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CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE: THE TWELVE MINUTES THAT BURN
The tunnel swallowed Adrian whole.Dark, damp, narrow enough that his shoulders brushed concrete on both sides as he ran. The blind spot device Irena had given him pulsed once in his palm, a low vibration like a second heartbeat, then went still. Twelve minutes. That was all Cipher would give him. Twelve minutes of nonexistence.Behind him, the tunnel sealed with a concussive thud. Metal screaming as it fused. The sound of gunfire came next, muffled but unmistakable, sharp cracks echoing through stone like distant thunder.Irena.Adrian forced himself not to slow. Not to turn back. That was the rule. Survival first. Regret later.The service tunnel bent sharply left, then split again. Old transit maps flickered through his mind, overlaid with what Cipher had rewritten. He took the narrower passage, boots splashing through ankle deep water that stank of rust and oil. Emergency lights flickered weakly, then died altogether.It's totally dark.He kept moving by memory, by feel, by instin
CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO: THE BLIND SPOT AFTER THE KISS
The tunnel swallowed Adrian whole.Metal groaned shut behind him as the emergency seal slammed into place, drowning out the gunfire and Irena’s voice mid-command. The sound cut clean, like a wire snapped under tension. For a heartbeat he stood there, hand still half-raised where her back had been, breath uneven, the taste of smoke and rain lingering in his mouth.Twelve minutes.That was all she had given him.Adrian forced himself to move.The service tunnel sloped downward, damp and narrow, cables snaking along the walls like exposed nerves. Emergency lights flickered at irregular intervals, painting the concrete in bruised reds and dying ambers. He ran, boots splashing through shallow water, mind splitting into compartments the way it always did under pressure.One part counted time.One part mapped exits.One part replayed her kiss with dangerous clarity.Calculated, she had said.Misdirection.A lie meant to protect them both.And yet his pulse refused to steady.He reached the f
CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE: THE WOMAN WITH THE WRONG ORDERS
The woman appeared where no one should have been able to.Adrian noticed her only because the rain changed.Not the sound. The rhythm.One moment it struck the broken overpass in a steady metallic hiss. The next, it hesitated, splintered, as if the air itself had flinched.He slowed without stopping, instincts sharpening. The safe corridor Mara had burned open for him narrowed ahead, concrete ribs arching overhead like a collapsed throat. City power was dead here. Only emergency glow strips pulsed faintly along the ground, red and unreliable.She stood beneath one of them.Black coat. No insignia. Hair pulled back tight enough to mean business. A compact rifle hung loose in her hands, muzzle angled down, finger nowhere near the trigger.Not sloppy.Deliberate.Adrian counted three breaths before she spoke.“You’re late,” she said.Her voice carried no accent he could place. Clean. Controlled. Too calm for a kill zone.“I didn’t know we had an appointment,” Adrian replied, not breaking
CHAPTER SEVENTY: THE POINT OF NO RETURN
The city did not sleep.It convulsed.Power surged through half functioning grids, lights flaring and dying in unpredictable waves. Sirens wailed without pattern. Drones burned as they fell from the sky, their guidance systems overridden mid-flight. Across the skyline, buildings flickered with emergency beacons as if the city itself were blinking in pain.Cipher’s influence was no longer invisible.It was loud.Adrian Kaine stood at the edge of the rooftop, rain soaking into his jacket, the wind pressing against him like a warning. Below, the streets fractured into chaos. Military convoys collided with civilian traffic. Armed men who no longer knew who they answered opened fire on shadows. Data towers pulsed with corrupted light, broadcasting signals no one could fully trace.This was the Ghost Protocol fully awake.Behind him, Mara worked at a portable console scavenged from Cipher’s command hub. Her fingers flew across the interface, blood streaked along one knuckle where glass had
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE: THE SIGNAL THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
The underground complex was still shaking when the lights died completely, not flickering this time but collapsing into true darkness. Concrete dust drifted through the air in slow clouds, catching in throats and burning lungs. Somewhere far above, steel screamed as supports twisted under stress.Adrian Kaine stood in the dark with his hand wrapped around a live cable, electricity biting into his palm but not enough to slow him. His heart hammered once, twice, then steadied.He had felt this moment coming.Around him, Cipher soldiers shouted orders that dissolved into confusion as their HUDs went blind. Guns clicked uselessly as smart targeting failed. Doors that should have been sealed refused to respond.The machine had lost sync.Lorenzo staggered into Adrian’s shoulder, breath ragged, blood running from his hairline. “Tell me this was intentional.”Adrian didn’t answer immediately. His eyes were fixed on the far wall where the emergency systems should have kicked in.They didn’t.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT: THE THRESHOLD THAT REMEMBERS
The facility was not collapsing.That was the first thing Adrian understood as they ran.Collapsing structures screamed, cracked, and failed loudly. This place was doing none of that. The corridors remained pristine, lights still humming at regulated intervals, walls unscarred despite the chaos rippling through the system.Cipher wasn’t dying.It was shedding skin.“Left,” Mara snapped, already moving before Adrian processed the junction ahead.He followed without question, boots pounding against steel floors that felt faintly warm, like something alive beneath the surface. Lorenzo was a half step behind, limping but upright, jaw clenched hard enough to draw blood.Sirens wailed overhead, not alarms but signals. A language the facility spoke to itself.Adrian felt it again. That subtle pressure behind his eyes. Recognition. Not command, not control. Memory.“This place knows you,” Lorenzo said hoarsely, as if sensing it too.Adrian didn’t answer.They burst into a circular chamber and
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