Liam jumped in. "My dad might have so info on Nova X and Phantom X. He was on the sa team as your folks."
Aylin glanced over at him. "Definitely, we should ask Charles."
Zayden looked at Liam. "Give him a call and tell him to co to the office. Now. Imdiately."
Liam pulled out his phone and dialed. It rang twice before Charles picked up.
"Liam?"
"Dad, get to the office. It’s urgent."
There was a bit of silence.
"On my way."
Liam hung up, and they waited. Five minutes felt like forever.
Aylin focused on the ssage, rereading it over and over while trying to find clues.
Zayden watched her, noticing how tense her shoulders were and how tightly her jaw was set. He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. She t his gaze, and he reassured her with another squeeze.
"We’ll tackle this together, no matter what."
Aylin nodded. "Together."
The door swung open, and Charles walked in. He looked refreshed since he had been resting in the tower.
"What’s going on?" he asked.
Zayden pointed at the laptop. "Aylin got a ssage during the mission. Can you take a look?"
Charles walked over and read the screen, and his expression shifted to one of recognition and understanding.
"Nova X and Phantom X," he said quietly.
Aylin stood up. "You know them?"
Charles nodded. "Nova X was Sibel Aydin, your mom. Phantom X was Marcus Alston, your dad."
Aylin felt a wave of weakness, and Zayden moved closer to support her.
Charles continued, "Those were their code nas when they were on missions. They used them to keep their identities safe."
Aylin’s voice ca out softly. "So this person... knew my parents?"
"Yeah," Charles replied.
"Do you happen to know who sent this?"
Charles hesitated, thinking it over.
"I can’t say for sure," he finally replied.
After a brief pause, he frowned.
"Wait. Actually, I think I’ve got it."
Everyone turned to him, curious.
Charles locked eyes with Aylin. "It must be ht Demir."
Aylin raised her eyebrows. "The fourth person on your team? The one who got swapped out for Alexander?"
"Yep, that’s him."
Zayden crossed his arms. "That makes sense. He’d know the code nas and everything about the operation."
Liam frowned. "But what if it’s a setup? What if soone is pretending to be him?"
Zayden turned to Aylin. "We’ll figure it out. Just reply to him."
Charles held up a hand. "Hold on. Let’s add a code to the ssage, sothing only ht would get. If he can crack it, we’ll know it’s really him."
Aylin nodded and sat back down to open a reply window.
Zayden leaned in, peering over her shoulder. "Type what I say."
Aylin hovered her fingers over the keyboard, ready to go. Zayden started speaking slowly.
"We got your ssage. Before we go any further, we need so verification. Decode this code. If you’re who you say you are, this should be a piece of cake."
Aylin typed and then looked at Charles. "What code should I use?"
Charles thought for a second. "Go with that old team cipher, the one we made five years ago. Only the four of us knew it." He then guided her through the code.
Aylin nodded. She created the encryption, making it complicated based on a pattern that only soone from their team would recognize.
Then she added sothing else: a tracking script, hidden in the ssage code. When the recipient opened it, the script would kick in and send back their location, GPS coordinates, IP address, and device details... everything.
She glanced at Zayden. "All set. If he opens this, we’ll know exactly where he is."
Zayden grinned. "Aweso. Go ahead and send it."
Aylin hit enter. The ssage was uploaded, encrypted, secured, and sent off. Now... all they could do was wait.
*****
ht Demir was chilling in his bedroom, with his laptop open on the desk, the TV blaring news in the background.
For a week, every single channel had been covering the sa story: Michael Arthur, aka Alpha Dark, was dead.
His empire had fallen apart, his crew had been rounded up, and all his shady dealings were exposed.
ht watched, feeling satisfied. Finally, soone had done it—wrapped up what Marcus and Sibel had started.
He just wished he knew who pulled it off. He had ssaged the hacker who took Alpha down days ago, but there had been no word back.
He figured maybe he’d reached out to the wrong person, or they just weren’t interested in old news.
Either way, he was thankful. Alpha was out of the picture, and justice had been served. But the heaviness in his chest didn’t go away because he still hadn’t found her.
Marcus and Sibel’s daughter. The girl. He’d been trying to find her for five years, ever since Marcus died. Ever since he realized what really went down: it was murder, not an accident.
Soone had ssed with those brake lines. Soone had taken out his best friend. And ht knew who had called the shots.
Alpha. But he had no idea how it all went down. That info was buried, hidden, and locked away. He needed to talk to soone.
He had to make sure the truth got out. But he couldn’t do it on his own. He needed to let the girl... Marcus’s daughter. She had the right to find out. She deserved justice.
ht stared at the TV, lost in thought. Then... beep. His laptop made a notification sound. He froze.
The laptop had been sitting open for days, waiting for a reply. And now... ht jumped up, walked over to the desk, and sat down.
His hands were shaking. He moved the mouse and clicked. A new ssage popped up from the encrypted server. He opened it and read: verification required. A code.
ht leaned in, studied the encryption, and recognized it instantly... the old team cipher.
The one he, Marcus, Sibel, and Charles had used. A smile spread across his face. They were testing him.Nice move.
He cracked his knuckles and started decrypting, layer by layer, piece by piece. It took him ten minutes, but he figured it out. He typed a reply, encrypted it the sa way so they’d know he was on the sa page, then hit send and waited.
*****
The laptop beeped, and Aylin glanced down.
A new ssage popped up. She opened it, read it, and couldn’t help but smile.
She looked over at Charles. "He cracked the code. It’s definitely him."
Charles let out a breath, feeling relieved.
Zayden leaned in and asked, "Where is he?"
Aylin pulled up the tracking info. GPS coordinates appeared on the screen, and a map dropped a red pin right where it needed to be.
"Istanbul, Turkey," she said, pointing to the exact address of an apartnt building.
Zayden nodded. "Alright. Now we bring him here."
Aylin gave him a worried look. "What should I say?"
Zayden thought for a second and then said, "Type this exactly: Don’t ntion our country or any nas. Just say: ’Be ready. Our people will co to get you from your ho. We know who you are and where you are. If you want to talk, let us know. Yes or no?’"
Aylin typed it out word for word and hit send. The reply ca back in seconds.
"Yes."
Aylin looked at Zayden, who nodded in approval. She typed again, figuring out the ti difference. Istanbul was ahead, so she picked a date... two days from now and a ti early morning, 6 AM Istanbul ti.
She wrote: "Our people will be at your place at 6:00 AM the day after tomorrow. Be ready. Bring nothing. We’ll take care of everything you need."
The response ca right after.
"Okay."
Aylin closed the laptop and looked at Zayden, then at Charles, and finally at Liam.
"It’s done. He’s on his way."
Zayden stood up. "Good. I’ll set up the extraction. A team will fly to Istanbul tomorrow to pick him up and bring him here."
Charles nodded. "I should be there when he gets here. He knows and trusts ."
Zayden agreed. "Absolutely, you’ll be there."
Liam looked at Aylin, concern in his eyes. "Are you alright?"
Aylin took a deep breath. Was she really alright? She was about to et the man who knew her parents, worked with them, and might know who killed her dad.
No, she wasn’t alright. But she nodded anyway.
"I will be."
Zayden stepped over and pulled her into a hug.
"We’ll get the answers, I promise."
Aylin buried her face in his chest, holding on tight.
"I know."
But even as she said it...
Was she really ready?
What would ht Demir tell her?
Would the truth set her free...
Or break her completely?
Reviews
All reviews (0)