Brazil was the prototype�a flawless proof of concept. When the walls closed in across the Americas, Ramirez didn�t run. He expanded. He wouldn�t hide in shadows anymore. He would build a sanctioned empire under the noon sun.
Southern Africa was perfect�ripe, unguarded, overlooked. Malawi became his gateway to the world, a logistical artery pumping life into his global machine. South Africa served as his command post, the nerve centre cloaked in legitimacy. And to keep the scent off him, Ramirez installed his most trusted operative, Lesley Black, two thousand kilometres away in Malawi�draped in the skin of a prominent businessman.
Now, Ramirez was flying in. Today was historic. Today, he would see the first administration his machine had built from the ground up in Southern Africa�President Mary Manda�s government. Soon, the cabinet would hold his first true creation: a minister loyal from day one. Not like Ted McBride�weak, compromised, a man trapped by his own greed after stepping into office. No, this one would be different.
This one would belong to him.
At precisely 18:00 that Wednesday evening, flight LA3052 from S�o Paulo glided onto the tarmac at OR Tambo International Airport. Among the weary passengers filing through immigration was a man the world believed had vanished�Carlos Ramirez.
His name, of course, was nowhere on the manifest. The records spoke of someone else entirely. To the casual eye, he was just an elderly gentleman escorting his teenage niece, a quiet pair blending into the blur of arrivals.
The disguise was flawless. The papers were perfect: Almost.
Only one person at Terminal 4 knew the truth�the immigration officer assigned to process passengers twenty-four and twenty-five from LA3052. She had been instructed to look the other way. No stamps flagged, no questions asked.
She didn�t know who they were. She didn�t need to. In this world, curiosity wasn�t a virtue. It was a death sentence.
The other four passengers who had boarded with the old man and his niece were ghosts in their own right, Shadows with passports. Throughout the flight, they never acknowledged him�or each other. No eye contact. No stray words. Just ordinary