Debt to the underworld boss

The Board of Rats

Chapter 3: The Board of Rats

The ride back to Sector 4 was dead silent, but the air inside the armored cruiser was thick with an electric, suffocating tension.

Elena sat in the passenger seat, staring out at the neon ads blurring through the rain-streaked glass. She was running her thumb over the leather grip of her obsidian blade, her mind a chaotic storm. Her muscle memory had returned with a vengeance back at the club—she knew how to kill, how to move, how to survive—but the betrayal tasted like ash in her mouth. She had been sold out by someone she considered a comrade.

Beside her, Nikolai gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles looked like ivory. His jaw was set in a rigid, lethal line. He didn’t say a word, but the dashboard console was flashing red with encrypted notifications. He was already pulling the strings, setting the trap.

"There are only three," Elena said quietly, breaking the silence as the car descended into the underground garage of the Vance Syndicate Headquarters. "Three people who had access to my safe house codes."

"Marcus, Sofia, and Leo," Nikolai replied, his voice a low, dangerous growl. He killed the engine, the sudden silence of the garage echoing loudly. "Marcus controls our logistics and shipping lanes. Sofia runs our financial networks and black-market laundering. And Leo... Leo handles our internal security and counter-intelligence."

Elena unbuckled her harness, her eyes locking onto his silver ones. "Leo was the one who trained me. If he sold me out, he knew exactly how to bypass my personal defenses."

Nikolai reached over, his large hand wrapping around the back of her neck. He pulled her forward until her forehead was resting against his. His breath was warm, but his gaze was ice. "It doesn't matter who it is. The moment we walk through those elevator doors, you are no longer the broken girl from the slums. You are Shadow. My right hand. We walk in together, we watch them bleed information, and then we take their heads."

The physical closeness sent a spike of intense familiarity through Elena’s chest. Her heart hammered, a fierce, protective instinct wrapping around her soul. "Let's go," she whispered.

The top-floor boardroom of the Vance Spire was a masterpiece of cold, corporate luxury. A massive glass table sat in the center of the room, overlooking the sprawling, neon-lit skyline of the city.

When the private elevator doors chimed and slid open, the three high-ranking lieutenants of the Vance Syndicate were already waiting. They had been summoned on an emergency override protocol.

Marcus, a burly man covered in scars and wearing a heavy leather coat, was pacing by the window. Sofia, elegant and sharp in a tailored crimson suit, was calmly sipping an espresso. Leo, a younger, pale man with wire-rimmed glasses and a tablet in hand, sat perfectly still at the head of the table.

When Nikolai walked in, they all turned. But when Elena stepped out from behind him, dressed in her tactical harness with her twin obsidian blades visible at her hips, the entire room froze.

Sofia’s espresso cup clicked sharply against the glass table. Marcus stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening. Leo’s fingers hovered over his tablet, his expression unreadable behind his glasses.

"Boss," Marcus stammered, his eyes darting from Nikolai to Elena. "You... you found her? We thought the Iron Skulls liquidated her three months ago."

"Sit down," Nikolai commanded. He didn’t raise his voice, but the absolute, absolute authority in his tone made all three of them immediately take their seats.

Nikolai walked to the head of the table, but he didn't sit. He stood behind his chair, resting his hands on the leather back. Elena took her position right beside him, her arms crossed, her silver-flashing eyes scanning the three faces in front of her. She was looking for a twitch. A micro-expression. A bead of sweat.

"Tonight, Agent Shadow and I paid a visit to *The Neon Vein*," Nikolai began, his voice dangerously smooth. "We had a very enlightening conversation with a rat named Jax."

At the mention of Jax's name, Elena noticed Sofia’s elegant fingers tighten around her pen.

"Jax told us something interesting," Elena intercepted, stepping forward, her voice cutting through the room like a scalpel. "He told us the Iron Skulls didn't track me down three months ago. He said someone in this room handed over my clearance codes on a silver platter. Someone paid them ten million credits to fry my brain and dump me in the gutter."

"That's absurd!" Marcus roared, slamming his heavy fist onto the table. "We’ve bled for this syndicate! I’ve managed your shipping lines for ten years, Vance! I wouldn’t sell out one of our own to a street gang!"

"Calm down, Marcus," Sofia said, her voice dripping with calculated poise, though her eyes remained locked on Elena. "If there is a security breach, we need to investigate it logically. Leo, what do the internal logs say?"

