**Episode 9: Rainbird Hunted**
Nightfall cloaked the city in gray, washing the streets with cold drizzle. Elina moved like a ghost through the alleys behind the women's shelter — hood up, steps light, senses sharpened.
She could feel it again.
**The Hunt.**
She'd escaped before — different city, different name — but it was always the same rhythm. The silence before danger. The invisible eyes. The sudden cold in her gut.
This time, though, it was worse.
Because this time… she wasn't alone anymore.
She stopped at a back entrance, knocked twice, then once more. The door creaked open and a kind older woman, Sister Marzia, let her in.
"You can't stay long," she whispered. "Two men came asking about you this morning. They showed no badges."
Elina's face darkened. "Did they see the records?"
"No. I burned them."
Elina reached into her bag and handed over a thick envelope.
"For the girls," she said.
Marzia's hands trembled. "You're still trying to buy forgiveness?"
Elina didn't answer. Just lowered her gaze and turned to leave.
Outside, the rain picked up. She reached the narrow overpass near the station — her usual shortcut — when she felt it again: footsteps that matched hers… but not naturally.
Trained.
She quickened her pace.
The footsteps matched.
She broke into a run.
A figure darted from the shadows, and she veered hard right, slamming through a side gate into a construction zone. The rain masked her steps. She ducked low behind a stack of concrete blocks, heart racing.
Then she saw them — **two men** in tactical gear, faces covered.
Not Reza's men. These were clean. *Professional*.
They weren't trying to arrest her.
They were trying to **erase her.**
One of them tapped an earpiece. "Target entered Site C. Repeat, Rainbird is here. Moving in for extraction."
*Extraction.* A sanitized word for *Elimination.*
Elina pulled a small blade from her boot — the last gift her brother had given her before he died. She would not go down easy.
She waited… counted the seconds… and then *struck.*
She slashed the first man's thigh as he rounded the stack. He cried out, stumbled. The second lunged at her — she ducked, grabbed a loose steel rod, and swung.
It bought her a moment.
Enough to run.
She raced across the open frame of the unfinished building, five stories up, rain slicking every surface. The edge was near — and so was the third man.
But then — a deafening *blast*.
The third man dropped. Hit from behind.
**Ayaan stood at the stairwell, holding a pipe.**
"Move!" he yelled.
Elina didn't ask how or why. She just ran toward him.
Together, they fled into the night.
Hours later, soaked and breathless, they hid beneath an old bridge. Ayaan looked at her, his expression torn between anger and fear.
"Who are you really?" he whispered.
Elina looked away.
"I was Rainbird," she said quietly. "But not anymore."
**To be continued…**