1:30 AM

The Nanl Territory

It was a warm night in Vezas, a county located in North America. As usual, the night was quiet, except for the occasional bustling of the lizards and insects around the garden.

Eva moved slowly, hiding in the shadows of the ornamental shrubs. She was dressed in a grey armless shirt and a pair of jeans. On her feet were black sneakers which made her movement easier and as noiseless as possible.

There was a device in her hand. It looked similar to a tablet but it was not. It was a more sophisticated device that she developed by herself eight months ago.

Eva Kendrick, 22, was an intelligent, and crazy hacker. Her love for computers started when she was barely eight. Her father was also an expert. So from her early years, she watched him write codes, build sophisticated software, and developed high-end security devices.

At 15, she built her first hacking device. With her first device, she could hack into her school’s online server where information like tests and exam questions were stored. With that, she knew the questions beforehand and did not bother studying hard as other students would do. But before that, she always excelled in class. So, nobody suspected she had access to the questions.

Eva also had a beautiful face and perfect body shape to compliment her looks. In school, she was the hottest girl in the class and the dream of every guy. Her six feet height and figure-eight body made her look like a model. She had an oval face and a slightly pointed nose. Her hair was always dark and shiny, and her smile was so beautiful that it could soften any man’s heart.

Here she was in the Nanl Territory, one of the most-secured estates in the county. Of course, she had hacked the security of the territory and could open all their gates and doors with a few clicks on her device.

The Nanl Territory was owned by Eric Hendrix, a 28-year-old billionaire. To the public, Eric Hendrix was a successful businessman and the Nanl Territory was just an estate he controlled.

Eric managed the estate and made it very difficult for anyone to secure a property in the estate. The cost was extremely high and there were several criteria Eric laid down. And once you’re unable to meet the criteria, you wouldn’t be able to purchase or rent a property in the Territory. So, the territory was a place for a select few.

Nobody knew how Eric judged who or not to sell a property to. They just knew the properties were expensive. Sometimes, Eric even gave out lands for free out of charity to young men and ladies he picked from the streets. He did not only gave them properties for free but also employed them to work for him. But since the estate was not so large, it didn’t attract so much interest.

What no one knew was that Eric was a deadly assassin and drug dealer. The Nanl Territory was one of the most dangerous places to wander into, it was where Eric trained his followers, both in the art of assassination and drug pushing. Assassins from the Nanl Territory were sent on missions to different countries and continents and were paid heavily for their services. From each payment made, there was a cut for Eric.

Eva was one of the few outsiders who knew who Eric Hendrix really was. As a matter of fact, she had been tracking him for months and studying about the Nanl Territory. And here she was to meet with Eric Hendrix, a move she knew was a suicide mission.

She looked around from where she squatted in the shadow. The security official in the garden was already asleep on his chair. She tapped on her device again to check her position and how long more she had to get to Eric’s mansion. It was not supposed to be more than a thirty-minute walk from the territory’s gate. But because she was being careful not to alert the guards, it took her thirty minutes to get to where she was and might take another thirty minutes to get to Eric’s mansion.

After watching the sleeping guard for a while, she decided it was time to move again. The only challenge was that there would be no way to hide under shadows again as other places were brightly lit. She could be easily spotted by anyone if she made the slightest move.

She summoned courage and pressed on. But just as she got out of the shadow and began to walk, she heard a growl and froze. At first, she wasn’t sure what it was but she knew the sound wasn’t made by a human. She turned her neck right slowly to confirm her greatest fears. A German Shepherd was standing some several metres behind her. It looked fiery and dangerous. But luckily for her, it was chained to a pole and couldn’t come towards her.

Instantly, she knew her game was over as there as there was no way she could move silently as she wanted anymore. It continued to bark even before she could decide whether to move or not.

Knowing her cover had been blown, she took to her heels, running towards her destination.

But it was too late. Just as she got to the elementary school building, strong hands knocked her down.

She was unconscious for a minute and her eyes opened to see three faces standing above her. Her fall was so heavy that her head began to ache.

“Who the fuck are you?” one of the men asked, in an angry tone.

Eva’s vision was still blurry and she felt too weak to speak.

“And what the heck is this?” the man who picked up her device asked. He handed the device over to the man who spoke first.

“This is a map of the territory,” the man with the device said. “I think she has been spying on us.”

“What the fuck!” The third man who had been silent exclaimed.

He bent down and dragged her by the neck, forcefully making her sit up. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?”

She stared into the man’s fiery eyes. Her lips parted but she couldn’t find words to explain herself.

“She’s a spy, find the rest of her men and kill her,” one of the men said.

“I said who the hell are you?” the man barked at her again but she couldn’t still find words to reply. “Rot in hell,” he added angrily as he tightened his fists around her neck to squeeze out life.

To be continued.