CAN'T HIDE IT

' TRIGGER CODES & DEAD EYES '

"Bigger than your daddy?" one asked, her voice sharp.

Hayamei looked her in the eye.

"He's not coming," she said. "He's already here."

⸻

They didn't gasp.

They didn't panic.

That's why she chose them.

"They're setting up close," Hayamei explained. "We've been prepping like this is some storm on the horizon. But it's raining now. We just ain't noticed the flood."

She tossed photos on the table—old ones of Zora, of Solène Reeves, of Monroe's surveillance captures.

"Someone near us is feeding them information. Could be small. Could be deep. But they know too much. They knew where Na'Nami went to school. They knew our routines."

"How you wanna handle it?" the nurse asked.

Hayamei didn't blink.

"We cut the leaks. Or we drown in 'em."

⸻

The next day, she and Ghost split up.

She went south into town, casually visiting everyone in her network—checking vibes, watching body language, noting who looked her in the eye and who didn't.

Ghost drove north, toward the edges—places where Zora's crew could've snuck through. Back roads, abandoned gas stations, motels that didn't ask for IDs.

They didn't talk during the sweep. Just synced their data every three hours.

By sunset, they met at the old laundromat Hayamei owned.

Ghost was already inside when she arrived, hands in his hoodie, a look on his face she hadn't seen in months.

"What is it?" she asked.

He nodded toward the back room.

She opened the door.

Inside sat a girl—maybe nineteen, twenty. Shaking. Pale. Familiar.

Hayamei stared at her. "That's—"

"Aria," Ghost said. "She's been working at the daycare with Na'Nami for three months."

Hayamei's heart dropped.

"She's one of Zora's runners," Ghost said.

⸻

They didn't hurt her.

Not yet.

But when Hayamei sat across from her and asked a simple question—"What do you know about me?"—the girl's answer told her everything.

"Enough to find you. But not enough to stop you."

Hayamei exhaled slowly.

"You were never supposed to be in this."

Aria nodded. "They said if I watched the kid, they'd pay off my brother's sentence. Said you were dangerous. Said you stole something from them."

Hayamei smiled bitterly.

"I didn't steal. I survived."

⸻

They let Aria go.

Not out of mercy—but strategy.

"Let her run back scared," Hayamei told Ghost. "Let them feel like they almost had us. Then we gut the foundation."

Ghost didn't smile—but he looked proud.

"You really turning into the thing they were scared you'd become."