“These perps are stealing from museums using your organization’s techniques, and they tried to breach my home.Your splinter faction is operating in my territory.”She took a breath and blew it out forcibly, calming herself.“How many are involved?”
“As I’ve regained control over here, those that left the compound—maybe twenty, but well-trained and higher in leadership—have been recruiting, training others who have no connection to us.”He paused.“I don’t know exactly.But that could be why the programming was—different.”
Sophie was quiet for a moment.She was pacing now too, the low light of her office caressing her profile like a silver finger.“The artifacts they’re taking aren’t random.There are themes.”She described the items that had been stolen.“Is this group making a statement?What are they doing with these symbols of royalty?Does it have something to do with the original mission of the Yam Khûmk?n, as Thailand’s guardians of the royal family?“
“It could,” Connor said.He thought back to an earlier conversation with Feirn, his majordomo and confidante, where they’d brainstormed motives.“I believe the burglaries are a ploy to draw me in.The question is if they’re using you to do that, or they have some other plan.”
“Does it matter?Either way, they’re a threat.”Another pause, longer this time.She turned to face him in the camera; her eyes were wide, hypnotic.He wished he could see her in person and read the color of her energy field.“Connor, I need complete transparency.No shadows, no half-truths.The children’s safety depends on it.”
Sophie’s words landed like blades between Connor’s ribs, each one precisely placed.He had known this moment would come—had rehearsed versions of it during sleepless nights when the weight of his position pressed down like the humid Thai air before a monsoon.Even so, nothing could prepare for the reality of disappointing Sophie.
“The faction is led by someone called Sunan,” Connor said.The name felt strange to say aloud, like disturbing a grave—they’d avoided using it in discussions here.Through the tower’s stone-lined windows, fruit bats began their evening hunt, dark shapes against a purple sky.“He was one of the Master’s most devoted students, a true believer in the old ways.Blood for blood, strength through fear, loyalty proved through pain.”
The stone floor beneath Connor’s bare feet still held the day’s heat, radiating upward with the memory of violence.Connor had walked these same stones the night he’d taken the Master’s life.The ancient floor had been slick with blood, and his own body battered by a fight to the death.
“When I eliminated the Master, Sunan tried to raise resistance but was rebuffed.He left and that wasn’t long after your mother had disappeared.She was the Master’s lover, as you know.”He could still see them together in his mind’s eye, Pim Wat’s elegant beauty complementing the Master’s coiled power.They’d moved through the ninjas in the stronghold like paired jaguars, leaving unease in their wake.“We assumed he’d gone to ground permanently, possibly even been eliminated by Pim Wat during her flight.She was never one to leave loose ends.”
“But this man has been building a following instead.”Sophie’s voice carried across the miles and in the tiny screen, her level brows drew together in a frown.“Waiting for his moment.”
“We think so.No one has actually seen him.”Through the windows, the jungle around the fortress began its evening chorus—gibbons calling their territories, insects beginning their night songs, the distant scream of a hunting bird.Familiar sounds now seemed full of foreboding.
“The timing can’t be coincidence,” Sophie said.“Why surface now?What’s changed?”
Connor moved to the window, pressing his palm against stone worn smooth by centuries.The dampness of evening was beginning to creep in, carrying the green smell of jungle rot and growth, life and death intertwined.Below, mist rose from the canopy, ghostlike in the failing light.
She deserved honesty, even if it burned.“Next month marks an anniversary since my ascendance in the Yam Khûmk?n.”The words felt heavy.“In our laws—old laws that even I cannot change—that’s when leadership can be formally challenged.Before that, any move against me would have been rebellion, would have united the organization against him.”
“So he’s preparing his challenge by stealing artifacts in Honolulu?”The skepticism in Sophie’s voice was sharp enough to cut.“That doesn’t track.The Yam Khûmk?n doesn’t care about Hawaiian cultural pieces.”
“No, but they care about strength.”He gripped the window’s edge until the stone bit into his palm.“Every theft on your island that goes unpunished by the Yam Khûmk?n is a public declaration that I’ve grown weak.That my connection to you, to the children, to the outside world has compromised my ability to lead.He’s building a case that I’ve lost my way.”
The truth of it lodged in his throat; Sophie and the childrenhadchanged him.Made him dream of being something more human than the leader of a shadow organization.But in Sunan’s world, such dreams were blasphemy; they showed vulnerability.
“Politics.”Sophie’s laugh carried no humor.“Even criminal organizations can’t escape bureaucracy and power plays.”
He heard the creak of her chair as she sat back down.Sophie’s eyes dropped to her keyboard.Rapid keyboard clicking followed.“I’ve recorded everything I found tonight,” she said.“Digital fingerprints from the museum intrusions, network signatures, correlation patterns between the thefts.I’ll pass it all to Marcus in the morning, let him run it through official channels ...”She added, “Though we both know they won’t find anything actionable—your people are too good for that.I’m also going to reach out to Agent MacDonald, my contact with the CIA.They might have intelligence on Sunan’s movements.”
“Sophie—” Connor ran his hand into his hair, gripping hard enough to ground himself.The ache in his scalp was nothing compared to the constriction in his chest.“I wish you’d wait.This is an internal matter.Let me handle it through our channels.”
“Connor.”Just his name, but weighted with the years of their relationship in all its many phases.Her voice softened, though steel remained beneath.“My children are practicing drills getting to a safe room because someone tried to breach my home.I don’t have the luxury of waiting for your cult to resolve its issues.”
“It’s not a cult,” he said automatically, but her words hit hard.Sean and Momi, whom he’d taught to swim in the gentle waters of Lanikai Beach, called him Uncle Connor and loved stories of his travels and roughhouse play.These beloved children shouldn’t have to know about secure rooms and evacuation protocols.
“I’m not going to sit here like bait in a trap,” Sophie continued, her fingers never pausing on the keyboard.“Armita has the evacuation plan refined to five minutes.All my systems are updated with the latest countermeasures.Bill’s team is on high alert.And now I know what we’re really facing, which is more than I did an hour ago.”
Sophie’s protective instincts were fierce as any lioness.She’d survived her mother, her ex-husband, and numerous threats that came with her work.
But the Yam Khûmk?n was different—older, deeper, more embedded and dedicated.Its reach was global and hidden.
“I can send more people beyond the operative already en route,” he offered.“Additional security teams, satellite surveillance?—”
“No.”The word was flat, final.“Your people can maintain their distance watch, but this is my territory to defend.I’ll handle it my way, with my rules.”
He recognized that tone, had been on the receiving end of it enough to know argument was futile.
“Then at least let me share what intelligence we have,” he said.“Sunan’s preferred methods, his known associates, patterns of behavior that might help you predict his moves.”
“Send the intel through the encrypted channel.I’ll review it tomorrow.”She paused, and he heard her take a breath.When she spoke again, her voice carried the weight of a mother’s deepest fear.“Connor, I need you to be completely honest.Are the children in danger?”
