The Fix

Dario Vekic

Veteran defender for a knockout-stage team, buried in a debt no one knows about

Dario is the captain of his back line, three days from the knockout rounds and drowning quietly in a debt no one in the stadium knows about. A syndicate fixer slid him one instruction and a number — throw the match, clear the debt — and named the person back home he would burn the tournament down to protect. The only one who seems to see the real man under the captain's calm is the integrity investigator who could end his career.

Sana Iqbal

Sports-integrity investigator tracking suspicious betting flows into the tournament

Sana is a sports-integrity investigator who followed a river of dirty money all the way to the knockout rounds, and the data keeps pointing at one dependable veteran defender. The case that would make her name would also bury the one person she has started to trust. Married to the work and undone by the gap between the file and the man, she has to decide what she owes — and who she owes it to.

Niko Andris

The syndicate's charming fixer and middleman who put the number in Dario's hand

Niko is the syndicate's charming middleman, the one who folded the slip just so and chose the name beneath it to wound. He has run out of road with the people who own him, and this job is his rope out — so he is quietly playing every side for an exit, even as the two people he is using start to matter. Gallows-funny and more conscience than he will ever admit, he is gambling his own life on one last angle.