Delaney was gone before the café door even shut behind Michael.
He wasn’t surprised.
She’d always moved like smoke — elusive, unreadable, and dangerous in the way only former intelligence officers could be. But Michael wasn’t just a man with a weapon anymore. He was the architect of a quiet empire. One that hunted ghosts for sport.
Back in the SUV, he dialed a number from memory. No names. No pleasantries.
“Phase two,” he said.
The voice on the other end replied, “Confirmed. Activating Athena.”
Athena wasn’t a person. It was a digital scalpel — a protocol designed to erase a life from the seams outward.
Five states away, a team of cyber-warfare specialists came online. Within the hour, Delaney’s aliases were exposed. Her bank accounts were drained. Her encrypted message servers were
