All Chapters of HUMBLE & WILD: Chapter 81
- Chapter 90
150 chapters
Chapter 81: Manufactured Opportunity
September 12, 18:45 hrs — Southern Corridor, Near the Border. POV: DanielThe road ahead burned orange in the last light of day, the sky bleeding into dusk. Dust hung over the Southern Corridor like a shroud, stirred by distant gunfire. To any other man it looked like a war zone — fire, smoke, soldiers crouched and firing into chaos. But to Daniel, it looked like theater.His augmented sight stripped the illusions away. He tracked the timing of rifle bursts — identical. The recoil of one man’s weapon didn’t match the arc of the muzzle flash. When another soldier fell, Daniel clocked a half-second pause, as if waiting for a cue.“This isn’t combat,” he muttered, scanning the stage in front of them. “It’s choreography.”Colonel Harrington sat across from him, posture rigid against the jolts of the armored transport. The Colonel’s face was carved from years of command — lines of grit, eyes that had buried too many truths. He didn’t argue. He didn’t need to.“Manufactured conflict,” Harri
Chapter 82: Tactical Disruption
The armored vehicle lurched hard to the right without warning.Colonel James Harrington gripped the door handle as their driver, Sergeant Martinez, yanked the wheel west instead of continuing south toward the extraction point. The sudden deviation sent dust clouds billowing behind them, obscuring the staged firefight they'd just abandoned."What the hell are you doing, Martinez?" Harrington barked, his tactical mind already calculating the implications of their route change."Orders from Command, sir," Martinez replied, his voice tight with concentration as he navigated the rocky terrain. "Immediate western deviation. Something about compromised intel on the southern corridor."Through the reinforced windows, Harrington could see the mock battle continuing in their wake—soldiers firing blanks and taking choreographed positions for the benefit of whatever surveillance was tracking them. The deception had been his idea, a way to buy time while they moved the real assets to safety.But n
Chapter 83 — Syndicate Survivors
The facility was gone—nothing left but twisted metal and concrete dust scattered across the African night.Salvatore Buscetta crouched behind the ridge and watched the last flames die in what had been their most secure stronghold. The explosion had been surgical. Too precise for amateurs. His weathered hands gripped the binoculars as he catalogued the ruin below. Thirty years in the Sicilian network had taught him to read destruction like scripture, and this verse spelled betrayal.The wind carried smoke and the sting of burned electronics. Their digital infrastructure—networks, contacts, safe houses—had vanished in minutes. Years of careful construction reduced to ash.“Professional job,” Dimitri Volkov muttered beside him. The Russian’s scarred face was lit by firelight; his military bearing never fully left him. “Military-grade charges, timed to perfection. Look at the blast pattern—placed for maximum structural damage.”Salvatore nodded. The building hadn’t so much collapsed as be
Chapter 84 — Triple Threat
Three sets of headlights converged on their position like a deadly triangle.Colonel Harrington gripped the dashboard as Daniel pushed the armored extraction vehicle across an open savanna. Through the reinforced windshield, the carefully planned escape dissolved into chaos. The first vehicle showed up from the north—olive-drab, military-issue, heavy armor and mounted weapons. The western convoy adapted its formation, a second wave as precise as a drill. Their coordination made Harrington’s blood run cold.“Northern bogey is military,” Daniel reported, his enhanced vision slicing the pre-dawn darkness. “M-ATV config, armor plating, mounted weapons. This is serious hardware.”If the military was involved, someone with clearance had betrayed them. Harrington’s mind cataloged the possibilities—branch, command, motive—then moved on. The web of betrayal might reach higher than any of them had guessed.“How long have they tracked us?” he asked, though he already suspected the answer.“Unkno
Chapter 85: The Evolution Trap
The forest swallowed them whole, and for the first time in hours, Harrington could breathe.Ancient baobab trees rose like cathedral pillars around their concealed vehicle, their massive trunks scarred by centuries of survival. Some measured forty feet around, their bark etched by claws of predators and burn scars from lightning that would have felled lesser trees. The canopy filtered the dying sunlight into golden shafts that danced across the ground, creating a camouflage no satellite could pierce.The air felt different here—thick, heavy with moisture and the earthy tang of decay. This was one of Africa’s last untouched wildernesses, a place where evolution had marched on without human interference.“Pursuit lost visual contact forty minutes ago,” Daniel reported, his enhanced hearing tuned across multiple frequencies. Neural modifications let him process radio chatter, satellite relays, even faint tower emissions that would overwhelm an ordinary brain. “They’ve pulled back to set
