Location: Ilupeju Apartment Complex – Inside Tega's Flat
Time: 2:39 a.m.
The lights were off. Curtains drawn. Rain drizzled against the windows like a soft warning.
Tega paced the room, phone to his ear, shirt soaked in sweat. He wasn't made for pressure. Never had been. He moved burner phones, passed messages, and collected money. That was it.
But now he was hearing things — about surveillance, about Reign being hunted, about names being pulled into conversations with people too powerful to name.
"I didn't sign up for this," he whispered into the phone.
The voice on the other end was calm. Soft. Controlled.
"You don't get to sign out."
Click.
Tega dropped the phone and sat on the floor, shaking.
Outside his window, a red dot blinked briefly, then disappeared into the rain.
Location: Safehouse War Room – 6:15 a.m.
Dave sat shirtless, eyes hollow from no sleep. His knuckles were taped. Fresh scars lined his ribs. On the screen before him: maps, names, faces — all color-coded like a criminal empire blueprint.
Tessa entered with black coffee and a file. No words were exchanged. Just a long look.
"Two of our mules disappeared in the last 48 hours," she said quietly.
"Tega's gone dark. Lang hasn't checked in."
Jamzy stormed in a second later, rifle strapped across his chest.
"Someone's feeding info to the other side. And this ain't street rats. This is military shit."
Dave exhaled slowly.
"Alright."
"Then it's time we start bleeding out the rats."
He turned to Tessa. "Call in everything we've buried. Names. Logs. Videos. If someone wants to play chess… then we'll flip the board."
Location: Abandoned School Building – Somewhere in Ajegunle
Time: 7:43 a.m.
Three men sat tied to plastic chairs, heads covered in black sacks. Blood pooled beneath them.
Dave stood in front of them. Calm. Steady. Cold.
He pulled the sack from the first one.
"Lang," he said, almost disappointed. "You've been with me since the block days."
Lang's face was swollen, lips cut. He tried to speak, but Dave raised a hand.
"Don't. I already know."
He turned to Jamzy. Nodded once.
CRACK.
One clean shot to the head.
No hesitation.
The second man pissed himself through the sack.
"Now," Dave said, turning toward him.
"Let's talk."
Location: Somewhere in Victoria Island – Inside an armored SUV
A heavily accented Russian voice echoed from the backseat.
"He's too volatile."
"That's what makes him dangerous," said the Nigerian in the driver's seat. "But also useful… if controlled."
"Can he be controlled?"
Silence.
"We're not here to control him," the Nigerian said eventually.
"We're here to break him."
Location: Underground Storage – Dave's Private Vault
Tessa stood alone, staring at photos pinned to the wall.
Razor. Madu. The Round. Political elites. All connected by red string. But one string led off the board.
To a face she didn't recognize.
A woman. Dark eyes. Slavic cheekbones. Scar near her chin.
She picked up a file with a single label:
"Vera. Ghost Division. Kyiv."
Her stomach dropped.
"Dave…" she whispered to herself.
"What the hell have you stepped into?"
Location: Makoko – Floating House on the Lagoon
Time: 8:11 a.m.
The house was built on stilts, wobbling with every wave. A place forgotten by city maps — perfect for disappearing.
Tega sat at the edge of the wooden floor, wrists tied, lips busted, heart racing. Two men stood behind him with machetes. Silent. Dead-eyed.
And across from him… sat Vera.
No introduction. No threats. Just silence. And those eyes — like glass knives. She took a sip from a black mug. No sugar. No milk. No warmth.
"Why did you betray him?" she asked.
Tega sobbed. "I didn't… I didn't know who I was talking to. I just thought—"
"You thought you could survive this war by switching sides?"
She leaned in slightly. Her accent was smooth but her tone was ice.
"Reign is not your enemy, Tega. He is your anchor. Without him, you drown."
She stood.
"But anchors… can also be used to drag people under."
She turned to the men.
"Let him bleed a little."
