BLACKOUT PROTOCOL

Chapter 1

“Everybody get down, the bridge is coming apart”

The scream ripped through the midnight rain seconds before the armored convoy exploded into chaos. The voice was sharp, desperate, and loud enough to cut through the thunder itself.

Steel cables snapped above the Blackwater Bridge like gunshots erupted directly above them. One after another, they broke apart with violent cracks that echoed across the storm-dark river below. Cars whirled helplessly across the slick highway as drivers fought to regain control. Tires skidded against wet concrete. Headlights flashed wildly through sheets of rain.

Men in tactical gear shouted into radios while bullets tore through shattered windshields. The air filled with smoke, sparks, and the smell of burning metal.

At the center of the mania, Ethan Vale stood beside a bleeding senator with a pistol in his hand and betrayal burning in his chest.

Three minutes earlier, he still believed he worked for the government, three minutes earlier, everything had made sense.

Now the world around him was collapsing.

Ethan shoved Senator Warwick behind an overturned SUV as a shower of sparks burst from a collapsing supporting beam above them. The steel structure groaned under massive pressure. Rain soaked Ethan's black tactical jacket, making it clutch heavily to his body. Water mixed with blood from a cut across his eyebrow and streamed down the side of his face.

The convoy had been ambushed from both sides, not a random attack, not a terrorist strike. This was precise, coordinated, professional.

Every vehicle had been trapped exactly where the attackers wanted them, somebody had leaked the route.

“Agent Vale” Senator Warwick shouted over the storm.

“We need extraction now”

Ethan turned quickly and checked the empty roadway behind them, there was nothing, no backup vehicles, no emergency response teams, no helicopters, no reinforcements.

His radio remained silent, the silence bothered him more than the gunfire. Night Agent Division never ignored emergency signals, never. Yet tonight, nobody was answering. Then a voice crackled through his earpiece.

“Terminate the senator”

Ethan froze, for a moment he thought he had misheard. Rain pounded against the wreckage around him while distant explosions echoed across the bridge.

The voice belonged to Director Crowe. Crowe never repeated himself.

For six years Ethan had followed the man's orders without hesitation. Crowe had recruited him, trained him, and molded him into one of Night Agent Division's most reliable operatives.

“Sir?” Ethan asked carefully.

“You heard me” Crowe replied.

His voice remained calm, too calm.

“Warwick unlocked Blackout Protocol. He cannot leave that bridge alive”

Lightning flashed across the river, for a brief second the entire battlefield lit up in white.

Ethan looked toward the senator. Warwick was gripping his wounded side, breathing heavily, his face pale beneath the rain.

The senator had many enemies, he was arrogant, dominant, corrupt according to half the rumors in Washington, but Ethan saw something else in his eyes. He was fear, genuine fear, the kind of fear people felt when they knew they were about to die.

Another explosion rocked the bridge, concrete shattered nearby.

“Agent Vale” Crowe snapped.

“Complete the mission”

Something cold settled inside Ethan's stomach, a terrible realization. This mission had never been a protection. It had been an execution from the beginning.

Gunfire erupted again from the eastern barricade, masked soldiers emerged through smoke with military precision, their movements were disciplined and efficient, no wasted motion, no panic, no hesitation. They advanced like machines, they wore black helmets with no national insignia, no flags, no unit markings, only a silver symbol painted on their armor, a serpent circling a broken crown.

Ethan had never seen it before, yet something about it felt familiar, dangerously familiar. Warwick suddenly grabbed Ethan's arm.

“You know what Blackout Protocol is, don't you?”

“No”

Warwick stared at him, then he laughed bitterly despite the pain.

“Then you're already dead”

Before Ethan could ask another question, a sniper round pierced Warwick's throat. The senator jerked violently, blood sprayed across Ethan's face.

Warwick collapsed instantly, his body hit the wet pavement with a sickening thud, he struggled to breathe for several seconds, then stopped moving.

