Bloodline Protocol

CHAPTER 3 — THE HUNTER’S CODE

The night had teeth. Wind howled through the docks as Derrick and Maya crouched behind rusted cargo crates, their breath forming ghosts in the air. “Tell me you’ve got a plan,” Maya whispered.

Derrick scanned the shadows. “Survive.”

“Solid plan,” she muttered. “Anything more specific?”

“Find whoever sent those men.”

“Right. Because hunting armed killers barefoot in the rain is definitely smart.”

Derrick didn’t answer. His eyes were fixed on the black book. The serpent mark that had flared moments earlier was fading again, like it was alive.

He flipped it open. The ink shimmered faintly, forming a symbol, two interlocked rings and a line through the middle. Beneath it, coordinates appeared for only a heartbeat before vanishing.

Maya saw it too. “Did that just… update itself?”

“Looks like it.”

“You realize this book just sent us somewhere?”

He nodded. “Then that’s where we’re going.”

She groaned. “Do you ever stop to think maybe this is a trap?”

“It probably is,” Derrick said calmly. “That’s how I’ll find them.”

They made their way across the docks, weaving between cranes and cargo stacks. The coordinates led them toward an old warehouse half-swallowed by fog. Maya stopped at the gate. “This place screams bad idea.”

Derrick pushed it open. The hinges screamed too. Inside, the air was cold and stale. Rows of forgotten crates stretched into the dark.

On one of them sat a single flickering laptop, humming faintly, its screen glowing with static. “Someone left us a present,” Maya murmured.

Derrick approached, cautious. The screen blinked, then a distorted voice filled the space. “Welcome back, Haines.”

Derrick froze. His blood went cold. Maya looked at him sharply. “Haines?”

The voice continued: “You shouldn’t be alive. But since you are, let’s make this interesting. You want answers? Pass the test.”

The laptop screen shifted, an image appeared: a man tied to a chair in a dark room, bruised, gagged. Maya’s eyes widened. “Is that”

“Marcus Veil’s courier,” the voice said. “He holds your first thread. Find him before sunrise. Fail, and he dies.”

The screen went black. Maya exhaled. “Okay, this just went from creepy to full-blown psychotic.”

Derrick’s jaw clenched. “He said Veil.”

“The company from your book?”

“The man behind my father’s murder.”

She frowned. “How do you know that?”

“I remember the name. Dad used to say it, Veil Industries was funding his firm. After he found something in their accounts, everything changed.”

“And now someone wants you chasing their courier through the city.”

“Exactly.”

They left the warehouse, slipping into the rain-slick streets. The city was waking, distant sirens, flashing signs, the hum of traffic.

Maya hacked into a nearby public terminal, fingers flying. “If the guy’s a courier, there’s a trail. Corporate networks track their people.”

Derrick stood watch, glancing over his shoulder. “You trust this?”

“No,” she said. “But it’s the only lead.”

After a minute, she found it, a private route marked “Package Drop, Zone 9.”

“That’s under the old metro,” she said. “Smuggler territory.”

Derrick cracked his knuckles. “Then we go.”

The tunnels beneath Raventon were a graveyard of metal and graffiti. Every drip of water echoed like footsteps. “Why do all your plans involve dark, creepy places?” Maya whispered.

“They hide things better.”

They reached a dead end, a rusted service door with a biometric lock. Derrick tested it. Dead power. “Move,” Maya said, pulling a wire kit from her jacket. Sparks danced, the lock hissed, and the door groaned open.

Inside, the air smelled of oil and decay. They found him, the courier, tied to a chair under a swinging light, exactly like in the video.

Blood crusted on his lip. His eyes widened when he saw them. Maya hurried over. “Hey, hey, we’re not here to hurt you.”

Derrick cut the ropes. “Who did this?”

The man coughed. “Didn’t… didn’t see. Masks. Said to deliver a message.”

“What message?”

The courier’s trembling hand reached into his jacket and pulled out a sealed envelope. “For… you. Said your name was Cole, but”

He never finished. A red dot appeared on his forehead. “Sniper!” Maya shouted.

They dove behind a crate just as the shot rang out, blood sprayed across the wall. Derrick clenched his fists. “They’re watching us.”

Maya pulled him down. “Stay low!”

“Where?” he growled. “There’s nowhere to go!”

“Back route, behind the coolant tanks!”

They crawled through the shadows as bullets tore through metal. Derrick grabbed the courier’s dropped envelope on the way out.

The exit led to a service tunnel that opened onto the riverbank. They tumbled out, soaked and gasping. Maya leaned against the wall, shaking. “This is insane.”

Derrick opened the envelope. Inside was a single key card and a phrase written in red ink: “Hunter’s Code – Phase One.”

“What the hell is that?” Maya asked.

“Looks like they want to play.”

“You realize we just got baited into a trap and barely survived?”

He stared at the key card. “Then we’re getting closer.”

“Closer to what? Dying?”

“To the truth.”

Maya looked at him, eyes hard. “You don’t even know who’s behind this.”

He looked up at the skyline, the towers of Veil Industries rising through the fog. “I will.”

Hours later, in a penthouse overlooking Raventon, a figure watched the surveillance footage from the warehouse.

The courier’s death. The boy’s escape. The serpent mark glowing faintly on the screen. The man smiled. “The son learns fast.”

A woman’s voice behind him: “You think he’s ready?”

“No,” he said. “But that’s what makes it fun.”

Back on the street, Derrick and Maya found a motel room in the outskirts. The air smelled of mold and old secrets.

Maya sat on the bed, towel over her head. “You realize we’re running blind?”

“Not blind,” Derrick said. “Just in the dark.”

She groaned. “You talk like you’re in a movie.”

He cracked a faint grin. “Maybe I am.”

He laid the black book on the table beside the key card. Under the flickering lamp, faint writing began to appear on the next page: “The Code begins where blood and power meet.”

Maya leaned over his shoulder. “What does that mean?”

“Could be anything, a location, a name…”

Her gaze sharpened. “Or a person.”

Derrick looked up at her. “You think someone’s leading us?”

“I think someone’s testing you.”

He closed the book slowly. “Then I’ll pass every test they give me.”

“And if it kills you?”

“Then they’ll regret not finishing the job twelve years ago.”

She stared at him, silent for a long moment. “You scare me sometimes, you know that?”

He stood, pulling on his jacket. “Good. That means I’m finally becoming who they fear.”

At the window, he watched the rain slide down the glass. The city’s lights blurred, golden and cold. In his reflection, he saw both the boy who lost everything and the man who would take it all back.

He whispered to himself, “The hunter doesn’t chase the prey. He becomes the storm.”

Behind him, Maya looked up. “What was that?”

He turned. “Phase One starts tonight.”