Chapter 11: The Only Weakness
Leena returned to the hospital just before dawn.
The city was quiet at that hour—washed clean by night, streets empty, lights dim. She slipped back into the ward without drawing attention, her black hoodie pulled low, her steps light and controlled.
To anyone watching, she looked the same.
But inside, her mind was sharp.
Too sharp to rest.
She sat beside her mother's bed and watched her breathe.
In.
Out.
Steady.
Safe.
Only then did the tension in her shoulders ease.
The ambush replayed itself in her mind—not the fight, but the realization that came after.
If they had attacked her, she could handle it.
Seven men had proven that.
But if they had gone after her mother—
Leena's fingers curled slowly into a fist.
That thought alone made her chest tighten.
"This is it," she whispered.
"My only weakness."
Her mother wasn't just someone she loved.
She was leverage.
And anyone who understood that could destroy everything Leena had built.
She couldn't allow that.
Leena reached for her laptop.
The screen flickered to life, casting a pale glow across the room. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for half a second—then moved.
Fast.
Precise.
Cold.
She started with the man she had left trembling in the alley.
The fat leader.
Phone number.
She accessed call logs through indirect routes—cell tower pings, discarded burner data, corrupted billing nodes. The number appeared, highlighted in red.
Step one.
She traced it backward.
The leader hadn't acted alone.
He never did.
The number led to a local gangster—mid-level, violent, greedy. Known for outsourcing dirty work. Leena dug deeper.
Money transfers.
Encrypted messages.
Voice fragments.
Another number surfaced.
Then another.
A chain.
Each link cleaner than the last.
Each hand farther from the crime.
She followed it patiently, ignoring false trails, bypassing firewalls that would have stopped most professionals cold.
Hours passed.
The sky outside brightened.
Nurses changed shifts.
Doctors made rounds.
Leena didn't move.
Her world narrowed to code, data, and patterns.
Finally—
The chain ended.
One number.
No name.
No personal data.
No location.
But something else was there.
Corporate routing.
Private satellite relay.
Encrypted enterprise-grade security.
Leena's eyes narrowed.
She cross-referenced it.
Once.
Twice.
Then the result appeared.
SHEP CORPORATION
Her breath slowed.
So this was the hand behind it.
Not a gangster.
Not a coincidence.
Not random curiosity.
A multinational corporation.
Power.
Money.
Influence.
Leena leaned back in her chair, staring at the screen.
The name echoed in her mind.
Shep Corporation
Leena closed the laptop slowly.
The screen went dark, but the name remained burned into her thoughts.
Shep Corporation.
For the first time since everything began, she didn't feel anger surge forward. No rush. No impulse to strike back immediately.
Only restraint.
This wasn't Uncle John.
This wasn't street thugs.
This wasn't something she could crush overnight.
This was a giant.
A corporation with reach that stretched into governments, intelligence agencies, and black projects that never made the news.
Leena understood one thing clearly—
If she confronted them now, she would lose.
Not because she was weak.
But because she was alone.
She exhaled slowly and rested her elbows on her knees, fingers interlaced.
"Not yet," she murmured to herself.
Power wasn't just strength.
It was timing.
She needed to disappear.
To grow.
To recover quietly.
And more importantly—
She needed an ally Shep Corporation could not touch.
A name surfaced in her mind without hesitation.
James.
To the outside world, he was simply a high-ranking IB officer.
Respected.
Feared.
Untouchable.
But Leena knew better.
Ghost Prison didn't answer to law.
John's erasure didn't follow procedure.
Files sealed beyond national clearance didn't appear for ordinary men.
James existed in a space above rules.
Leena reopened her laptop.
This time, she didn't rush.
She searched for James the way one searches for shadows—by studying what reacted to him.
Government databases.
Defense contracts.
Judicial anomalies.
Unexplained resignations.
Cases that vanished overnight.
She followed patterns, not records.
What she found unsettled her.
Ministers avoided his name.
Senior officers redirected questions.
Political families backed down from battles they were winning—right after private meetings.
There were no scandals tied to him.
