Shadow Contract: The Bodyguard’s War

Echo Triggers

The crack of the rifle blasted through the trees, sounding like a clap of thunder.

Damien lunged at Sophia, tackling her to the ground behind a fallen support beam. The bullet struck exactly where she’d just been standing, just an inch higher, and it could’ve been deadly.

Ash was quick on the draw, dropping to one knee and firing three precise shots into the treeline.

“Northwest ridge!” she shouted. “One shooter. Suppressed bolt-action. Pretty skilled.”

Damien pressed Sophia down, whispering, “Stay put. No matter what happens.”

Then he slipped into the shadows, becoming one with the night.

The forest was alive with the wind rustling, gunfire echoing, and leaves shifting. Damien moved quickly and low, using the landscape as cover as he circled toward the sniper’s hideout.

It was a pro setup. Low-key. Easy escape route.

But Damien had dealt with too many pros to be fooled.

He spotted the position hollowed-out ridge with a thermal blanket and an oil-stabilized bipod mount.

The shooter was long gone, but they left something behind.

A small data stick was wedged into the tree trunk message.

Carefully, Damien pulled it out and tucked it into his vest.

When he returned to the ruins, he found Sophia sitting there, arms wrapped around her knees, shaking, and covered in mud. Ash was crouched next to her, silent.

“They’re not just trying to scare us anymore,” Ash said quietly. “They want to finish this.”

Damien nodded and tossed her the drive. “Found this at the sniper’s spot.”

Ash plugged it into her encrypted tablet and frowned.

“It’s a sound file.”

She hit play.

A woman’s voice came through, young and panicked.

“You said I’d be safe… You said… You said it was just training”

Then a man’s voice interrupted, calm and chilling.

“We need your daughter. Not you.”

Sophia shot to her feet. “That’s my mother’s voice.”

Ash went still.

Damien felt a chill run through him.

The voice on the recording… the man?

It was Vale.

They were on the move again within the hour.

No arguments from Damien. No questions from Sophia. No smiles from Ash. Just a heavy silence.

They wound through back trails and abandoned mining roads until they reached an old signal bunkereftover from the Cold War, hidden beneath a fake farm shed. Safe. Quiet.

Inside, Sophia collapsed onto a cot. Ash set up surveillance scramblers.

Damien pulled out the tablet and replayed the message in private.

“We need your daughter. Not you.”

His fists clenched.

He’d always suspected Vale had ulterior motives. But this crossed a line drawn years ago. It changed everything.

Later that night, Damien found Sophia on the floor beside a wall of dusty filing cabinets, her face buried in her hands.

He knelt beside her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

“You don’t have to figure it all out right now.”

She looked up, her eyes red and puffy. “You knew, didn’t you? That my mother involved in this?”

“I had my suspicions.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because if you ran, I’d have to find you.”

She let out a bitter laugh. “You sound like a villain when you say that.”

Damien didn’t flinch. “Sometimes I am.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

Then Sophia asked, “If I’m a weapon… what happens when I go off?”

Damien didn’t have an answer.

The next day, Ash returned from a quick recon sweep, holding an old encrypted lockbox she’d dug up from beneath two feet of dirt near a signal relay tower.

Inside was a shockproof hard drive labeled ECLIPSE CORE BACKUP 2016

Ash plugged it in, bypassed the security protocols, and extracted a partial file.

It was a brain scan.

Sophia’s.

Date: March 12, 2016. Age: 18.

There was also a videoher sitting in a chair, wires attached to her head, eyes twitching behind closed lids.

Sophia watched in horror. “I don’t remember this.”

“You wouldn't,” Ash said. “They sedated you. Deeply.”

Damien read the session notes.

“Subject retained 89.3% of the cipher exposure. Neural echo…