Location: Downtown Lagos – Rooftop Overlooking Obalende
Jamzy sat with a sniper rifle. Sweat rolled down his temple. Beside him, Karma tracked movements through binoculars.
"Two men just left Madu's compound," she said. "Not police. Military gear. Foreign tattoos."
"We got names?"
"Not yet. But they're moving toward the East side."
Jamzy cracked his neck. "Let's follow. If this is what it looks like, we need to call Dave. Now."
Location: Safehouse – Underground Room
Dave stood shirtless in front of the mirror, taping a blade to his inner arm. His chest was littered with new bruises. He looked older now. Harder.
Tessa stormed in, holding the Vera file.
"We have a problem."
She dropped the file in front of him. He scanned through the contents — names, photos, operations. Cold war hits. Foreign kills.
"Who the fuck is this?"
"Vera. Eastern European black ops. Ex-GRU. Last spotted in Syria. She's not just any merc. She's the kind they call when they need people erased quietly."
Dave's lips pressed into a thin line.
"She working with Madu?"
"No. She's working above Madu. He's just a puppet now."
Dave turned to the wall, fists clenched.
"Then I need to stop playing this game like it's still street level."
"If they brought a ghost to hunt me…" he paused.
"I'll become the devil they weren't ready for."
Location: Parking Garage – Obalende
Time: 2:16 p.m.
A black car pulled in, lights off.
Inside: a councilman's fixer. He carried a briefcase. Nervous. Sweating.
As he stepped out, a voice echoed from the shadows.
"Looking for me?"
The fixer spun — but it was too late.
One silenced shot to the knee. He dropped, screaming.
Dave stepped out of the shadows, pistol in hand.
"You've been laundering Round money through NGOs. You thought I wouldn't find out?"
"Please, I'm just a—"
CRACK.
Another shot. This time, to the briefcase. Exploded open — stacks of euros spilled out.
Dave crouched beside him.
"I'm not killing you."
"I'm keeping you alive long enough to send a message."
He pulled out his phone. Snapped a photo.
Then texted it directly to Councilman Madu:
"Tell Vera I'm not hiding. Let's talk soon."
Location: Unknown
A woman in a black coat stood by the window of a high-rise apartment. She stared at the photo on her burner phone.
Vera smiled faintly.
"So the boy wants to play."
She turned to a case on the bed. Opened it.
Inside — silenced pistols. Poison vials. Disguise kits.
She picked up a blade with Russian engravings and whispered:
"Let's dance, Reign."
Location: War Room – Dave's Safehouse, Yaba
Time: 6:03 p.m.
The air in the room was tense. You could cut it with a razor blade.
Karma stood in front of a projected map, clicking through red-marked zones — places Dave once controlled but now faced serious threat: Mushin, Surulere, parts of Ikoyi. All compromised.
"We've lost three supply chains in two days," she said.
"All clean hits. Silent. Professional."
Jamzy clenched his jaw. "You mean ghost hits."
Tessa crossed her arms. "Vera."
Dave sat at the far end of the table, not speaking. His eyes were locked on the map, but his mind was spinning faster than the room knew.
Finally, he spoke. Calm. Quiet. Deadly.
"We're not reacting anymore."
"We're hunting."
Location: Old Steel Factory – Shomolu
Ten of Dave's lieutenants gathered under the rusted beams of an abandoned factory. They looked like street soldiers — bandanas, blades, pistols — but every one of them was picked by Dave personally.
He stood before them like a general before war.
"You're not just hustlers anymore. You're command."
"There's a new player in the field. She's not Round. She's not police. She's foreign, trained, and sent to erase me."
The soldiers exchanged glances. Some tensed. Some grinned.
Dave pulled out a tablet, tapped it. The projector lit up the wall behind him — Vera's face. Her name. Her known hits. Her history.
"This is not about turf. It's about survival."
"But we don't just survive…"
"We dominate."
The room roared.
Location: Mainland Police HQ – Interrogation Room
Councilman Madu slammed his fist on the table. Blood was on his sleeve. He had personally "questioned" two officers that morning for leaking Reign's surveillance gaps.