Ethan twirled toward the sniper's position and raised his rifle, another bullet slammed into the SUV beside him, metal exploded outward.

The sniper had already adjusted position, too professional, experienced and closing in, his earpiece crackled again.

“Kill confirmed?” Crowe asked.

Ethan looked down at the dead senator. For six years he had obeyed every command, he had never lied to Director Crowe, tonight would be different.

“Confirmed”

“Good” Crowe replied calmly.

“Now eliminate the remaining witnesses”

The transmission ended, Ethan felt his stomach tighten. Remaining witnesses, the words echoed in his head, the drivers, the agents, the medics, everyone, including him.

A black drone descended through the rain, its rotors sliced through the storm as a red targeting beam swept across the debris.

Ethan cursed and ran past burning vehicles, automatic gunfire erupted behind him, concrete exploded at his heels. The drone locked onto him almost immediately.

“So much for loyalty” he muttered.

He dove through the shattered window of a crashed police van, seconds later missiles slammed into the roadway, fire exploded across the bridge, heat punched into his back.

The entire structure groaned beneath the destruction, his phone vibrated, Unknown Number, Ethan answered while reloading his pistol.

“If you want to live” a woman whispered urgently.

“Jump now”

“What?”

“The bridge is rigged to collapse... thirty seconds”

The call disconnected, no explanation, no warning, nothing. Ethan stared at the screen, then looked around.

Smoke filled the air, agents screamed for help, black-armored soldiers moved systematically through the chaos, executing survivors one after another, no prisoners, no witnesses, no mistakes.

This was bigger than an assassination, this was erasure, the bridge shook again, massive cracks raced across the concrete beneath Ethan's boots.

Twenty seconds.

Helicopter emerged through the storm, its mounted guns rotated toward fleeing agents below.

Ethan caught sight of the silver serpent insignia painted beneath the cockpit, the same symbol, the same enemy or maybe not the enemy.

His chest tightened, the soldiers and Night Agent Division were working together.

Ten seconds.

Ethan ran violently, bullets chased him through smoke and fire, debris crashed into the river below, the bridge was dying beneath his feet.

He reached the broken edge just as the drone swept overhead again, the red targeting beam settled directly on his chest.

One choice, trust the mysterious caller or die. Behind him, a voice thundered through a loudspeaker.

“Agent Ethan Vale, surrender immediately”

Ethan turned, Director Crowe stepped from the helicopter, rain slid down his black coat, the chaos around him seemed unable to touch him.

He looked completely calm, completely in control. Crowe raised a pistol

“You should've followed orders” he said.

The bridge cracked, the world shifted and Ethan jumped. The entire Blackwater Bridge exploded behind him.

Fire swallowed the night sky, steel twisted apart, vehicles vanished into flames.

Ethan submerged into darkness wondering one terrifying thing. Who the hell had warned him?

The freezing river rushed upward, his heart pounded violently. Blackout Protocol, the words clawed through his memory.

Two months earlier, he had discovered encrypted files hidden inside a classified server beneath headquarters. Every file carried the same black seal.

BLACKOUT PROTOCOL.

The moment he attempted access, his clearance had been suspended. Crowe claimed it was part of a cybersecurity drill. At the time, Ethan accepted the explanation.

Now he knew better, people were willing to kill for those files, wind screamed past him.

Above, the bridge folded inward like a dying monster, burning vehicles rained from the sky, one armored soldier fell nearby, disappearing into darkness.

Then Ethan hit the water, the impact crushed the air from his lungs and pain exploded through his ribs.

The river swallowed him whole, the current dragged him deeper, he fought desperately toward the surface.

Pieces of burning debris crashed around him, searchlights swept across the river above, helicopters were hunting, looking for survivors, looking for him.

Ethan saw something impossible beneath the surface. A woman in a black diving suit swimming directly toward him, fast, focused, dangerous, she was holding a gun, straight at him.