Crossroads Capital had been operational for exactly seventeen days when someone tried to kill Gene.
He was leaving a late meeting with a logistics company in Songshan, walking to his scooter in an underground parking garage. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. His footsteps echoed on concrete.
The first shot missed his head by inches, sparking off the pillar next to him.
Gene dropped, instinct taking over before his brain caught up. Another shot—this one hitting the car behind him, glass exploding.
He scrambled behind a concrete column, heart hammering, trying to remember where the exits were. His phone was in his pocket but his hands were shaking too badly to pull it out.
Footsteps. Two people, moving methodically through the garage, checking between cars.
Gene risked a glance. Two men in dark clothes, professional, calm. One had a suppressed pistol. The other was checking a phone—probably looking at his photo.
This wasn't random. This was a hit.
He thought about Diana. About David Koh. About Mr. Chen's promise that they were safe.
Apparently they weren't.
Gene moved as quietly as he could, keeping low, working his way toward the emergency exit. The men were between him and the main elevator. His only chance was the stairwell.
Another shot pinged off metal somewhere to his left. They were herding him, pushing him toward—
The stairwell door burst open. Three more men poured in, and Gene recognized the lead one immediately: Mr. Chen's head of security.
Gunfire erupted. Gene pressed himself flat against the concrete, hands over his head, while Chen's people traded shots with the assassins. It lasted maybe thirty seconds but felt like hours.
Then silence.
"Mr. Eu!" Chen's security chief appeared above him. "Are you hit?"
"No. I'm—no." Gene's voice was shaking. "What the hell is happening?"
"We need to move. Now."
They hustled him up the stairs, into an armored SUV that was already running. Two of Chen's men stayed behind—to clean up, Gene realized with sick horror. To make this disappear like it never happened.
The SUV peeled out of the garage and into Taipei traffic.
Gene's phone rang. Steven.
"Are you okay?" Steven's voice was tight with panic. "My father's security just called—"
"I'm fine. Two guys tried to kill me in a parking garage. Your father's people got there first."
"Jesus Christ. Where are you now?"
"SUV. Heading to—where are we going?" Gene asked the driver.
"Safe house. Shilin District."
"Shilin," Gene repeated to Steven.
"I'm coming there. Don't leave until I get there."
The safe house turned out to be a nondescript apartment in a building that looked like every other building in the neighborhood. Inside it was spartan—basic furniture, reinforced doors, cameras everywhere.
Mr. Chen was already there, talking rapidly in Mandarin to someone on the phone. He hung up when Gene entered.
"Sit," he commanded.
Gene sat. His hands had stopped shaking but his mind was still racing.
"Who were they?" he asked.
"We're still identifying the bodies. But I know who sent them." Mr. Chen poured himself whiskey, didn't offer Gene any. "You remember the David Koh situation? The operation we thought was shut down?"
"Yeah."
"It wasn't shut down. It went underground. New players took over. And someone told them you and Steven had their files, their supply chain data, everything."
Gene's stomach dropped. "We burned all of it."
"Doesn't matter. They think you have it. Which means they want you dead before you can talk to authorities." Mr. Chen drank his whiskey in one swallow. "The question is: who told them about you?"
"You said we were safe. You said nobody knew our names."
"I was wrong. Or someone I trusted talked." Mr. Chen's expression was ice. "I'm finding out who. When I do, they'll wish the assassins had found them first."
Steven arrived twenty minutes later, bursting through the door like a storm.
"Gene." He crossed the room in three strides, grabbed Gene's shoulders. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. Scared shitless, but fine."
Steven looked at his father. "What's the plan?"
"The plan is Gene leaves Taiwan. Tonight. I've arranged a flight to Tokyo. He stays there until we've neutralized the threat."
"No," Gene said.
Both Chens looked at him.
"No?" Mr. Chen's voice was dangerous.
