*"The Cost of Silence" – A Shadows of the Heart Side Story*
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*Scene 1: Before the Storm (Lena's Reckoning)*
Lena sat in a small café in Yaba, two months before the first shot was ever fired.
Her laptop blinked. A name stared back at her: *Victor Kalu*.
She'd just finished reading a confidential memo leaked anonymously into her inbox.
"Private shipment rerouted from Sokoto through Kaduna. Internal approval: VK."
She didn't know it yet, but this single file would ignite a war.
She closed the lid, heart pounding.
Across from her, her friend Muna asked, "You good?"
"No," Lena said, standing. "But I think the truth just found me."
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*Scene 2: Zee's Test*
Zee never liked choices. You're either in the system or hacking it.
She was sixteen when she first heard about WRAITH—a ghost in government files, impossible to trace.
Now, she was twenty-six and tracking him.
Until he found her first.
One night, Edward appeared at the roof of the radio tower she used as a signal base.
"I need your hands," he said.
Zee laughed nervously. "You know how many people I've blocked trying to trace you?"
"I don't need a fan," he said. "I need a fighter."
She stared at him.
Then handed him a USB. "Let's blow something up."
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*Scene 3: Ayo's Burden*
Ayo had seen war. Real war.
But what haunted him wasn't gunfire—it was the look on the face of a child he failed to save during a raid gone wrong.
That child haunted his dreams. So when Edward came to him again, Ayo was ready.
They met outside a burned-down mosque. Edward offered him a folder.
"Victor. Okafor. Names we missed."
Ayo looked at the names, jaw tight.
"I told myself I was done."
Edward didn't argue.
"You can be done after this."
Ayo nodded once. "Then let's finish it."
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*Scene 4: Operation "Quiet Riot"*
The team's first operation together wasn't grand—it was surgical.
Objective: Infiltrate a warehouse at the edge of Port Harcourt and retrieve shipment logs tied to Kalu.
They moved at night.
Zee disabled cameras.
Ayo took out guards like shadows cutting shadows.
Lena found a locked server room, fingers shaking. Edward covered her.
"I'm a journalist, not a spy," she whispered.
"You're both now," he replied.
They retrieved everything—names, dates, accounts.
It was the first victory.
But not without a cost.
Zee was grazed by a bullet. Ayo killed a man who had surrendered.
And Edward? He didn't blink once.
Afterward, in silence, they sat in a van watching the sunrise.
"We're in this now," Lena said.
Edward just nodded. "There's no going back."
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*Scene 5: The Children of Silence*
Between operations, they visited an underground orphanage funded secretly by a woman named Mama Ope—a civilian victim of one of Okafor's raids who'd taken in war orphans.
Edward sat with a boy who asked, "Are you one of the bad men?"
He didn't answer.
Just gave the boy a small radio.
"You'll hear the truth soon," he said.
Zee watched him from the corner, realizing—for the first time—WRAITH wasn't fighting for revenge.
He was fighting to stop himself from becoming the monster.
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*Scene 6: Bloodlines*
One file from Victor's archive revealed something darker.
Okafor had a son. A fixer in London. Unknown to the world.
Edward debated exposing him.
Zee said: "Innocent until proven guilty."
Edward replied, "He runs a shell corp in Dubai that laundered arms money."
Silence.
They didn't publish the name. Yet.
Instead, Edward wrote the name on the inside of his arm.
"Later," he said. "When he steps out of the shadows."
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*Scene 7: The Line*
One night, they had a chance to eliminate Okafor in a remote retreat.
Edward was ready. Scope locked. Finger on the trigger.
But a child entered the room to serve her tea.
He froze.
Lowered the rifle.
Zee asked, "Why didn't you take the shot?"
Edward whispered, "Because then I'm her."
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*Scene 8: Fire and Ashes*
Their final side mission before the events of the main novel was a double hit: leak Okafor's offshore accounts, and wipe Victor's storage bunker in Benin.
Zee's virus crippled half the accounts.
Ayo blew the bunker sky high.
But Victor escaped—barely.
Edward stood in the ashes that night.
"Next time," he said, "I don't miss."
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*Scene 9: The Oath*
In a rundown church, they gathered. Just the four of them.
No tech. No plans.
Just words.
"If I fall, keep the story alive," Lena said.
"If I fall," Ayo added, "finish the fight."
"If I fall," Zee said, "blow their systems to hell."
Edward said nothing.
He simply lit a match and dropped it into a glass of oil.
The flame flared, burned, then vanished.
An oath made in fire.
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*Final Scene: The Whisper That Became a Roar*
Three days later, Lena received an email.
Subject: *"The Heart Begins Here."*
Attachment: the original audio file that proved everything.
She didn't know who sent it.
But she had an idea.
Edward was already gone. Setting the stage.