No accusations.
No enemies willing to speak.
Fear leaves traces.
And James left nothing.
That was the most terrifying part.
Leena leaned back slowly.
"So even you're hiding," she thought.
She tried deeper access.
Restricted intelligence forums.
Dark-net political leaks.
Foreign surveillance mirrors.
Nothing.
James wasn't erased like John.
He was protected.
Or worse—
He didn't exist fully in any one system.
Leena closed her eyes briefly.
Most people in power ruled because of money.
Some ruled because of influence.
James ruled because no one knew how far his reach went.
And that made him the only person Shep Corporation would hesitate to provoke.
Her gaze drifted to her mother again.
Lussy's face was peaceful, lines of pain softened by sleep. The machines hummed quietly, unaware of the war unfolding around them.
Leena's jaw tightened.
"I won't rush," she promised silently.
"I won't expose myself."
"I'll grow until no one can touch you."
She looked back at the dark laptop screen
She looked back at the dark laptop screen.
Then something clicked.
A memory.
The park.The lake.A child slipping beneath the water.A mother screaming.
James.
He had been there.Not as an IB officer.Not as a man of power.
But as someone who owed her a favor.
Leena's fingers tightened slightly.
"A debt," she whispered.
She hesitated.
James wasn't someone you contacted lightly.Calling him meant stepping onto a path that could never be erased.
Still—
She had no better option.
Slowly, deliberately, Leena picked up her phone.
The number wasn't saved.
She had memorized it.
She stared at the screen for a long second—
Then pressed call.
Delhi.
A secure conference room deep inside a government complex.
Soundproof walls.
A long table surrounded by powerful men—ministers, intelligence heads, senior officials.
At the center sat James.
Calm.Silent.Observing.
A senior official was speaking.
"Our assessment of external threats suggests—"
Ring.
The sound sliced through the room.
The official stopped mid-sentence.
"Whose phone is that?" he snapped. "I clearly instructed—"
Ring.
Again.
Eyes moved around the table.
Then—inevitably—toward James.
James glanced at his phone.
Unknown number.
He didn't look annoyed.
He didn't apologize.
He stood up.
The room went still.
The official who had been angry opened his mouth—
Then closed it.
James raised one hand.
"One minute," he said.
Not a request.
A statement.
He stepped aside and answered.
"Yes."
Leena's voice came through, steady but low.
"it's Leena."
A brief pause.
Recognition flickered in James's eyes.
"You shouldn't be calling this number," he said calmly.
"I know," Leena replied. "That's why I am."
Silence stretched.
James turned slightly toward the window.
"Speak," he said. "Briefly."
Leena chose her words carefully.
"I need help," she said."Not money. Not power."
James's expression did not change.
"Help is vague," he replied. "Be specific."
"I need protection," Leena said. "For my mother."
James didn't answer immediately.
"From whom?" he asked.
Leena paused.
She did not say the name.
"People I can't confront yet," she replied.
Another silence.
James's voice lowered.
"You're asking me to step into something without context."
"I'm asking you to trust me," Leena said quietly. "The same way I trusted you to save that child."
That landed.
James closed his eyes briefly.
Then—
"No," he said.
Leena's heart tightened—but she didn't interrupt.
"I don't make decisions like this over a phone call," James continued."And I don't move blind."
He turned slightly, voice firm.
"If you want my involvement—"
A pause.
"We meet."
Leena exhaled slowly.
"Face to face," James added.
"Yes," Leena replied without hesitation.
"Tomorrow," he said."Location will be sent to you."
The line went dead.
James returned to the conference table.
No one spoke.
No one asked questions.
The official who had earlier shown anger avoided his gaze entirely.
James sat down calmly.
"Continue," he said.
The meeting resumed.
Back in the hospital room, Leena lowered her phone.
Her heartbeat was steady.
James hadn't agreed.
But he hadn't refused either.
That was more than enough.
She looked at her mother sleeping peacefully.
"Just a little longer," Leena whispered.
Outside, unseen forces were beginning to shift—
And for the first time,
Leena was stepping directly into their world.