Leo pushed his glasses up his nose, his fingers tapping his tablet. "I'm running a diagnostic on the encryption keys used three months ago. It takes time to bypass the scrambled firewalls, but—"

"Don't bother lying to them anymore, Leo," Elena interrupted suddenly.

The entire room went dead silent. Nikolai turned his head slightly, watching Elena with a raised eyebrow.

Leo looked up from his tablet, his expression perfectly calm. "What are you implying, Shadow? The neuro-wipe must have severely damaged your cognitive functions if you're throwing blind accusations."

"It's not a blind accusation," Elena said, a cold, ruthless smile spreading across her lips as she stepped toward him. "When I was in Jax's office, I remembered something. The night I was ambushed, I managed to cut my attacker before they injected me with the neuro-wipe. I used a specialized toxin on my blade—one that leaves a permanent, microscopic chemical burn on the skin. It takes months to heal."

Elena reached down, her movement a lightning-fast blur. Before Leo could react, she grabbed his left wrist and violently yanked his sleeve back.

There, etched into the pale skin of his forearm, was a jagged, discolored chemical scar.

Marcus gasped, instinctively reaching for his firearm. Sofia slid her chair back, her face turning pale.

Leo didn't panic. Instead, a low, mocking laugh escaped his lips. He looked past Elena, staring directly at Nikolai. "You always were too sentimental, Vance. Keeping her alive, chasing ghosts. The Iron Skulls were supposed to kill her, but they got greedy and kept her as a trophy in the slums. A sloppy mistake."

"Why?" Nikolai whispered. The sheer volume of his rage was making the glass table vibrate.

"Because you're soft!" Leo spat, his calm demeanor completely shattering into fanaticism. "The Vance Syndicate should be ruling this entire city, not just Sector 4! But you refuse to partner with the corporate tech-guilds. You refuse to let us expand! Elena was the only one keeping you grounded, the only one who supported your archaic morals. With her gone, I knew you'd lose your focus. I just didn't expect you to find her so fast."

Leo’s finger slammed down on a hidden button beneath the table.

**CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.**

The reinforced glass windows of the boardroom shattered inward as six heavily armed mercenaries, wearing Leo's personal security uniform, rappelled into the room from the roof.

"Kill them both!" Leo screamed, scrambling backward toward the elevator. "The syndicate belongs to me now!"

Chaos erupted in a heartbeat.

Marcus drew his weapon, firing at the mercenaries to protect Nikolai, while Sofia dove beneath the table for cover.

A mercenary aimed his automatic rifle directly at Nikolai’s chest. Elena didn't hesitate. Her muscle memory took complete control. She launched herself across the table, her obsidian daggers spinning in her grip. She sliced through the mercenary's rifle strap, kicked him squarely in the chest, and spun around, burying her second blade into the throat of another guard stepping out of the shadows.

Nikolai was a force of nature. He drew his custom handguns, executing two mercenaries with terrifying precision, his silver eyes flashing with unholy wrath.

But Leo was already inside the elevator, the steel doors beginning to close. He looked out at the c*****e, a smug, victorious grin on his face.

Elena caught his eye. The burning fury of her past and present self fused into a single, lethal directive. She sprinted across the blood-slicked floor, leaping over a corpse, and threw her right obsidian dagger with everything she had left.

The blade whistled through the air, flashing under the neon lights, and slammed deeply into Leo’s shoulder just a millisecond before the elevator doors clamped shut. A muffled scream echoed from inside the shaft as the elevator began its descent.

The room grew quiet again, save for the heavy breathing of the survivors and the wind howling through the broken windows.

Nikolai walked over to Elena, his trench coat stained with blood. He looked down at the empty elevator shaft, then turned to her, his hands reaching out to grip her face. His touch was fierce, possessive, and desperately relieved. He wiped a splash of blood from her cheek with his thumb.

"He's running to his corporate backers," Nikolai said, his voice a promise of absolute annihilation. "He thinks he can hide behind their tech-walls."

Elena reached up, placing her hand over his. Her mind was entirely whole now. The puzzle pieces had locked into place. She was Nikolai Vance's partner, his shadow, and his lover—and no one was going to take that from her again.

"Let him run," Elena whispered, her silver eyes glowing with a cold, terrifying light. "It just means we get to hunt him."