OPERATION:FIRST LOVE

THE FILE

#### [KADE POV]

The file was in Chief Cardoso’s private safe.

3rd floor. West wing. Biometric lock + 6 digit code.

I had 26 days left. Now I had 25.

After the meeting yesterday, Bello gave me a final order:

"Get the offshore account numbers. Tonight. Or we pull you and send a team."

A team meant collateral damage.

A team meant Zara could get caught in it.

I couldn’t let that happen.

22:40 PM. School was empty. Rain on the windows.

I bypassed the first camera with a jammer. Second one with a loop.

The safe was behind a painting of Lagos harbor.

My hands were steady. They always were.

Until I heard footsteps.

"Looking for something?"

Zara.

She stood in the doorway. Umbrella dripping. School uniform wet.

Yellow ribbon gone. Hair down.

"Zara." My voice came out rough. "What are you doing here?"

"Same question." She stepped in. Closed the door. "You’re breaking into my dad’s safe, Kade."

I didn’t deny it. Lying to her now felt worse than the truth.

"I’m not here to hurt him."

"Then what? Steal from him?" She hugged herself. "Who ARE you?"

Agent 07. SSS. Undercover.

The words burned in my throat.

"I’m someone trying to keep you alive," I said instead.

She laughed. No humor. "By robbing my dad?"

"By exposing the people who want to frame him."

That got her attention. "What?"

I pulled out a photo from my jacket. Slid it to her.

Her dad, 5 years ago. With men in suits. Offshore documents on the table.

"This is why they’re after him, Zara. Not me. Him.

Someone in SSS is leaking info to make it look like he laundered money.

If I don’t get proof of who’s doing it, they’ll arrest him in 3 weeks."

Zara picked up the photo. Her hands shook. "You’re lying."

"I wish I was." I stepped closer. "I was sent to get the evidence. To clear him."

"So you used me."

The words hit me in the chest.

"Yes."

Silence. Rain.

"Get out," she said. "Before I call security."

"Zara—"

"GET OUT!"

I left. Because protocol said don’t force contact with a compromised civilian.

But I left the jammer running. And I left the safe open.

If she told her dad, I was dead.

If she didn’t, he might live.

---

02:15 AM. Safehouse.

Phone call. Bello. "Did you get it?"

"No."

"Then you’re extracted. 0600."

I hung up.

On my laptop, one new email. No sender.

Attachment: `Cardoso_Offshore_Proof.pdf`

Inside: Screenshots. Bank logs. A voice recording.

And a note at the bottom:

`From: A friend. Don’t hurt her.`

Zara.

She got the file. And sent it to me.

#### [ZARA POV]

I didn’t sleep.

I sat in Dad’s office until 4AM. Staring at that photo.

Dad with those men. I was 12. I remembered that night.

He said it was "business partners."

Kade wasn’t a monster.

But he was a liar.

At 5AM I made a choice.

I used Dad’s fingerprint while he slept to open the safe.

I found the real files. The ones he hid from SSS.

Proof that he was being set up. Transactions he never made.

I scanned them. Sent them to the burner number Kade used.

Then I texted him: `You have 24 hours to fix this. Or I go to the police. With both our names.`

07:00 AM. Academy.

Kade wasn’t at his desk.

My phone buzzed. Unknown number.

`He’s gone. Extraction complete. Agent 07 no longer in Lagos.`

My stomach dropped.

Gone.

All that. The ice cream. The hand in mine. The "I forgot what smiling felt like."

Gone.

Titi found me in the bathroom. "Zara? You okay?"

I showed her the text.

She read it. "Babe... what did you get into?"

"I fell for a ghost," I whispered.

That evening, news broke.

`SSS ARRESTS CORRUPT OFFICIALS IN OFFSHORE FRAUD CASE`

`CHIEF ADEBAYO CARDOSO CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES`

Dad came home. Hugged me for 10 minutes. Crying.

I didn’t cry.

Because ghosts don’t get to come back.

But at 11:59 PM, my phone buzzed.

Unknown number.

`File received. Target safe.`

`Lesson 5: You saved him.`

`P.S. The ice cream was cookies and cream.`

I stared at it until the screen went black.

He was out. He was safe.

And he remembered.