"The deeper you walk into power, the lonelier it becomes."
--
Jayden Ochieng stood atop the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi's iconic tower, overlooking the city like a god peering down on mortals. The event was labeled a peace summit—yet war whispered in the wind.
He was dressed in a custom grey suit tailored with embedded nanoweave armor, a black tie, and obsidian cufflinks shaped like phoenix wings.
Suddenly, the lights flickered.
Then—gunfire.
A sniper's bullet cracked the glass just inches from his head. His guards moved too slow. Jayden ducked behind a marble pillar, cool as ice.
"Phase two," he murmured.
From the shadows behind the stage, Tielen emerged—her short black dress covering twin blades dipped in a paralytic poison. She moved like smoke, and within seconds, she had the sniper disarmed and dangling upside down from the rooftop rail.
Jayden walked toward the attacker.
"You aimed at the wrong legacy."
The sniper gasped. "It was… from someone close. She said you'd never suspect her."
Jayden narrowed his eyes. "She?"
---
Meanwhile, in a villa draped in vines and secrecy, The Crimson Lady removed her veil before a flickering candle. Her real name?
Elyra Njeri.
Once the personal assassin of Jayden's father, she had vanished after Bernardo's staged death. Her orders had been clear: train Otieno in silence, mold him into a weapon to punish the world that forgot him.
But now, something in her expression cracked.
"She called herself 'The True Flame.'" Elyra whispered into a device. "But… I see it now. Jayden… he's the fire they couldn't put out."
---
Back at the underground base beneath Thika Superhighway—Jayden stood before his circle: Tielen, Jeff, Linet, Wendy, and Maggy.
"I have one question," Jayden said coldly. "Who leaked my schedule?"
Everyone looked around. Tension.
Maggy stepped forward. "Jayden… it was Mariana."
Silence.
Linet's brow furrowed. "De Luca's daughter?"
"She planted a listening device in your wineglass during the festival," Maggy said softly. "She's working with Otieno."
Jayden exhaled, disappointment flickering behind his calm eyes.
"Then make sure she disappears... artistically."
---
In a high-level meeting among world elites via holographic projectors, Jayden Ochieng introduced a new logo—half-phoenix, half-crown—burning across a virtual skyline.
"I won't wait for kingdoms to fall," he said. "I'll build my own on top of their ashes."
---