads, you won’t know how to stop it."

A long silence followed. The kind that fills the lungs like smoke.

Jonah exhaled. "You trust him?"

"No," Zali said. "But I believe he believes it."

Raoul stood, unsteady but firm. He held out a small hex-drive. It gleamed with faint glyphlight.

"I’m meeting a contact tomorrow. Warehouse district. Off-grid. They’ll have more. You come, you come. If not… thanks for showing up. That’s more than I deserved."

He left before either of them could answer.

Zali stared after him until he vanished into the smoke.

Jonah finally spoke. "So what now?"

She took the hex-drive and slipped it into her coat.

"Now we see just how deep this goes."

And she turned into the night.