CHAPTER 25
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Ghost Division – Mobile Black Site, Mid-Atlantic
The footage played on a loop inside Viper's visor.
The same three seconds, again and again:
Li Xuefang catching a bullet between gloved fingers, head tilted the way she used to when she was bored of killing.
His pulse hammered against the inside of his helmet.
Viper: …Fang baby.
The name tasted like seventeen-year-old blood.
He killed the feed with a snarl and opened the secure channel.
Oracle's silhouette bled crimson across the holo-table.
Oracle: Identity confirmed?
Viper: It's her. Same heartbeat pattern, same kill rhythm. She's stealing our Cases like they're souvenirs.
Oracle: Then she just declared war on Ghost.
Viper: Let me bring her? (Maniac) You know I do miss her.
Oracle: No. Bring me the sound of her screaming. Find what she loves. Break it in front of her.
Viper's gloved fingers flew.
In under nine seconds the darknet coughed up everything.
A Chinese art contest.
A presidential gala.
A painter throwing himself in front of her like a child, eyes wide with stupid, hopeless devotion.
Viper's mouth curved beneath the mask (slow, cruel recognition).
Viper: (Head tilting) Hmm. (Mumbled) See who has been cheating on me. (Out loud) Consider your order done.
Oracle: Make sure it hurts.
Viper: With great pleasure.
He laughed maniacally as his hand brushed into his hair.
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Manhattan – Le Papillon Noir, 11:46
Jiang Ren was laughing at something Colonel Mei said about Li's terrible taste in tea when a bomb interrupted.
The first explosion shredded the front of the restaurant in white-hot, glass turning into shrapnel rain.
Colonel Mei moved first, shoving Jiang under the table, gun already out.
But the second charge was shaped for them.
The blast wave punched the air from his lungs.
When the ringing stopped, three figures stood in the firelight.
Black exosuits.
Ghost Division.
The leader (Viper) crouched, viper tattoo glowing ember-red on his throat.
Viper: Hello, little painter.
Jiang tried to scream Li's name.
A gloved hand clamped over his mouth, needle kissing his carotid.
The world tilted, went soft, went black.
Colonel Mei rose from the rubble like a dying wolf, blood pouring from his side, gun shaking in both hands.
Colonel Mei: Release… him…
Colonel Mei fired until the slide locked back empty.
Viper didn't even blink.
The mono-filament whip sang once.
Mei's chest opened from ribs to hip.
He fell to his knees in the flames, still trying to crawl toward Jiang's unconscious body.
Viper leaned down, voice modulator stripped away just long enough for Colonel Mei to hear the real voice underneath.
Viper: Tell my Fang baby… Viper sends his love.
Then he was gone, Jiang slung over his shoulder like broken luggage.
The restaurant detonated a final time.
The roof collapsed in a roar of fire and screams.
–––
Twenty-one minutes later
Li Xuefang arrived running.
She vaulted the police tape before the SUV fully stopped, coat snapping behind her like a torn flag.
The air was thick with burning wood, melted plastic, and something sweeter (roasting flesh).
She found Colonel Mei on a backboard in the triage lane, half his torso blown open, blood bubbling with every breath.
Then the Aetherlock Wall echoed a crack.
Li dropped hard to one knee in the soot, hands hovering.
General Li: Mei, look at me. Mei!
Colonel Mei's eyes found hers (glassy, but still fighting).
Colonel Mei: (wet, smiling through red teeth) Took you… long enough… General…
Li gripped her hand so hard the bones creaked.
General Li: You're not dying. That's an order.
Colonel Mei laughed once, a broken sound.
Colonel Mei: They took him… Ghost Division… leader had the mark… black viper… eating the sun…
His fingers clawed weakly at Li's sleeve, leaving bloody prints.
Colonel Mei: He said… tell my Fang baby… Viper sends his love…
The monitor screamed flatline.
Li didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
The flames behind her painted her face in red-light.
A paramedic reached for her shoulder.
She caught the wrist mid-air, twisted until something cracked, eyes never leaving Mei's body.
General Li: 你必须活下去,梅.
TRANSLATION:
General Li: You have to survive, Mei.
... She remained there, quiet for some moment — then rose slowly.
Every firefighter, every cop, every survivor felt the temperature drop ten degrees when she turned.
Her pupils had contracted to pinpricks of pure, refined murder.
Through the smoke and sirens, through the taste of ash in her mouth, Li Xuefang spoke one word (quiet, precise, and final).
General Li: Kain.
The name left her lips like a bullet leaving the chamber.
Somewhere across the city, Jiang Ren woke up zip-tied in the dark, blood in his mouth, heart jackhammering with the certainty that the woman he loved, was stupid enough to love, was about to paint the world red to find him.
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