Her phone buzzed with a message. “Eko compromised. Meet me at Club Onyx at midnight. Come alone.”

Eight hours later, she pulled the front hem of her dress down and stared at the crowd of people requesting entry into the famous club. “Why did Kofi even want to meet here?” She asked herself for the hundredth time, before moving forward.

As soon as she got to the entrance, she slipped the bouncer a black card. His sharp breath was like music to her ears, and she smiled over her shoulder before sauntering into the dimly lit club.

Less than two minutes in, a number of hands had already grappled at her body, trying to find a way to dance with her. That night, she was a feral beauty and she knew it. Long dark hair that curled around her shoulders, unending legs that fit well into her black stilettos, and a sparkling red dress. Still, it was a ploy to make herself noticeable so when a familiar voice whispered into her ears, “You clean up well,” she shook her head with a smile.

Turning around, she followed her cousin's steps, ignoring everything else as his message filtered into her mind again. Never mind that she spent hours trying to decrypt the message, it was the words that sent shivers down her spine. A great part of her life's work was ‘Eko’ and if it entered the wrong hands…well there was no telling what would happen. Secondly, she had a suspicion as to who had done that, and –

“In case you're wondering, it's the Shadow Broker.” Bingo. Her face turned ashen as she stared at him.

“What? How did he get access to it?”

Kofi shrugged and stared at her. “You need to stop him, before the government finds out. We'll be in trouble if that happens.”

“Like I don't know,” she paused and turned away. “Eko is…everything I have. I can't lose it.”

“What about me?” Kofi’s face was blank, but she knew him well enough to see the nerve she struck. Though her cousin was a big shot in the hacking community, he still obsessed over family. With a resigned sigh, she put her hands on his shoulder.

“I need to go. Take care of her.”

His face fell even more. “Zeeza, just be safe.”

She stifled a smile as her name rolled off his tongue. To everyone else, she was Zero. Brilliant, reclusive, and just a little bit crazy. For ten years, she had kept that reputation, working behind the scenes as a digital forensic officer, and it had been fun. Up until now.

Zero was already on a call by the time she got home. “Do you have anything new on Shadow Broker?”

For several minutes, her colleague divulged nothing new. Her guy was a master hacker on the dark net, specializing in selling corporate secrets and federal weaponry databases. For years, he had slipped through their fingers, always one step ahead.

“...also, he left a message again,” there was a pause. “The same one.” He added, before sending an image.

“Catch me if you can, Ze.”

Zero clutched her chest. Somewhere deep inside her, she sensed Shadow Broker knew her true identity. And that meant only one thing. He was too close for comfort.

After dropping the call, she logged into the Eko platform. She had created the beauty in the middle of a bad breakup, trying to find out the details of her ex-boyfriend and his family to punish them. She did that, but also ended up optimizing the page and creating a national identity database.

The addresses, contact details and bank details of every Nigerian citizen over 18 was there, and she was planning to use it for the upcoming consensus next month. But if Shadow got his hands fully on it, there was no doubt in her mind that he would make millions of Nigerians broke. She couldn't let that happen.

She glanced at the front page, trying hard to ignore the pop-up on the left hand corner. He was frantically trying to get into the system, so she installed a spyware into the platform that Shadow would most likely notice.

Half an hour later, a message popped up in her chatroom. “Did u rlly thk it wld b tat easy to get me?”

She hated how he texted like he was paying the system for every letter he used. Still, she responded. “What do you want?”

“U kno. Evrythn. At my feet.”

To everyone else, Shadow was a conceited, arrogant man who wanted power and fame but to Zero, he was a child. Needy, desperate, and a bit clingy. His need for attention made her gag.

She was about to reply when the pop-up caught her eye again. Just at the bottom, there was a symbol. Zero wore her glasses and squinted at the screen, allowing a small smile to escape her lips.

Shadow was using Metastock. She quickly minimized the chat window and logged into her anonymous account, searching for recent activity. Just like she suspected, there were a lot of accounts currently active. It never ceased to amaze her how many hackers were in Nigeria, just waiting for the right moment to seize information.

