Chapter 1

My name is Nathaniel Lester, and I am a "legacy" in The Directorate.

It's a secret agency that doesn't exist on any official records. My father was the legendary agent "Ghost," the best they ever had. He was supposed to be dead.

They wanted me to follow his path, to climb the ladder to a leadership position, but I refused.

I chose to stay a field agent, a lower-status role, because I wanted to stay with my wife, Sylvia.

She was a high-ranking handler in the agency, and I loved her more than any legacy. That was my choice, and it was the choice that broke me.

The mission in Eastern Europe was supposed to be a standard data extraction.

It went wrong from the start. A rival mercenary group hit us hard and fast. They knew our exact position, our tactics, everything. I was captured.

They tortured me for information. They wanted the "Rosetta Key," a piece of encrypted data that could unlock our entire intelligence network.

It was hidden in a subdermal implant in my arm.

They didn't ask nicely. They took a scalpel and cut it out of me. Then, they broke both of my legs and left me in a ditch to die.

My wife, Sylvia, led the rescue. A daring solo mission, they called it. She found me, stabilized me, and brought me back to a secure Directorate medical facility. She was my hero.

I was floating in a sea of painkillers, drifting in and out of consciousness.

The door to my room was slightly ajar, and I could hear voices in the hallway.

It was Sylvia and Director Clark, my father's old partner, the man who had been like a second father to me.

"Sylvia, using the mercenaries to set up Nathaniel... maybe we went too far," Director Clark said, his voice heavy with something that sounded like guilt.

Sylvia's reply was cold, like ice water.

"Caleb needs the Rosetta Key to pass his final evaluation and take over the European desk. It's the only way."

She paused.

"As for Nathaniel? He has me. That's enough."

The world stopped. The pain in my legs was nothing compared to the complete shattering of my reality.

My ambush, the torture, the key being carved from my flesh-it was all a setup.

Orchestrated by my wife and my mentor. All for a rookie named Caleb.

My heart, which had survived the ambush, broke right there in that sterile hospital room.

I closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep, as the two people I trusted most in the world walked away, leaving me with the ruins of my life.

From that moment on, I knew I was alone.

A storm of rage started to build inside me, a cold, hard knot of fury that promised revenge. They thought they had broken me. They were wrong. They had just created a monster.