The apartment still smells like breakfast when the lock clicks and The Rose steps in, carrying coffee steam and a bite of cold morning air. She crosses to Sally's kitchen table and drops a thin file beside the skillet.
The Rose
I found your rogue agent. He is not rogue at all, not really. He used to be Commission.
The file lies open under the yellow kitchen light, photos and clipped reports fanned across the wood. A face repeats in different angles, older than the last time anyone checked for him.
The Rose
Name's Elias Rourke. He went dark years ago, vanished out of the hierarchy, and kept working anyway. Off the books. Off the leash.
The Hooded Ex-Villain backs a step from the table, shoulders tight, finally understanding why fear has followed him from garage to garden to bar.
The Hooded Ex-Villain
That was not paranoia. He was being hunted by someone trained to look official.
The Rose taps one page in the file, where an old Commission clearance stamp is half burned away. Outside, a car passes slow in the wet street, then keeps going.
Expose Elias Rourke's vendetta
Protect the Hooded Ex-Villain from Elias Rourke