“Follow me!” Joko shouted, pulling Indah toward the dark back door of the bar. The sharp aroma of cooking spices and kitchen smoke stung their noses. “There’s a back alley leading beneath the market.”
They slipped through a narrow maze between stacks of fish baskets and discarded cardboard boxes. Police sirens began to echo in the distance, mingling with the roar of approaching engines. The Nine wasn’t playing around. They had activated their entire local network.
“How many did they send?” Indah asked as she leaped over a puddle of filthy water.
“Team Alfa. Three units. Four people each,” Joko replied between breaths. “Plus intelligence and surveillance teams already spread throughout the city. They don’t want any witnesses.”
Indah nodded. She knew Team Alfa. It was an elite unit specialized in elimination missions targeting assets deemed “rogue.” They were the best of the best—after her.
They emerged from a narrow underground tunnel directly into the night market, which had just closed. Leftover food littered the ground, while extinguished lanterns hung limply overhead. Suddenly, the heavy sound of footsteps came from the alley ahead.
“They’ve blocked this route,” Joko whispered in panic.
Indah didn’t panic. Her eyes narrowed, her ears catching every detail of the sound. “Team Alfa doesn’t hide. They’ll attack head-on.”
Sure enough, four heavily built men in black tactical uniforms appeared, armed with MP5 assault rifles. Night-vision goggles covered their eyes, making them look like ghosts.
“Nightingale,” one of them hissed, his voice distorted by his internal comm-link. “Go home. We don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’ll be the ones getting hurt, not me,” Indah replied, her voice calm but deadly.
She leaped—not toward the enemy, but toward a pile of wooden tables and scattered plastic chairs. With a swift kick, she knocked the tables down, creating an instant barrier. Joko crouched behind it.
Bullets flew, ripping through the wooden tables. Indah didn’t use her pistol. She drew her karambit again. This time, she would let them remember why they feared Nightingale.
She moved like lightning. Sliding beneath the first spray of bullets, she lunged at one of the agents. The man raised his rifle, but Indah was already too close. Her karambit slashed swiftly, cutting the tendons in the agent’s wrist. His rifle fell, followed by a stifled cry. Indah spun and kicked the agent in the head, knocking him unconscious.
The other three agents reacted quickly. They spread out, trying to surround Indah. But Indah was the product of relentless training, a killer who knew every gap in the human defense. She used her surroundings. She kicked a fruit basket at one agent, then vaulted over another agent’s head and landed behind him.
Slash!
The blade pierced the agent’s shoulder joint, making him scream in pain. Blood spattered the ground. The last two agents hesitated. They had heard the legend of Nightingale, but seeing her in action was something else entirely. The speed, strength, and terrifying precision.
Indah threw her karambit at the third agent. The blade sank into his thigh, sending him sprawling. Then she took the pistol from the unconscious agent and aimed it at the last one.
“Want to know why you always lose to me?” Indah said, staring coldly into the agent’s eyes. “Because I never play fair.”
BANG!
The bullet struck the camera on the agent’s helmet, destroying his comm-link and vision. The agent screamed in pain, his eyes blinded by shards of the lens. Indah didn’t kill them. She incapacitated them, leaving a message.
“It’s over,” Indah said, approaching Joko, who was still trembling. “Now give me a safe route out of the city. We have work to do.”
Joko stared at Indah in awe, his eyes still wide as he took in the chaos she had left behind. “You... you’re a killing machine.”
“I’m Nightingale,” Indah replied, wiping the blood from her karambit with a piece of cloth. “And they just woke up the wrong monster.”
Joko quickly activated his tablet. “There’s a cave along the coast, thirty kilometers north. There’s a small boat hidden there. I’ll give you the coordinates. From there, we can head to a more remote island. I’ll start hacking those files as soon as we get there.”
Indah watched the dawn sky begin to brighten. In the distance, more sirens started drawing closer. The fight wasn’t over. She knew this was only the beginning. The hunt for her had intensified, and she had to move faster, think smarter. In her hand, Professor Hendra’s flash drive felt heavy, carrying the weight of a truth that would change everything. Nightingale’s Cradle was waiting.