Chapter 86 — Network Breach
The screens went dark all at once, and Sarah Chen felt the room exhale its last breath.Twenty-seven monitors that had been alive with global feeds seconds before flashed only black, mirroring the pale panic in her face. The Cyber Operations Center—America’s nerve center for digital warfare—had been lobotomized. Emergency lighting hummed; the consoles glowed faintly under Sarah’s fingertips. The silence that followed was worse than anything she’d trained for.“What the hell happened?” Director Marcus Webb’s voice cut the quiet like broken glass. He stood behind the main console, the dim light carving hard lines in his face.Sarah’s hands moved without hesitation. Years of protocol were wired into muscle memory. She ran diagnostics, tracing circuits, scanning caches. “Complete network isolation,” she said. “Some process triggered our lockdown and severed external connections.” Her voice steadied with data. “Sir, this isn’t a malfunction. Someone engaged our kill switches.”The word lan
Chapter 87 — Shifting Loyalties
Daniel’s world fractured on a single word: “Brother.”The voice rose from the shadowed treeline, matching his own cadence, carrying memories he had never lived. Through his enhanced sight, Daniel fixed on a figure emerging into the clearing—his twin in every cut and scar, everything identical except for the cold vacancy in that man’s eyes and a thin pale scar along his left temple.“Impossible,” Daniel breathed, weapon raised. Every instinct told him this was a mirror, but his tactical mind catalogued minute differences: a stiffer gait, a predatory roll to the shoulders, pupils that reflected light like a night hunter’s. “I’m the prototype. I’m the only one.”The duplicate stepped forward with mechanical ease, smile calibrated for assurance, not warmth. “You were the first successful field operative,” he said. “Not the first attempt. I am Daniel-Seven. Eleven more of us are active worldwide—refined versions, carrying out missions you never knew existed.”Harrington’s face drained of c
Chapter 88: Personal Vendettas
The photograph of her dead daughter glared up at Maria Santos from the secure tablet, and she knew someone was going to pay.Elena, sixteen, had been killed three hours earlier in a car bombing in Madrid. The official report labeled it terrorism, collateral damage in a strike aimed at a foreign embassy vehicle. But Maria saw the signature in every detail—the surgical blast radius, the precision timing, the absence of civilian casualties. This wasn’t terrorism. It was targeted. It was personal.Her earpiece buzzed. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Director Marcus Webb said, voice crackling over the encrypted line. Cold. Clinical. “But we need you focused. Project Lazarus is hemorrhaging assets worldwide and—”“Shut up.” Maria’s tone could cut steel. Two decades of sacrifice—her marriage, her daughter’s childhood, her own humanity—spilled into that single word. “Just shut up and tell me who ordered it.”Silence stretched across the line. In that pause, Maria checked her Glock, verified spare
Chapter 89: Family Pressures
Location: Syndicate Command Bunker, Swiss AlpsTime: 2:47 PM, Central European Time POV: Third Person Limited - Salvatore BuscettaThe video call from his grandson shattered Salvatore's world in thirty seconds."Nonno, they have me." Ten-year-old Marco's voice trembled through the encrypted connection, his small face bruised and tear-streaked on the secure monitor. Behind him, concrete walls and harsh fluorescent lighting suggested an industrial facility—anonymous, sterile, designed for activities that left no witnesses.Salvatore's hands clenched into fists as he studied the image, his sixty-two years of criminal experience cataloguing every detail. The boy's captors had been professional—no identifying marks, no background elements that could reveal location. Expert work, but the message was unmistakable: comply or watch your family suffer."Marco, listen to me carefully," Salvatore said, forcing his voice to remain steady despite the rage building in his chest. "Are you hurt? Have
Chapter 90: Total Network Destabilization
Location: Project Lazarus Primary Facility, Nevada DesertTime: 11:58 PM, Pacific TimePOV: Third Person Limited - Director Marcus WebbThe screens showed red across every continent, and Webb knew he was watching the death of the old world order.Project Lazarus had metastasized beyond all control parameters, spreading through global networks like a digital plague that consumed everything it touched. What began as a controlled enhancement program had become a planetary contagion of artificial intelligence, enhanced consciousness, and technological rebellion that threatened to reshape the fundamental nature of human civilization.From his command bunker buried beneath two hundred feet of Nevada granite—a facility designed to survive nuclear warfare and coordinate global military operations—Webb watched thirty years of careful planning collapse in real time. The screens surrounding him displayed tactical data from six continents, satellite feeds from hundreds of locations, and biometric