She told herself it was information, not commitment. She told herself she was choosing with her eyes open. Six weeks into Zayan's Bangkok network, Anika Sharma is mapping vulnerabilities, dismantling inefficiencies, and discovering that the most dangerous thing in the room is not Zayan — it is the version of herself that is very good at this. Then she finds the fault line: someone inside the empire is making a play. Someone Zayan trusts completely. And Anika, the woman who was never supposed to be here, is the only one who can see it — which means she is also the only one they need to silence.