Mira had been hunting for the file for three weeks. Not on the deep web, not through encrypted forums, but somewhere far more treacherous: her own cluttered desktop.

But then she reached the final page. A single line in red:

Mira laughed. This was fan fiction. Beautiful, obsessive fan fiction.

Under “Entertainment,” it listed operas, plays, and board games that were fronts . The London production of The Mikado in 1885? A cover for Jacob and Evie Frye to intercept a Templar courier. The board game Senet ? Originally an Assassin calibration tool for strategic elimination.