Kai sat cross-legged on the floor, his laptop surrounded by cables. His eyes were locked on the small silver shard lying next to the keyboard.

  “It’s encrypted six layers deep,” he said without looking up. “Not something we can brute force without a trace.”

  Lian turned from the window. “You’ve broken worse.”

  He gave a short laugh. “Not like this. Whoever built this didn’t just want to protect data. They wanted to make sure no one lived long enough to open it.”

  She walked over and crouched beside him, her expression unreadable. “Can we trace where it came from?”

  “Working on it.” He adjusted the screen brightness, revealing a faint grid of numbers. “This shard was pulled from the trafficker’s implant. Embedded near the base of the neck.”

  “So it wasn’t for storage,” she said quietly.

  He nodded. “It was tracking him. And maybe transferring something. Look here.” He pointed to a pulsing blue line on the code. “That’s an active connection — or it was, before I cut it. Someone was still pinging him.”

  Lian’s jaw tightened. “They know he’s dead.”

  Kai looked up, his expression shifting. “Yeah. And maybe they know we have this.”

  For a long moment, neither spoke.

  Lian broke the silence first. “We’ll need to move again.”

  “I can wipe our trail,” Kai said, closing the laptop. “But I want to copy the data first. Just in case.”

  She nodded, standing up. “Make it quick.”

  He started working again, the glow of the screen reflecting off his tired face. Lian moved around the room, checking her weapons, packing their gear. Everything had a rhythm — one she had learned to follow without thinking. But something about tonight felt different.

  Kai finally exhaled and leaned back. “Got it. Backup’s on an offline drive.”

  “Anything readable?”

  He hesitated. “Some partials. There’s a set of coordinates that looks like an offshore server or relay point. And a code name. ‘EXAMINA.’”

  Lian frowned. “What is that?”

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  “No clue,” he said. “But it’s in the same directory as a few contracts. Not written like normal black-market hits.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Government or corporate?”

  “Hard to say.”

  She walked to the window again, watching a police van roll by below. “You think this is bigger than a trafficking ring.”

  Kai shut the laptop and rubbed his temples. “I think this is the first thread of something ugly and we just pulled it.”

  Lian turned back to him. “Then we follow it.”

  He looked up, the corner of his mouth twitching. “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

  They moved out before dawn. The city was still half-asleep when they reached the narrow alley behind a noodle shop. The back door led to an unmarked staircase, ending at a storage room filled with crates. Mei was waiting there, arms crossed, leaning against the wall.

  “You two look worse every time I see you,” she said, smirking.

  Lian didn’t smile. “We need a drop point.”

  Mei’s expression changed when she saw the shard. “Where did you get that?”

  “From a trafficker,” Kai said. “He was chipped with it.”

  She whistled low. “You’re lucky you’re still breathing. I’ve heard rumors about those implants. Some say they’re coded to kill whoever tampers with them.”

  Kai swallowed. “Good to know. Maybe tell me that before I start hacking next time.”

  Mei chuckled. “Next time, maybe I won’t have to babysit you.” She pulled out a small tablet and scanned the shard. Her eyes widened. “This isn’t street tech. You’re poking at something you don’t understand.”

  “Can you trace it?” Lian asked.

  “I can trace where it’s been,” Mei said, fingers moving quickly across the tablet. “But if you’re hoping for names, forget it. This is ghost work. The kind of thing no one officially does but everyone profits from.”

  “Then trace it anyway.”

  Mei looked up at her. “You know, one day your need to chase ghosts is going to get you both killed.”

  Lian didn’t blink.

  Mei sighed and kept working. “There. The last known relay was somewhere in Macau. After that, it disappears.”

  Kai frowned. “Macau? What’s there?”

  “Casinos. Front companies. Offshore data hosts. Pick your poison.”

  Lian nodded once. “We’ll start there.”

  Mei slid the shard back to her. “If you’re going, be smart. People there don’t just play for money. They play for lives.”

  Lian met her eyes. “We always do.”

  Later, on the ferry to Macau, Kai leaned against the railing, watching the dark waves. The horizon was painted in orange and gray as the sun broke through low clouds. He didn’t say much, but his mind was moving fast.

  Lian stood beside him, her coat whipping in the wind. “You’re quiet,” she said.

  He smiled faintly. “Just thinking about what Mei said.”

  “About dying?”

  “About not understanding what we’re chasing.”

  She looked at him, her face calm. “We don’t have to understand everything. We just have to keep moving.”

  He laughed softly. “That sounds like something Mom used to say.”

  Lian’s eyes softened, just for a second. “She said it because it worked.”

  They fell silent again, the water stretching endlessly around them. For now, the mission was simple: get to Macau, find the source, and stay alive.