Drew met their eyes and nodded.“I know who you are.”
Dev smirked.“Yeah, we figured.You’ve sent us intel before.You do clean work.”
Drew blinked, caught off guard.“You knew?”
Bateman’s voice was calm.“We knew.Or at least, we know now.Marsh traced your data.We don’t burn sources unless we have to.”
A third man stepped forward—Marsh.“You’re a hard one to follow, Wraith.I’ve been tracking your work for years.What you’ve been doing...is impressive.”
Drew gave a quiet laugh.“That’s one word for it.”
Marsh tapped a few keys and the holo-map filled the air.It showed the world in red lines and sharp edges—corporations, governments, military contracts.“They’re not just mercenaries,” he said.“They’re a system.They buy into power—governments, corporations, religious networks.They move money and influence faster than we can track.They’re not a cartel.They’re infrastructure.”
Dev leaned closer.“How big are we talking?”
Drew’s jaw tightened.“Global and deep.Deep within pretty much every power player and government in the world.They hide behind politics and profit.They use chaos as camouflage.Wherever there’s suffering, they find a way to make money off it.”
Kael folded his arms.“And you’ve been fighting them alone.”
Drew looked down.“Someone had to.”
“Why you?”Kael asked softly.
The question hit harder than he expected.He glanced at Kael, then at the floor.“Because they took my sister.”
The room went silent.
“They didn’t just kill her,” Drew continued, voice low.“They broke her first.Made her a message.I was forced to watch.They wanted to show me what happens when you get in their way.”
Marsh looked away.Dev’s jaw clenched.Bateman’s face stayed still, but his eyes went dark.
“I spent the next four years dismantling everything I could find that they built.Every deal, every network, every bastard who carried their name.But it’s not enough.They’re too big.Too protected.”
Kael stepped closer.“You’re not alone now.”
Drew’s throat tightened.“I was always alone.”
“Not anymore,” Kael said.His tone left no room for argument.
Drew pushed up from the chair, energy restless beneath his skin.“I took them out.As many as I could, and it was not always clean, and it sure as hell was not painless.Where I could inflict pain and suffering on these bastards I did.And I fucking enjoyed it.They think they own the world.That no one can touch them.I’m going to prove them wrong.”
He turned for the door before anyone could stop him.He needed the air, the open sky.He needed to move.
The sunlight hit him like a wave when he stepped outside.He breathed it in, the scent of ocean and rain, and let it burn away the weight on his chest.
For the first time in years, he wasn’t just fighting ghosts.He was part of something real again—and this time, he wasn’t going to walk away.
****
Kael stayed still longafter the door shut behind Drew.The room was heavy with silence—his team, Dev, and Bateman all watching him.Drew’s words still echoed like a pulse beneath his skin.They took my sister.
Dev’s voice broke the quiet.“That’s one hell of a revelation.”
Bateman nodded, the lines around his eyes tight.“If it had been one of mine, I’d have done the same.Maybe worse.”
Kael scrubbed a hand down his face.“He’s been carrying that alone for four and a half years.”
Dev’s tone softened.“You’ve got a good man there, Kael.If you need Bravo or the Pathfinders, you call.We’ve all lost enough not to let another one go down alone.”
