The Missing Asset

Jessica took the long way to Mexico. She switched planes twice, used three different IDs, and made sure none of her usual routes were in play. Whoever had burned her cover knew every version of her. So she had to be someone new.

The name on her ticket was Elena Ruiz. The face in the airport cameras wasn’t hers, not exactly. A subtle change in posture, a new haircut, tinted glasses. It was all about passing glances.

By the time she landed in Mexico City, the sun had dipped below the skyline, and the neon glow of the metropolis had taken over.

She didn’t go straight to Olivia. Instead, she took a car to Coyoacán, an old neighborhood where people didn’t ask questions. She rented a room above a café, paid in cash. Only then did she make the call.

* * *

Olivia was already waiting when Jessica arrived at the bar. It was one of those half-hidden places, a rooftop spot in the heart of the city, overlooking the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The kind of place that played jazz over speakers that weren’t too loud, where people came to talk in low voices and pretend they weren’t watching each other.

Jessica slid into the seat across from Olivia, the city lights reflecting in her drink.

“You look like hell.”

Jessica smirked, picking up the whiskey Olivia had ordered for her. “Good to see you too.”

Olivia leaned forward, lowering her voice. “Tell me everything.”

Jessica took a slow sip, let the whiskey settle, then exhaled and replied, “Someone erased me.”

She laid it out clean. The phone call. The frozen accounts. The aliases that no longer existed. And then, the page. The burned fragment that had survived.

Olivia listened, her fingers tapping against her glass, her journalist mind already working. When Jessica finished, Olivia swore under her breath. “I don’t like this.”

Her fingers paused mid-tap against the glass, just for a second, barely enough to notice. But Jessica saw it.

“Me neither.” Then Jessica tilted her head slightly and added, “Who was looking for me?”

Olivia exhaled, eyes flicking back to her glass like it might give her time.. “Someone with access. Real access. They didn’t just check official records. They pulled from black archives, shadow databases. Places that don’t officially exist.”

Jessica’s grip on her glass tightened. “Who has that kind of reach?”

Olivia shook her head. “I don’t know yet. But whoever it is, they weren’t looking for a criminal. They were looking for a…” She hesitated.

Jessica’s stomach tightened. “Say it.”

Olivia exhaled and set her glass down too hard. “They were looking for a missing asset.”

Jessica sat back, her pulse slow and measured. Missing asset. She had been a lot of things in her life. But never missing.

Her mind flickered. Her mind flashed with a memory of something just beneath the surface. Her fingers curled around the edge of the table. For a moment, she was somewhere else. She could hear hooves on sand. The roar of a crowd. A man’s voice calling a name that wasn’t hers.

“Recuerda quién eres.”

The words landed like an echo in a cathedral she didn’t remember building. She knew the cadence. She recognized the command in it; and yet, she had never heard it before. Not as Jessica. Not in this life.

Jessica inhaled sharply as the memory vanished and the bar came back into focus. Olivia was watching her.

“Jess?”

Jessica exhaled, shaking her head slightly. “I’m fine.”

It was a lie. Because she had only ever briefly been to Mexico City, years ago. But somehow, she had seen the Plaza de Toros before. She had heard that voice, and she needed to know why.

* * *

Jessica reached for her drink, keeping her voice even. “I need to go somewhere tomorrow.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Where?”

Jessica tapped a finger lightly against the table, “Plaza de Toros.”

Olivia frowned. “Why?”

Jessica tilted her head slightly, considering how much to say. Finally she said, “Because I think I’ve been there before. And I need to know why.”

Olivia didn’t ask more. Not yet. Instead, she finished her drink. “Alright. But first, let’s find out who the hell was looking for you.”

Jessica exhaled, rolling her shoulders. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Because if someone had called her back from the dead, she was going to find out why.