THE GHOST PROTOCOL

CHAPTER FOUR: THE MAN IN THE BLACK MASK

Night dropped over the city like a curtain pulled too fast.

Adrian moved through the old industrial district with a limp in his left leg and blood drying across his jaw. His ribs throbbed from the explosion, but pain only sharpened him. Pain reminded him he was still alive.

He reached an abandoned railway yard, the meeting point Elias Ward forced into his pocket before dying.

A message written in the Commander’s handwriting:

“If you survived… come here. Midnight.”

Adrian didn’t trust it.

He didn’t trust anything anymore.

But Ward was the only person who might still hold a piece of the truth.

A piece Cipher hadn’t managed to burn.

The air smelled like rust and rain.

Wind rattled chains hanging from cranes long out of use.

Adrian scanned every rooftop, every shadow, every broken rail car.

Nothing moved.

Which meant danger was waiting.

He stepped between two rusted containers, boots silent on gravel. His hand brushed the pistol at his hip. Every sense stretched thin.

Then

A faint click.

Adrian froze.

Not a gun.

A pressure plate.

He shifted his weight just in time.

A trip mine detonated behind him, blasting the metal container into a cloud of shrapnel.

He hit the ground hard, rolled, and came up crouched.

Dark figures descended from the rail bridge above him like vultures dropping to a corpse.

Five.

No, seven.

Armed. Coordinated.

Kill squad.

Not random mercenaries.

These men moved like ghosts from his past.

One of them stepped forward wearing a black tactical mask, voice rough through the modulator.

“Cipher sends his regards, Kaine.”

Adrian didn’t blink.

“Step aside,” he said coldly.

“That’s not how this works. You weren’t supposed to survive the bunker. Or the docks. Or Ward.” The masked man tilted his head. “You really thought Elias called you here? He’s been dead for twelve hours.”

Adrian’s jaw clenched.

Another betrayal.

The masked man lifted a hand.

“Kill him.”

The squad surged forward.

Adrian moved first.

He slid behind the closest attacker, snapped the man’s wrist, stole his knife, and buried it under his ribcage before the body hit the ground.

A bullet grazed Adrian’s shoulder. He ignored it, grabbed a rusted chain, wrapped it around another attacker’s neck, kicked his knee backward, and dragged him to the ground.

Three more closed in, fast and professional.

Adrian rolled under an incoming strike, slammed an elbow into a jaw, kicked a knee sideways until bone cracked, and shot the third in the throat.

But the last two were different.

Bigger.

Heavier.

Trained like him.

One grabbed Adrian from behind in a chokehold. The other charged in with a combat blade.

Adrian twisted hard, slammed his head backward, felt cartilage crunch. The blade swung toward his chest,

Adrian trapped the attacker’s wrist, rotated, and the knife plunged into the second man’s abdomen instead.

Both men dropped.

The entire fight lasted less than thirty seconds.

Cold.

Efficient.

Silent.

Adrian stood over their bodies, chest rising and falling slowly.

Only the man in the mask remained.

He clapped slowly.

“Well done, Kaine. The ghost still has teeth.”

Adrian raised the pistol at him. “Who are you?”

The masked head tilted.

“You knew me once.”

Adrian’s finger tightened on the trigger.

“But not like this.”

The masked man didn’t reach for a weapon. Instead, he pointed at a rail control tower across the yard.

A dim light flickered inside.

“Cipher is watching,” he said. “He wanted you to see this.”

Adrian didn’t lower his weapon.

The masked man’s voice dropped, colder than steel.

“You think Ward was your only traitor?”

Wind pushed through the yard, carrying the smell of smoke.

“You think your squad died because one man sold you out?”

Adrian didn’t move, but his heartbeat slowed, the old feeling of dread crawling up his spine.

“No, Kaine,” the masked man continued. “Your squad died because someone much closer to you signed the order.”

The words hit harder than any bullet.

Adrian took a step forward. “Who?”

The man in the mask laughed softly, a sound almost familiar.

“I’ll give you a name.”

He reached up, fingers gripping the edges of the mask.

Adrian raised his gun higher.

The masked man pulled the mask halfway off,

A shock of dark hair.

A scar Adrian knew.

A face,

But before he could reveal fully, a laser dot snapped onto his chest.

Adrian reacted first.

“MOVE!”

Too late.

A sniper round tore through the masked man’s heart, throwing him backward into a pile of steel beams.

Adrian spun, searching for the shooter, nothing. The rooftops were empty. The shadows still.

Cipher had just silenced his own man.

Adrian rushed to the fallen masked body, grabbed the edge of the mask,

Another click.

This one is louder.

He knew the sound instantly.

A timed explosive under the corpse.

Adrian leaped back as the yard lit up with white heat and roaring fire.

The blast threw him across the tracks, slamming him into a rail wagon. His ears rang. His vision swam. Smoke choked the air.

He looked up through the haze,

The rail control tower across the yard lit up.

A silhouette stood behind the cracked window.

Watching him.

A voice crackled through the tower speakers, distorted and calm:

“Good evening, Adrian. We’ve waited a long time to speak.”

Cipher.

The real one.

Adrian staggered to his feet.

But before he could take a step, the tower’s lights shifted.

A red glow pulsed along the walls.

A warning beep echoed like a heartbeat.

The entire tower was wired.

Explosives.

All of them primed.

Cipher’s voice whispered through the yard:

“Run.”

The tower detonated in a blinding fireball, collapsing toward Adrian in a storm of steel and flame.