Nicky Stack hated dead ends.
They smelled like wasted time and unfinished leverage.
Her father called it differently.
"Negative space," Mr. Stack said, studying the data wall in his private office. "What isn't there tells you more than what is."
Lena was negative space.
They had her education trail. Fragmented. Intentional gaps.
Her employment aliases—three confirmed, two suspected.
Financial ghosts. No fixed accounts. No permanent address.
But no Lena.
No current location. No habitual pattern. No digital shadow dense enough to grab.
"She knows how to disappear," Nicky said, pacing. "Or someone taught her."
Mr. Stack didn't answer immediately. He never did when a conclusion was still forming. He magnified one profile instead—an associate tag glowing quietly at the edge of the network map.
SELA SKYE.
Civilian. Clean record. Lena's younger sister. Predictable routes.
Predictable loyalty.
"People like Lena don't exist alone," Mr. Stack said at last. "They anchor somewhere. Emotionally, if nowhere else."
Nicky smiled.
"So we stop chasing the ghost and grab the string."
Sela's kidnapping was efficient.
No black vans. No masks. No spectacle.
A parking garage. Midday. A door that opened when it shouldn't have.
A hand at the elbow. A voice that sounded apologetic.
"This isn't about you," Nicky said as Sela was seated, restrained, unharmed but very aware. "But you're about someone who matters."
Sela denied everything at first.
That was expected.
They showed her nothing violent. No threats. Just photographs laid out calmly on a table.
Lena entering a building.
Lena leaving another.
Lena's reflection caught accidentally in a mirrored elevator wall.
"You know where she is," Nicky said softly. "Or you know how to reach her."
"I don't," Sela insisted, voice shaking now. "I swear."
Mr. Stack observed from behind the glass. He watched the microexpressions. The pauses. The way Sela avoided certain words rather than certain truths.
"She's protecting access, not location," he murmured into Nicky's earpiece. "She doesn't know where Lena is. She knows how Lena finds her."
Nicky exhaled, annoyed but impressed.
"So," she said aloud, folding her arms, "Plan B didn't take."
Sela looked between them, fear sharpening.
"What does that mean?"
Mr. Stack stepped into the room.
"It means," he said gently, "that pressure needs a different shape."
They didn't hurt Sela there.
That would be crude.
Instead, they moved her.
A safe house near a private medical facility. Clean. Monitored.
A place where accidents could be curated.
Mr. Stack explained it clinically, as if discussing logistics.
"If Lena cares," he said, "she will come when Sela is vulnerable—but alive. If she doesn't…" A pause. "Then Lena is already lost to us, and Sela becomes irrelevant."
Nicky didn't like irrelevance.
The break was precise.
A single bone. Clean fracture. No permanent damage. Painful enough. Serious enough.
Ambulance. Admitting physician already briefed. Records shaped carefully.
Sela screamed then.
Not from terror. From betrayal.
"You're monsters," she sobbed as they wheeled her away.
Nicky leaned close. "No. Monsters enjoy this. We're just thorough."
After she was admitted, Mr stack and Nick never left the hospital's walls. Their eyes were fixed towards Sela's room with their two bodyguards Walker and Andy beside them. They wanted to know who Lena was. They wanted to see how she looks like. They wanted to know what kind of creature she is and why there's havoc everywhere. Time kept spinning, and movements kept fading. Hunger had already striked them twice but they didn't move a step. They kept watching the door.
For about Five hours they were still watching but unfortunately, she never came.
"What is this? What the heck are we doing?" Nick angrily said pacing up and down.
" Come on, calm down baby girl. She'll be here soon." Mr Nick replied."
"For how long Daddy? I'm fucking tired of waiting. I should have stormed in there, and squeezed that mother fucker's neck. Anyway she almost died. Guess that would make things quite easy."
"Would you please stand still and stop pacing around like a mad woman. You clearly remind me of your Mom."
" Daad! It's not the time for jokes, I'm clearly out of controlled at this moment. Do you t1hink she will come?" She asked calmly.
" That's for sure. Sela is here sister and I know they have a strong bond. Like you and Dilan."
"Dilan's a freak. He's been away for long, actually when is he coming from his business trip?" She asked curiosity written all over her face.
" You've missed him right."
" So much. I wish that...
She was cut off by Andy who ushered them to move closer because some people were rushing towards Sela's room. Nicky, at that moment, knew Lena might be on her way to the hospital too.
"Do you think those two could be Sela's mother and younger brother?" She asked her Dad."
"Seems likely. But where could Lena be?"
"Then she might be around. I know she's coming because there is nothing to stop her from seeing her sister. She'll surely come."
"Nic! You sure?"
" A hundred and ten, just wait and watch."
After a few minutes, another figure arrived.
Not immediately.
A hooded figure at the hospital entrance. Masked concern. Too controlled. Too late.
Cameras caught her. Facial recognition didn't—she'd anticipated that—but behavioural markers did.
Mr Stack watched the footage with satisfaction.
"She stays two blocks east," he said after cross-referencing entry vectors and exit drift. "Upper floors. No fixed lease. Temporary shelter. She won't return tonight."
Nicky folded her arms, excitement simmering.
"So what's next?"
Mr Stack considered Sela's room on the monitor—guards just outside, heart rate stable, pain managed.
"We don't move yet," he said. "Lena is cautious. We let her think this was the peak."
"And Sela?" Walker asked.
"She remains an incentive," he replied evenly. "Untouched now. Safe enough. Valuable."
Nicky nodded, already planning.
"And Lena?"
Mr Stack's eyes hardened—not cruel, but exact.
"Now," he said, "we stop chasing her."
He shut down the screen.
"We let her come back."