CHAPTER 26
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GCS Headquarters
Department XA, 04:17
Li Xuefang had not slept in fifty-one hours.
The wall was covered in satellite stills, thermal maps, darknet fragments: every trace of Jiang Ren ended in static. Ghost had scrubbed him from the planet.
She stood motionless in the center of the war-room, coat still dusted with soot from the restaurant, eyes blood-shot but unblinking.
Xynra: No quantum pings. No biometric echoes. They are using a Faraday cage inside a moving storm cell. I am sorry.
Li did not answer.
Then her encrypted lens flared crimson.
Incoming call – Ghost priority cipher.
She accepted before the fourth ring.
Kain's voice slid into her skull like frozen mercury.
Viper: Fang baby.
General Li: Where is he?
Viper: Who? Your mistress? Still breathing. For now.
General Li: Do not lay a finger on him...
Viper: (Maniac) Come on baby. You know my eyes are only on you. (Cackled lowly).
A pause filled with arctic wind.
Viper: You want the painter alive? Come get him. Alone.
Coordinates flashed across her vision: 83°24′N, 59°47′W.
Middle of the Greenland ice sheet. Nothing but white death for a thousand kilometers.
Viper: One life for one life. Yours for his. No teams. No drones. No tricks. If I smell GCS within a hundred kilometers, he dies cold and slow. You have fourteen hours.
The line died.
Ryan burst through the door, Archive and Dr. Stephanie on his heels.
Ryan: We just intercepted—
General Li: (Already walking) I'm going.
Ryan: Heck no. Not alone. We gear up, we drop in quiet—
General Li: (Without turning) He said alone.
Ryan: And you believe that psycho?
General Li: I believe he'll gut Jiang Ren on camera the second he sees a friendly signature.
She stopped at the armory cage, punched in her override, began pulling cold-weather gear.
Ryan: Then let me be the signature he doesn't see. I'm ghost-qualified, I—
General Li: (Voice like a guillotine) Rejected.
Ryan actually flinched.
Ryan: Xuefang—
General Li: Every second you argue, his fingers freeze off. Move.
She walked out.
The door sealed behind her with the finality of a coffin lid.
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Arctic Circle – 14 hours later
The twin-engine Otter touched down on skis, engines whining against −42 °C.
Li stepped onto the ice alone, black coat snapping in the katabatic wind, no parachute, no backup beacon.
A single suppressed pistol and a knife.
A black speck waited two kilometers out: a prefabricated shelter half-buried in snow. Li Xuefang was led into the undergoing facility where she saw Jiang Ren's silhouette from afar in a ward, on his knees, hands bound, face swollen and mouth gagged.
Four Ghost operators in white ghillie suits ringed him, rifles up.
Viper stood in the center, viper tattoo livid against the frost on his neck.
Viper: Weapon on the ice.
She dropped the pistol.
Viper: Knife too.
It followed.
Viper: Come to me.
She walked.
When she was ten meters away the first Aegis RX Pulse Rifle butt smashed into her kidney.
She dropped to one knee, blood already freezing on her lip.
They didn't stop.
Boots, rifle stocks, fists, activated aetherlashes (methodical, professional).
Ribs cracked. Vision tunneled.
Through the pain she saw Jiang screaming behind his gag, trying to crawl toward her, held back by two operators.
Viper gestured to them to stop as he walked up to the operators dealing with General Li.
Viper: Come now, You're being rude. Can't you see she's bleeding? She's bleeding!
He burst into a maniac laughter as he swirled gradually.
General Li: (Through red teeth) Physco...
Viper crouched, grabbed her hair, forced her face up.
Viper: (Whistled). Even despite the wounds, you still look so sexy.
General Li: And you still look... so miserable.
Viper: Miserable? (Laughed). (Grasps on her hair tightened) Want to know why?
He finally took off his mask, revealing a scar that ran from his eyebrow to the corner of his mouth.
Damn. Even with the scar, Kain—aka Viper—was still a hot, slender-black–haired menace.
Right. Villain.
Viper: (Pointing at the scar) YOU did this to ME.
General Li: …Damn… it felt… so good when— (coughs) when I ran that blade through your face…
Viper: (Pouting) Mm-hm. You're being rude.
His hand slid from her abdomen to her waist, deliberate and possessive.
Viper: I got you this time, Fang, baby. And there's nowhere to run. (Looks at Jiang Ren) You see, mistress—your fiancée is in my arms now.
General Li: You're going… to die, Kain.
Viper: Aw.
General Li: Ghost will abandon you too. They'll grind your bones to salt for the lies you—!
Viper drove an Echo Blade into Xuefang's side.
Jiang Ren's muffled screams grew frantic. Someone struck him harder, slamming him to the floor, but he didn't stop struggling.
Li Xuefang's body trembled like a leaf.
Viper used the same hand to cup her jaw, pressing his forehead against hers.
Viper: You should have stayed buried, Fang.
General Li: (Eyes fixed on the blade) A… accompany— (she glared at him) —me.
Before anyone could react, she drew a mono-filament dagger, plunged it into his heart, and twisted.
The distant thump of rotors finally reached them—too late, but loud.
General Li: Xynra. Now.
As she ripped the Echo Blade free and turned toward Ren, her Astra-Veil Combat (AVC) Armor spread across her body like liquid shadow, sealing wounds and locking into place.
Two operators raised their weapons at Jiang Ren.
They never fired. General Li moved.
Viper's Echo Blade pinned one to the wall—straight through the chest.
A Vanta-Edge Ion Disc (VEID) flashed past, severing the other's head in a clean arc.
Above them, Black Hawks—assassins secretly trained by Li herself—dropped through the cloud layer like falling stars.
Li Xuefang dropped to one knee, pain tearing through her.
Xynra: General. Vital integrity is declining rapidly. Recommend suit disengagement.
General Li: (Firm) Do not.
From the top floor, a shadow leaned over the railing.
A gun was aimed directly at Jiang Ren.
Li moved again.
Broken ribs, ruptured organs, half-blind from blood in her eyes (didn't matter).
She lunged..
The shot meant for Jiang Ren dug a red furrow across her shoulder instead.
Her VEID dealt with the shooter.
Gunfire erupted.
Black Hawks fast-jumping in.
Viper's men returning fire.
Viper: Heh… figures… The only woman I ever loved… would be the one to kill me.
Viper finally gave up the ghost.
Li grabbed Jiang, cut his bindings, hauled him toward the shelter wall.
They stumbled through the door into the blinding white.
They ran.
Behind them the shelter exploded (Viper's dead-man charges).
Ahead: nothing but endless ice.
Li dragged Jiang another fifty meters, lungs full of glass, blood trail bright as poppies on snow.
Then a shadow stepped out of the blizzard in front of them.
Tall.
Armored.
Visor blacked out.
The figure raised a hand to stop them.
In warning.
Li shoved Jiang behind her, knife gone, pistol gone, body failing.
A single step forward, and the wind swallowed everything.
Li's legs gave out.
Jiang caught her as she fell, screaming her name into the storm.
The last thing she saw before darkness took her was that black visor reflecting both their faces (hers and Jiang's).
Then the Arctic took them.
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EXTRA:
> Aegis-RX Pulse Rifle
Fires condensed energy bursts that phase through armor before detonating inside.
> Aetherlash
Energy whip formed from hard-light plasma; can cut steel or restrain without killing.
> Echo Knives/Blades
Blades that vibrate at molecular frequency, slicing silently.
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