LOG 04 — The Second Abduction

02:10.

I wasn’t on-site yet.

But I could feel it.

The tempo had changed.

Not faster.

Different.

The call came while I was reading Chang Hsin-Yan’s profile summary.

Thin paper.

Few words.

But she had already done something important—

She turned a person
into a system.

“Second one,” the duty officer said.

I didn’t respond.

“Tech park. Alexis Tech.”

Pause.

“Target missing.”

I checked the time.

02:10.

Too fast.

She had just predicted it.

And it happened.

When I arrived, the entire building was lit.

Not safe light.

Failure light.

White.
Harsh.
Surgical.

Like an operating theatre.

But no one was in control.

B2 basement.

First perimeter set.

Second incomplete.

People everywhere.

Noise everywhere.

But at the center—

silence.

The first thing I felt was simple:

Something invisible had just happened here.

“Timeline?” I asked.

“02:08 — comms drop.”

“02:09 — power switch anomaly.”

“02:09:30 — external write detected.”

“02:10—”

He hesitated.

“Target gone.”

Thirty seconds.

Not three minutes.

Thirty.

“CCTV?”

“Looped.”

“How long?”

“Less than a minute.”

“Enough.”

Inside the server room, everything was still running.

Cooling stable.

Lights blinking.

Systems alive.

But something—

was missing.

Logs filled the screens.

Red.
Yellow.
Flowing.

But not chaotic.

That was the problem.

“This wasn’t intrusion,” I said.

They looked at me.

“This was access.”

I pointed at the logs.

“He didn’t break in.”

“He walked through.”

Silence.

Then realization.

Every system—

access control,
tracking,
power,
backup—

was shut down in sequence.

Like lights.

One by one.

“Vehicle?” I asked.

“Maintenance unit exited at 02:11.”

“Credentials valid.”

“Now?”

“Fake.”

Good.

“Phone?”

“Last ping here.”

“Then gone.”

Not off.

Not dead.

Gone.

“His machine?”

The tech pulled up a trace.

“There’s a deletion.”

“What kind?”

“Offshore audit files.”

“Port systems.”

“Seal vulnerabilities.”

That was enough.

Now both cases aligned.

First one—

clean extraction.

Second one—

clean extraction
plus system suppression.

They weren’t just taking people.

They were—

turning off the world around them.

I stepped out.

Looked at the building.

Too bright.

No shadows.

A corporate executive approached.

Voice low. Urgent.

“This cannot go public.”

“We’re listed.”

“If the market reacts—”

I cut him off.

“A man is gone.”

He froze.

“This isn’t a system issue,” I said.

“This system was used.”

He had no reply.

I made the call.

“Expand the list.”

Silence.

“You’re sure?”

“Real estate.”

“Tech.”

“Transport.”

“Finance.”

“Energy.”

“Anyone valuable.”

“List them.”

Pause.

“You think there’ll be another?”

I looked at the city.

“Not think.”

“Soon.”

I ended the call.

That was the moment it locked in.

This wasn’t kidnapping.

This was extraction.

Selection.
Removal.
Transfer.

People were just one type of asset.

Behind me, a screen flickered.

Brief.

Almost nothing.

But I saw it.

A fragment.

Not code.

Not log.

A signature.

I didn’t say anything.

Not yet.

But I knew—

this wasn’t built for us.

It was built for them.

A system behind the system.

Later, we would name it.

Kastrioti Zogu.

The Ghost.

But that night—

I understood something simpler.

Sun Yi—

was not ransom.

He was a key.

And the door—

was already open.