Zero scanned through the list before going back to the chat. “So why Eko? Leave my stuff out of your quest for power.”

Shadow replied half a a second later. “Y nt Eko? It's one of d bst thngs nw.”

She hissed and ran through their previous chats, noting down every time he was working on something and comparing it to the active accounts on Metastock. Soon, she found a pattern and penned three addresses. All had been active in the past six months, which was when Shadow came back from his year-long hiatus.

They were extremely encrypted, but only one had the tell-tale signs of being Shadow's. The link had been shortened by four extra letters. Her smile widened, and she quickly typed a message to her colleague.

“He's using Metastock, and I've gotten the address. I'm sending you the details, so work on it.”

Now, they had to de-encrypt the address and find where it was connected from. That was the hard part, and the stage she had never been able to pass. Shadow always got wind of her plans and by the time they finally got the location, he had packed out leaving only a letter behind.

Zero leaned forward, staring at Eko. A new idea started to form in her mind, and as soon as it took shape, she got to work. In five minutes, she had created a new chat room with a different avatar and a different IP address.

“Why don't we strike a deal? I give you Eko, and I get Phoenix.”

“Y wld I do tat?”

“You want the info of every Nigerian. I just want the oil money. These people would pay heavily, you know, and…maybe, we can split.”

“Who re u agn?”

“Someone very influential and important. Do you want the deal or not?”

For the first time in months, Shadow didn't respond quickly and she watched as he went offline. What was he thinking? Had she blown her cover? She stared at the screen for five more minutes, rubbing her sweaty palms together before unsuccessfully trying to stifle a yawn.

It was the third one in two minutes, so she closed her laptop and made the short walk to her queen size bed. As soon as she got on, Ditto purred and leapt onto her legs, snuggling into her warm embrace. Zero rubbed its head twice before resting her hand on her comfort pet. Her cat was the only one that had consistently been with her after her mom's death.

“Speaking of which…,” she trailed off and called her cousin.

“Are you home yet?” She fired off the moment he picked up.

“Yes. And before you ask, she's fine. She was already sleeping when I got back.”

“Oh, alright. Take care.”

“But wh–” She pressed the end call button before he could talk further. Thankfully, Kofi didn't call back and she slowly closed her eyes.

Zero opened her eyes exactly five hours later. Without glancing at the clock, she did her usual morning routine and made breakfast just in time for her morning brief. This time, however, she skipped it and went to her messages. Shadow's own was still there, pinned, but this time, there was a map link to an address.

“Cme alone. No rcodngs or police. I'll be wtchng.”

Zero gasped, blinking twice to be sure she was seeing correctly. Shadow wanted to meet! For the first time ever, he was agreeing to a meeting. It seemed too good to be true, and she quickly sent a message to her team. She needed them to be on standby in case.

As she dressed up again, the second time in two days, her nerves remained calm. Zero was going to finally meet the face behind Shadow Broker, and there was just a little excitement in her. For some weird reason, she felt oddly at peace. Like her body was finally going to come to terms with something her mind already knew.

When she got to the building, someone was already seated at the far end of the hall. “So you came.”

His voice was cloaked by a device, as she suspected, and she closed the door behind her before shaking her bullet-proof jacket free. “See? I brought nothing.”

“Except a mask to hide your face. How do I know you're not a detective or Zero?”

What if I'm both? She thought, but just shrugged at the question. “I'm neither. Besides, there's no point in wondering. After all, we’re here now.”

“So where's the Eko information?” He asked, and she held up a file. True to her word, Zero had already printed some things about the project, but not the extremely important part. Her heart thumped once as she slid it over the hardwood floors. If he noticed a lot of vital things were missing, he would be gone long before her backup came.

“You know what?” He paused and she watched as the figure stood up. “I have a surprise for you.”

“Tada!” His shadow emerged from behind the curtain, his lithe form walking towards her in the bright light. Zero put a gloved hand over her eyes, squinting as she tried to make out the body structure that was already looking too

familiar. The Shadow Broker was only four feet away when her eyes shone wide and a gasp escaped her lips.

“Kofi?!”