"If I run, they'll know they got to me. They'll keep looking. I stay, act normal, and we catch whoever sold us out." Gene stood up, surprised his legs were steady. "You said someone in your network talked. Which means someone close. Someone who knew about David Koh, about Diana, about everything. We need to draw them out."
"Using you as bait is idiotic," Steven said.
"You have a better idea?"
"Yes. You hide in Tokyo and I handle this."
"With all due respect, they tried to kill me, not you. Which means I'm the one they're worried about." Gene looked at Mr. Chen. "You've got security. You've got resources. Put them on me. Let whoever's behind this think they've got another shot. When they try again, we'll be ready."
Mr. Chen studied him for a long moment. "You have more backbone than I gave you credit for."
"I get that a lot lately."
"It's still stupid," Steven said. "They almost killed you tonight."
"But they didn't. Your father's people got there in time. So they can do it again." Gene felt something cold and clear settling over him—not courage exactly, more like acceptance. "I didn't come to Taiwan to run away when things got dangerous. I came here to build something. Can't do that from Tokyo."
"You can't build anything if you're dead," Steven shot back.
"Then make sure I don't die."
Mr. Chen's phone rang. He answered it, listened, his expression darkening. He said something sharp in Mandarin and hung up.
"The assassins were hired through an intermediary in Macau. Paid in cryptocurrency, no direct connection to the client. Professional job." He looked at Gene. "Whoever wants you dead has serious resources."
"But they don't know their people failed yet," Gene said. "Right? The attack just happened. If your security cleaned it up fast enough—"
"They don't know yet," Mr. Chen confirmed. "We have maybe twelve hours before word gets out."
"Then we use those twelve hours. Put out false information. Make them think they succeeded. See who celebrates."
Steven was staring at Gene like he'd grown a second head. "When did you become a tactical genius?"
"When people started shooting at me. Clarifies things."
Mr. Chen actually smiled—cold but genuine. "Alright. We'll do it your way. But you don't leave this building without three of my people. You don't take meetings alone. You don't trust anyone outside this room."
"What about Lin Yue? Mei?"
"Nobody. Until we know who the leak is, everyone's suspect."
That hurt more than Gene wanted to admit. The idea that someone he knew, someone he trusted, might have sold him out to killers.
"We'll need to stage it," Mr. Chen continued, already working through the plan. "Photos of the scene, leaked to the right people. Make it look like you're in the hospital. Critical condition. Then we watch who reaches out, who asks questions, who seems too interested."
They spent the next two hours planning. False medical records. Staged photos. A web of lies to catch a traitor.
By the time they finished, it was past midnight. Steven had barely spoken, just sat there looking like he wanted to punch something.
When Mr. Chen stepped out to make calls, Steven finally exploded.
"This is insane. You're going to get yourself killed playing spy games."
"Better than running away and looking over my shoulder forever."
"Better than being dead?"
"Diana didn't get a choice. David didn't get a choice. I do. And I'm choosing to fight back." Gene met Steven's eyes. "You taught me that. About not backing down. About building something worth dying for."
"I never said die for it. Build, yes. Die, no."
"Sometimes they're the same thing."
Steven looked away, jaw clenched. "If something happens to you—"
"It won't."
"You don't know that."
"No. But I know your father's good at what he does. I know his security stopped them once. And I know that running away means they win." Gene stood up. "I'm staying. You can either help or get out of the way."
"That's not fair."
"None of this is fair. Diana's dead. We're being hunted. Someone we know sold us out. Fair left the building a long time ago."
Steven was quiet for a moment. Then: "Okay. We do it your way. But if you die, I'm going to kill you."
"Deal."
They both smiled despite everything. Despite the bodies in a parking garage. Despite the assassins who'd be back. Despite the traitor somewhere in their network.
Gene Eu from Queens, who'd come to Taipei pretending to be someone else, was about to become bait to catch a killer.
Not exactly how he'd planned his Monday.
But then again, nothing in this city had gone according to plan.
Why start now?