The mission began to disintegrate the moment The Veils breached the high-traffic corporate tower in Berlin. The intelligence was fatally flawed.
Asher used a low-yield thermal charge to disable the electronic locks, and the team swept into the executive lobby, weapons raised but carefully shielded. The building was teeming with white-collar workers and visitors—a bustling scene of normal commerce. The Veils had to move like ghosts through the crowd, careful not to cause a panic that would compromise the extraction.
"This is a shell game," Amanda's voice sliced through the comms. "It's a complete misdirection. No hostage, no ransom money. They're using this high-traffic zone as cover."
Kyros, analyzing a discarded, encrypted manifest he snatched from a terminal, swore under his breath. "The Cartel wasn't operating in Berlin; they used the location to stall us. They wanted us to waste valuable hours here."
Before Samuel Blake could issue a tactical retreat, the main power fused. The floor plunged into the harsh red glow of emergency lighting, and chaos instantly erupted among the trapped civilians. Heavy steel blast doors slammed shut, sealing off all fire exits and trapping hundreds of screaming people inside.
"Ambush!" Kai yelled, bracing his weapon. "They knew our arrival window. They've locked the building and everyone inside."
Four heavy, professional enforcers, armed with assault rifles, surged out of a service area and opened fire, indifferent to the screaming civilians diving for cover. The coordinated attack forced Asher and Kai behind a decorative fountain that immediately began to chip under the gunfire.
Just as the two surviving enforcers closed for the kill near the stampeding crowd, Suddenly a smoke bomb dropped and a silent figure dropped from the ceiling vent above the guards. It was Alex Radekov.
He moved with the impossible grace of a phantom. Radekov did not use a gun; he wielded two heavy, short blades. He slipped between the two massive enforcers, his movements too fast for the human eye to track. One man's Achilles tendon was severed, and the other's rifle arm dropped, useless, paralyzed by a precise nerve strike. Alex left both men screaming in agony on the floor.
The instantaneous disruption gave The Veils the critical opening. Amanda executed the two disabled enforcers with clinical precision.
Alex paused only to retrieve his blades, turning his cold gaze toward the bewildered team. He moved to the only unbroken window, placed a non-explosive kinetic charge on the glass, and melted a silent escape hatch into the Berlin night. He looked directly at Amanda, a fleeting flicker of recognition in his eyes, before dropping out of the frame and vanishing.
"He is testing us," Samuel whispered, watching the dark street below. "He saved us twice, but with an escalating demonstration of force."
Kyros pointed to a small, nearly invisible inscription carved into the windowsill—the symbol of an ancient Roman coin. "They didn't just trick us; they signaled their next move. They've gone to Rome, Italy."
Within an hour, The Veils were airborne again, chasing the Cartel across the continent. They landed their secondary stealth jet in the desolate industrial docklands outside Rome. The Cartel had established their base in an abandoned oil processing facility—a colossal, rusted maze of pipes and narrow, exposed catwalks overlooking the Tiber River.
"Dario Moretti is confirmed to be inside," Samuel reported to the team. "This is a full-scale assault. We go loud, we go fast, and we secure the target."
The team moved like a single, lethal machine. Kai's suppressive fire was followed by the surgical precision of Asher and Amanda. The Cartel's security forces were overwhelming in number, but they were no match for the focused aggression of The Veils.
They found Dario Moretti, terrified but unharmed, locked in a concrete storage bunker.
"Target secured. Initiate immediate extraction," Samuel ordered over the satellite link.
As they waited on a high, unstable metal landing platform, the Cartel's final, desperate defense activated. A concealed heavy-caliber machine gun nest roared to life, pinning the team down.
Then, The Veils' primary extraction helicopter, the "Valkyrie," appeared over the river. But as it descended toward the landing platform, a massive anti-aircraft round—fired from a hidden industrial cannon—tore through the Valkyrie's main rotor housing.
The impact was catastrophic. Smoke boiled from the engine, and the crippled helicopter began to spin violently, plummeting straight toward the platform. A crash here would result in absolute annihilation.
Just as the massive, spinning chassis tipped into its final, terminal descent, Alex Radekov dropped onto the catwalk above.
With a deep, guttural sound of immense exertion, he positioned his broad shoulders and back beneath the heavy metal skid of the falling helicopter. The sound of stressed, warping metal was horrific, and the concrete platform cracked beneath Alex's boots..... A breath came, He caught it. He was not merely guiding the fall; he was physically carrying the crushing weight of the failing aircraft on his frame, holding it steady for the critical moment that allowed The Veils to scramble to safety.
Alex held the aircraft long enough to halt its momentum, then, with one final, violent shove of inhuman strength, he pushed the ruined chopper away from the landing platform and disappeared back into the thick smoke and shadows.
Silence returned to the docklands. Dario Moretti was safe, but The Veils were stranded, the victory soured by the cost.
"We're marooned," Kai said, but Kyros, crouched beside the fractured platform, interrupted him.
"He left a message," Kyros called out, holding up a custom-made data spike—advanced Veilbreakers tech. The spike immediately displayed the coordinates for a secure exfiltration point just a mile away, along with the access code for a Grade-A armored transport that had been covertly positioned.
"He didn't just save us; he secured our exit," Amanda realized, her voice low with dread. "He anticipated the crash, and already had the getaway vehicle waiting. Alex is five steps ahead of us, Samuel."
They used the transport to move Dario Moretti and themselves to a secondary jet rerouted from Berlin.
Back in the secure debriefing room at headquarters, the confidential file on Alex Radekov glowed on the main screen.
"He is not just strong, Samuel," Amanda stated, walking up to the screen featuring her former mentor, The White Wolf. "He was always better than the Division, always faster. But that kind of brute, sustained force... that is not human skill. That is a biological enhancement," she concluded, the realization chilling. "Alex Radekov didn't just survive Syria. He was transformed there. He is more than an operative now. He is an anomaly, and he has outgrown his own grave."
Samuel Blake leaned forward, his voice a low growl. "Then we aren't hunting a rogue agent anymore. We're hunting an anomaly. Find out what he became, and why he keeps letting us live."