The office had no natural light, only the cold blue wash from two monitors and the small orange light on the secure terminal that blinked when a message queued. Daniel sat with his elbows on the metal desk, one hand around a cup of coffee.
Somewhere behind him, the building’s ventilation system pushed conditioned air through a duct with a faint metallic knock, on and off, on and off.
The terminal chimed.
SUBJECT SECURE.
Daniel reached for the thin gray folder at the corner of the desk and set it squarely in front of him.
The cover said only one thing.
CLOSE-COMBAT CANDIDATE
He opened it.
Her professional photograph was clipped to the inside cover. Dreadlocks loose around her face, mouthguard in one hand, a promoter’s banner blurred behind her shoulder.
Height: 5’10”
Walking weight: 162 lb
Professional record: 16 wins, three losses, one no contest.
The timeline came next, pieced together from fight footage, police reports, intercepted communications, and sources inside both law enforcement and Valdés’s organization. Some entries were better sourced than others.
FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE FIGHT
Cruz orders Mia to lose to Carla Reyes in the second round. Mia initially refuses. Cruz produces surveillance photographs of Luis outside their apartment building. Mia appears to accept the arrangement.
SATURDAY NIGHT
Mia enters the fight intending to comply. She does not. The fixed result collapses in front of cameras and a paying crowd.
Within hours, Luis is shot outside their apartment building.
SUNDAY
Mia begins looking into Luis’s murder and tracks down Carla Reyes. The confrontation leaves Mia with a knife wound, but Carla survives. Mia learns that both fighters had been coerced independently.
Renato treats the wound and stitches it.
Later that day, Mia reenters the underground fight circuit under the name Maria Santos to get close to Alejandro Valdés.
SUNDAY EVENING
Mia kills Valdés in his office and distributes evidence from Valdés’s operation among his own people.
Mia goes directly to Cruz and confronts him about Luis’s murder. Cruz admits ordering the killing. Mia leaves him behind as Valdés’s organization closes in.
8:40 P.M., APPROX.
Mia returns to Renato’s gym.
Armed men enter the building. The gym is set on fire. Mia helps Renato’s staff and fighters escape.
Renato remains missing.
LATE SUNDAY NIGHT
Mia reaches the transport terminal.
Note is passed.
She leaves the terminal, finds a street pay phone several blocks away, and calls the number.
Contact established.
Daniel turned the page.
Martin’s handwriting scrawled across the next sheet.
Slight concussion. Knife wound along the lower ribs, reopened and irrigated. Smoke inhalation. Dehydration.
There was a warning at the bottom, underlined twice.
No further head trauma. No immediate deployment.
Daniel pulled a single assessment sheet from the drawer.
He worked down the boxes.
NAME: MIA
SUITABILITY: YES
CAPABLE: YES
CLOSE-QUARTERS: EXCEPTIONAL
WEAPONS PROFICIENCY: CONFIRMED
FUNCTIONS UNDER PRESSURE: YES
PROTECTIVE INSTINCT: STRONG
FOLLOWS ORDERS: CONDITIONAL
AUTHORITY RESPONSE: RESISTANT
RISK OF ESCALATION: HIGH
CURRENT MEDICAL STATUS: TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE
At the bottom was a final section.
NOTES:
Daniel wrote:
Highly self-directed. Requires clear objectives and direct handling. Unlikely to comply with orders she considers dishonest, cowardly, or needlessly dangerous.
The secure line clicked, a short double tone interrupting his thoughts.
Daniel glanced at the second monitor and tapped the terminal. A man in a brown suit appeared.
“What’s your assessment?”
“She is an outstanding candidate,” Daniel replied.
“She’s carrying the aftermath of a murder, a fire, a gangland killing, and a head injury, all from the same week, and she hasn’t slept properly in days. You want to bring that into the program?”
“Yes, I do,” Daniel said.
“She’s unstable.”
“She’s exhausted. There’s a difference.”
“She’s also a legal exposure. Police attention, cartel attention, a face that’s been on fight posters and betting advertisements in three cities.”
“Which limits her options,” Daniel said.
“You mean makes her easier to control.”
Daniel looked at him. “I mean she can’t go home. She can’t go back to fighting. She can’t use her own name without somebody eventually finding her. Right now, we’re offering her something nobody else can.”
“A way out.”
“A choice,” Daniel replied.
The man in the brown suit sat back and considered that for a moment. His eyes dropped briefly, then returned to Daniel.
“You’re willing to sign off on her?”
Daniel hesitated for a moment. If she broke under pressure or became a problem they couldn’t contain, his name would be attached to the decision that put her there.
“Yes.”
“Then sign it.”
The screen went black.
Daniel sat before the blank monitor, then pulled a photograph from the file. Mercy had sent it from the safe house.
Mia’s head was freshly shaved. She looked straight into the camera.
“Fuck. It suits her.”
His eyes went to the large map on the wall to his left.
Most of it was dense green, broken by rivers, contour lines, and a network of grid references. A large section had been boxed off in red. A perimeter cutting across terrain that had no reason to follow straight lines.
He turned back to the photograph.
He fastened it to the assessment sheet with a paperclip and took the rubber stamp beside the terminal. He pressed it once into the ink pad, and brought it down across the bottom of the assessment.
APPROVED