Power Book Ii- Ghost -2020-2020 Apr 2026

“Try again,” Tariq said, his voice eerily calm. “And step back six feet.”

Their first job was a disaster. A meet in a deserted parking garage under the Queensboro Bridge. The supplier, a jittery man with a hacking cough, tried to short them. Tariq, channeling the ghost of his father, didn’t flinch. He calmly pulled a small UV light—used for disinfecting mail—and shined it on the counterfeit bills the man had tried to pass.

It was the summer of 2020, and the world felt like it was holding its breath. For Tariq St. Patrick, the pause button had been pressed on his entire life. His father, James "Ghost" St. Patrick, was dead by his hand. His mother, Tasha, was in witness protection. And he, a freshman at Ivy League-adjacent Stansfield University, was supposed to be blending in, not standing out as the son of a Queens drug lord. Power Book II- Ghost -2020-2020

The man laughed, then coughed. Brayden instinctively reached for a hand sanitizer clipped to his belt. The tension broke for a split second, a surreal, darkly comic moment. Here they were, playing a life-or-death game of drug-dealer chess, while a global pandemic made every handshake a potential death sentence.

“You have balls, St. Patrick,” she said, lowering her piece. “Don’t lose them in the second wave.” “Try again,” Tariq said, his voice eerily calm

Monet’s eyes narrowed. For the first time, she saw it—not the scared kid, not the legacy, but the real thing. A strategist born from chaos.

Tariq pulled out a single item: a thumb drive. “On this is the location of every stash house your father left behind, plus the new distribution network you set up during the lockdown. You kill me, it goes to the Feds, the Castillos, and your cousin Lorenzo in federal prison.” The supplier, a jittery man with a hacking

He didn't know who sent it. A fed? A friend? His father's ghost? It didn't matter.

“You’re not Ghost,” Cane sneered, ripping off his black cloth mask. “You’re a ghost of a ghost.”

But in the vacuum of a campus half-empty due to the pandemic, the rules of the street had only gotten sharper.