A junior officer walked in, dropped a folder. "You're gonna want to see this."
Inside were photos of Vera with Nigerian intelligence assets. Bank logs showing discreet international transfers. A list of vehicles tagged in Dave's zones — all military-grade, unregistered.
Madu frowned.
"She's going off-book…"
He looked up. "Get me my cleaner. Now."
Location: Vera's Apartment – Victoria Island
She sat on the windowsill, sipping black coffee, eyes fixed on a screen showing live footage of Dave's safehouse exterior.
Beside her, an opened briefcase displayed forged documents — passports, police ID tags, even a doctor's uniform.
She whispered to herself in Russian.
"Soon, Reign. I want to see what's beneath that armor."
Location: Dave's Apartment – Later That Night
Dave was alone.
No crew. No noise. Just silence and the hum of the city.
He pulled out an old box. Inside: his first phone, a lighter, and a worn photo of his mom and dad. A piece of his soul, buried under violence and power.
He stared at the photo.
"I never asked for this…"
"But if this is the road… then I'll walk it with fire."
He lit the photo.
Let it burn.
Watched it until it turned to ash.
Location: Inside a Moving SUV – Mainland Expressway
Time: 10:48 p.m.
Tessa drove in silence. Beside her, Karma scrolled through surveillance footage on a tablet.
They were tracking a ghost, but it felt like chasing smoke.
"Vera's not just killing our boys," Karma muttered. "She's using them. One by one. Breaking the line from the inside."
Tessa nodded grimly. "She's smart. Surgical. The question is—who's next?"
She stopped talking as the screen froze on a frame.
Lang.
Alive. Standing in an alley. Shaking hands with a man in military camo.
"That can't be—"
"Dave killed him."
"Or thought he did…"
They shared a look.
"We need to show him."
Location: Safehouse, Yaba – 1:22 a.m.
Dave stared at the screen. Frozen. Not from fear — but fury.
"He played me," he whispered. "He let me pull the trigger, knowing it wouldn't end him."
Tessa leaned forward. "This means Vera has someone inside. Someone close."
Dave slowly turned toward the team.
His eyes landed on Sully — a quiet kid, barely twenty, always in the background.
"Where were you last night?" Dave asked.
Sully swallowed hard. "Boss… I—"
"You hesitated."
"That's all I need."
He snapped his fingers.
Karma moved. One hit to the neck. Sully dropped. Alive. Unconscious.
"Lock him in the black room," Dave growled.
"We bleed the truth out of him later."
Location: Abandoned Warehouse – Apapa Port
Lang stood in the middle of the warehouse, cleaned up, dressed sharp, moving crates like he owned the place.
Vera watched from the shadows, arms folded.
"He still thinks you're dead," she said in a near-whisper.
Lang grinned. "Good. Means I can watch him burn without blinking."
She stepped closer. "Do you hate him?"
"No," Lang replied, staring out into the dark.
"I just stopped believing in gods that bleed."
Location: Dave's Safehouse – Underground Bunker Room
Karma walked in with a flash drive.
"This was delivered outside our compound. No trace. No cameras caught it."
Dave took it.
Slotted it in.
A video played.
It showed a boy — Tega's little brother — tied to a chair.
Bloodied. Bruised.
Vera's voice narrated calmly:
"Your kingdom is cracking, David. Not because you are weak… but because you trust too much."
"I don't want your streets."
"I want your soul to rot slowly."
The video ended with the boy screaming off-camera.
Dave stood in silence.
Then he walked out, grabbed his pistol, and headed for the black room.
Tessa blocked his path.
"Don't lose yourself."
"I already did," Dave said, cold. "Now I'm just clearing space for what's next."
Location: Hidden Facility – Lekki
Inside a concrete lab built underground, Vera met with a masked man. Tall. Military bearing.
He spoke in French-accented English.
"Is Reign breaking?"
"Not yet," Vera said, tightening a strap on her vest. "But soon."
She loaded a round into a pistol, chambering it slowly.
"Once he cracks… Lagos falls."