The Return of The Phantom General

"Let go of me, you bastard! Don't touch me with your filthy hands! My mother is still inside; she needs her medicine!"Lisa Thorne's scream shattered the silence of the slums on the outskirts of Zurich. Her voice was hoarse. However, the protest meant nothing to the burly man currently dragging her. The man's grip on Lisa's arm was so tight that the girl winced in pain."Shut up, Sweetheart. Mr. Sterling doesn't like women who are too noisy, unless that noise is a moan," the bodyguard said with a chuckle, dragging Lisa through the piles of dirty snow in the courtyard of the dilapidated apartment complex."Help! Someone, please call the police!" Lisa screamed again, her legs kicking at the air, trying to find footing on the slippery ice."Police?" Another voice answered. "In this city, I am the one who pays the police's salaries, my dear Lisa."Julian Sterling stood beside a gleaming black Bentley. He wore an expensive fox fur coat. His face was handsome, typical of a Swiss tycoon. He

The bullet flew. But before it could touch Caleb's skin, a pitch-black shadow hand emerged from the ground, catching the bullet in mid-air as if catching a fly. The shadow hand crushed the bullet into metal powder.Julian watched as Caleb's shadow on the snow expanded, swallowing the light from the streetlamp. From within that shadow, horrifying grins began to emerge. Hungry ghostly faces, their tongues lolling out, licking towards Julian's feet."You... you are demons!" Julian threw his empty pistol. His sanity cracked.He no longer saw Caleb as a human. He saw a Devil in human form ready to swallow his soul. His expensive dress pants were instantly soaked. The sharp smell of urine filled the cold air."Mercy! Don't eat me! Don't eat me!"Julian turned and ran. He no longer cared about his car. He didn't care about his pride. He limped through the thick snow, screaming like a child chased by a monster from under the bed."Sir! Wait for me!" Boris, the tattooed bodyguard, scrambled to

The first second after the lights shattered was pure chaos. Gunshots erupted wildly from four directions, creating blinding flashes.BANG! BANG! BANG!"Shoot! Kill him! Shoot at the table!" screamed Dimitri, his voice panicked, drowned out by the roar of automatic weapons.Bullets whizzed through the air, shattering glasses, wine bottles on the back shelf, and the wall mirror. Shards of glass rained down on the floor like sharp diamonds.However, there was no sound of a body falling. No groan of pain from their target.There was only a hissing sound. Like the sound of thousands of snakes slithering over dry leaves."Stop! Stop shooting, you idiots! You could hit me!" shrieked The Viper. Her voice came from the direction of Caleb's table, but it was now trembling violently. "There is something... there is something holding my leg!""Turn on NVGs! Turn them on now!" ordered Dimitri.In the corner of the room near the kitchen door, an assassin named Sergei, the team's tactical specialist

Floor 30. CEO's Office.Marcus Sterling was pouring a drink into a glass. He heard the alarms below, but he was confident his forces had already taken care of the intruder."Probably just a madman with a toy bomb," Marcus muttered, trying to calm himself.Ding.The sound of the elevator was heard from the end of the hallway outside his office door.Marcus put down his glass. He opened his desk drawer, taking out a pistol. He aimed the gun at his office door.Footsteps.One. Two. Three.The footsteps echoed.Then stopped right in front of the door."Who's there?!" shouted Marcus, trying to sound brave. "I'm armed! Come in and I'll fill you with holes!"No answer. No words.BAM!The five-inch thick door wasn't opened. It was kicked.The hinges holding it were torn from the concrete wall. The heavy door flew across the room like a sheet of cardboard, smashing into a display cabinet and shattering it to pieces.In the now gaping doorway, Caleb Thorne stood. Thin smoke rose from the tips o

Meanwhile, in Lisa Thorne's shabby apartment.Lisa was sitting on the floor, surrounded by old suitcases filled with clothes. She was crying while folding her mother's sweater. She was ready to run. She was sure her brother would fail or even be arrested by the police."We have to go to the train station, Mom," Lisa sobbed. "We'll go to Auntie's village in the South of France. It's safe there.""But Caleb hasn't come home," Martha groped the air anxiously. "We can't leave Caleb.""Brother has gone crazy, Mom! He went to the mafia headquarters! He won't come b—"TING!A loud SMS notification sound from Lisa's phone cut her off. The cracked-screen phone vibrated on the wooden table.Lisa wiped her tears roughly. Maybe it was a threat from Julian? or a warning from the police?With trembling hands, Lisa picked up the phone. The screen lit up brightly in the dim room.SMS FROM: BANK OF ZURICHMESSAGE: Transfer received from Account XXX-STERLING.AMOUNT: CHF 500,000,000.00ENDING BALANCE: