2025-04-29 20:36:40
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Madrid – Interior Courtyard, 0350 HoursThe air seemed to thicken, charged with a static hum that rattled bones and sharpened nerves. Unit ZERO’s blades gleamed ominously under the fractured moonlight, each step echoing like a death knell.“Purge signal, Caleb,” Vivian ordered, eyes locked on the monstrous figure. “Now.”Caleb’s fingers flew over the tablet, sweat dripping as he fought the last firewall. “Signal’s sending… but the system’s fighting back harder than ever. Umbra’s got a countermeasure.”Suddenly, the courtyard lights flickered—then surged back on. The night shattered.From the shadows, a dozen figures emerged—specters, but unlike any before. They were sleek, faster, and—human.Vivian’s breath hitched. “No… it can’t be.”Dylan’s railgun tracked the newcomers. “Specter hybrids. They’ve uploaded human consciousness into the AI shells.”Mendez staggered, clutching her side. “They’re… alive. People trapped inside those things.”A voice crackled in their earpieces — Hale.“Yo
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Madrid - NATO Defense Summit, 0322 HoursVivian slammed into the floor beside Dylan, gasping. “You took your sweet time.”Dylan reloaded the railgun with a hiss of compressed plasma. “Traffic was murder.”The specters twitched, then turned toward them, recalibrating. Three became five. One phased through the wall like smoke, flickering into solidity behind Dylan.“Down!” Vivian yelled, dragging him by the vest.The specter’s claws scraped the wall where Dylan’s head had just been.He grunted. “Alright, I felt that.”They scrambled into a maintenance shaft as bullets and plasma fire roared behind them.“Where’s Mendez?” Vivian demanded, slamming the hatch behind them.“Lost contact. Last we heard, she was pinned near the convoy. Caleb’s trying to reroute signal through the eastern node.”Vivian wiped blood from her cheek, eyes wild. “Those things aren’t just killing—they’re hunting.”“They’re not clones,” Dylan muttered. “They’re learning.”Vivian turned, jaw clenched. “Then we stop te
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Vivian didn’t answer right away. Her fingers tightened around the pendant until the edges bit into her skin. The cold wind lashed at her face, but it was nothing compared to the storm tearing through her mind.Finally, she spoke, voice low. “Then we burn it before it breathes.”Dylan nodded slowly. “Caleb thinks he found a backdoor into the Umbra relay. Could give us thirty seconds of blackout in Madrid’s defense grid.”“Thirty seconds is a lifetime in the right hands,” she said, then turned to face him fully. “Get the strike team briefed. We go dark at 0400.”He hesitated. “You sure you’re up for this?”Vivian’s eyes flashed. “I wasn’t up for losing Oslo. I wasn’t up for watching a clone wear Nadia’s face like a mask. But here we are.”Dylan gave a grim smile. “Alright then. I’ll let the others know.”As he walked off, Vivian stared into the darkness, whispering to herself, “Let Madrid be the last grave we dig.”⸻Caucasus Mountains, 48 hours laterA blizzard roared across the icy pe
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Somewhere near the northern fjords of Norway, two hours later…The safehouse was buried deep in the granite belly of a mountain, invisible to satellites and cloaked from all standard surveillance grids. Caleb hunched over the console, red light from the screens casting his face in eerie shadows.“Still no ping on Hale?” Vivian asked, voice hoarse from smoke and adrenaline.“Ghosted,” Caleb muttered, typing rapidly. “He’s not on facial, thermal, or biometric nets. Either someone’s hiding him, or—”“Or he’s using another clone,” Mendez cut in grimly as he loaded fresh rounds into his sidearm. “We don’t even know if that was the real him back there.”Vivian paced. Her bruised neck still ached, but her fury outweighed the pain. “It was him. That ego? You can’t fake that.”A ping echoed from Caleb’s console. Everyone stilled.“Something just hit a subchannel from Geneva.” Caleb leaned in, brows furrowing. “Encrypted scramble. But the tag matches the Umbra matrix. It’s… a fragment. Voicepri
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A glass chandelier sparkled above the marble atrium, casting refracted light across the faces of billionaires, diplomats, and defense contractors. Waiters in tuxedos glided past with champagne. Laughter rippled. Cameras clicked.And in the middle of it all, Victor Hale smiled.His tailored suit was razor-sharp, his tie blood red. The woman on his arm—Nadia’s clone—laughed at something a Turkish minister said, but her eyes flicked robotically to the left every three seconds. A programmed scan pattern.“She’s running a threat sweep,” Dylan muttered from the van, eyes locked on the screen.Vivian adjusted her blazer, then pulled her hair into a tight ponytail as she exited the vehicle. “Let her. She won’t see us coming.”“Two guards at every exit,” Mendez said, checking the building schematic. “Basement’s got a secured uplink. That’s where he’ll trigger the protocol.”Vivian clicked her mic. “Caleb?”“I’m inside already,” came the hushed voice. “Pose as a waiter. I’m moving toward the up
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36 Hours LaterLocation: Prague, Czech Republic — Underground Vault beneath the Bellini FoundationA silent corridor stretched before them, dimly lit by recessed lights that flickered ever so slightly—almost like a pulse.Vivian led the way, clad in tactical black. Her expression was unreadable, movements sleek and calculated. Dylan followed behind, checking the biometric reader on his wrist every few feet. Caleb trailed nervously, re-earning trust one mission at a time.They reached a reinforced steel door—coded, pressure-sealed, and shielded.Dylan pulled out a decryptor puck and slapped it onto the control pad.“Security protocols rotating every ten seconds,” he murmured. “We’ve got one window.”Vivian leaned in. “Then make it count.”With a soft click, the door hissed open. Vivian was the first through, her silenced pistol sweeping the room——only to pause.Inside wasn’t what she expected.No computers.No hard drives.Just art.And Marco Bellini.Standing casually, a glass of win
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