Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 22: Chapter 22
You are reading Beneath the Billionaire Mask, Chapter 22: Chapter 22. Read more chapters of Beneath the Billionaire Mask.
New York City – Blackwood Private Terminal – 3:08 PM
Rain slicked the tarmac, clouds hanging low like bruises in the sky. The jet’s wheels screeched lightly as they touched down—smooth, quiet, forgettable. Just another private arrival in a city too loud to care.
But nothing about this return was ordinary.
Inside the cabin, Elena stood before the hatch, her nerves coiled tight beneath her skin. Her hand hovered near the small pistol tucked beneath her coat—standard Foundation issue, untraceable. It wasn’t fear that made her grip it tighter. It was instinct. Something in her gut whispered that this city no longer felt like home.
Adrian descended slowly behind her, his limp still sharp despite the painkillers. His eyes scanned the airstrip, sharp, calculating. Every movement was a test. Every second, a potential ambush.
Liana met them at the base of the stairs, soaked to the elbows, earpiece crackling.
“No tail,” she reported. “At least not one we can see.”
Elena arched an eyebrow. “That’s not exactly comforting.”
“It’s not meant to be.”
They climbed into the SUV waiting near the hangar—black, armored, government-exempt plates. The city stretched in all directions as they pulled away—an empire built on secrets, and about to drown in them.
Julia King’s Apartment – 3:41 PM
Julia had triple-locked the door. She hadn’t left the apartment since the file decrypted. Every sound outside sent her stomach twisting—elevators, sirens, even footsteps in the hallway.
The city hadn’t changed, but she had.
When the knock came, she didn’t open it. Not at first.
Then she heard Elena’s voice. “It’s us.”
Only then did the door swing open.
Elena stepped in first, followed by Adrian and Liana. The apartment smelled like burnt coffee and cold sweat. Screens lined Julia’s desk—code streaming across each of them.
“Jesus,” she said, pulling Elena into a quick, breathless hug. “You look like hell.”
“Same to you.”
Adrian stepped toward the screens. “You opened it?”
Julia nodded. “Half. The rest is sealed behind biometric encryption. I couldn’t bypass it without triggering a full wipe.”
“Biometric?” Elena asked. “Like fingerprints?”
“No. Retinal and voice.”
Julia clicked her mouse.
The screen displayed a lock symbol. Under it, one line:
Clearance Protocol: CRUZ-BLACKWOOD Access Required.
Elena froze. “That’s not random.”
“No,” Adrian said. “It’s a contingency.”
“Which means someone planned for us to find this together,” Julia added. “Or someone knew we’d be the last ones standing.”
Liana crossed her arms. “So let’s open it.”
Elena glanced at Adrian. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
They stepped forward. Julia initiated the scan.
“Retinal Scan: Confirmed. Voice Authentication: Pending.”
Adrian spoke first. “Blackwood. Adrian.”
A pause.
Then Elena: “Cruz. Elena.”
The lock blinked once.
Twice.
“Clearance Confirmed. Welcome, successors.”
The screen went black.
Then white text spilled onto it.
FILE: PROJECT NIGHTFALL
CLASSIFICATION: OMEGA
PRIORITY THREAT LEVEL: CRIMSON
PRIMARY FUNCTION: CONTAINMENT & TERMINATION OF INTERNAL ASSETS COMPROMISED BY PSYCHOLOGICAL FRACTURE, INTELLIGENCE BREACH, OR IDEOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE.
LIST OF ACTIVE TARGETS (AUTO-GENERATED):
1. CRUZ, ELENA
2. KING, JULIA
3. BLACKWOOD, ADRIAN
4. ??? [CENSORED]
“NIGHTFALL WAS NEVER A PROTOCOL FOR ENEMIES.
IT WAS FOR ALLIES WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.”
The room went dead silent.
Julia stepped back from the screen, blood draining from her face. “We’re not just looking at a kill list. We’re on it.”
Adrian’s fingers curled into fists.
“This wasn’t meant to protect anyone,” he said. “It was meant to erase loose ends.”
Elena swallowed hard. “Someone activated this.”
“No,” Julia whispered, backing up. “Someone never deactivated it.”
Liana’s comms buzzed once. She answered quickly, then froze.
“What is it?” Elena asked.
Liana’s eyes flicked up, sharp. “I just got word. There’s been a breach at the Foundation.”
“Breach?” Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Server room fire. And a missing security agent. The one assigned to oversee your father’s vault backup—Agent Monroe.”
Elena’s stomach turned. “That name… I saw it in the ROOK-72 logs.”
Liana nodded. “Then we just found our mole.”
Elsewhere – Unknown Location – 4:03 PM
Agent Monroe stood in a darkened room, his face half-lit by monitors. Marcus Vale’s voice crackled through the speaker overhead.
“They opened the file.”
Monroe’s jaw tightened. “Are we cleared for Phase Two?”
“No,” Marcus replied. “They still believe this is about me.”
He chuckled lowly.
“Let them run. Let them panic. They’re only running toward the real enemy now.”
Blackwood Foundation – Undisclosed Server Room (Flashback) – 7 Years Ago
The room buzzed with electricity, cold and clinical. Walls lined with servers blinked in rhythmic pulses, the heartbeat of a secret no one was meant to find.
Guillermo Cruz stood over a console, hands gloved, eyes sharp behind thick-rimmed glasses. He typed without hesitation—line after line of code that pulsed red the moment he hit enter.
PROJECT NIGHTFALL – ALGORITHM STABILITY: 87%
Asset Containment Logic: ENABLED
Adaptive Threat Assessment: LIVE
A man stood behind him. Older. Suited. A Blackwood by blood, but colder than Adrian would ever become.
Robert Blackwood.
“You’re sure this is the only way?” he asked.
Cruz didn’t stop typing. “You built a machine that can’t be trusted. A web of secrets stacked so high it’s collapsing under its own weight. If even one operative turns—”
“They won’t.”
“They always do.” Cruz paused, voice lower. “Even your own son will question you, one day.”
Robert stepped closer. “Then make sure the system doesn’t.”
Cruz’s jaw tightened. He hit the final key.
NIGHTFALL – ARMED
Failsafe triggered: Initiation protocol locked. Authorized access: CRUZ-BLACKWOOD only.
Present – Julia’s Apartment – 4:19 PM
Elena’s breath hitched as the footage finished playing.
“That’s him,” she whispered. “That’s my father. He… he didn’t just try to escape Nightfall. He helped create it.”
Julia sat in stunned silence.
Adrian rubbed his temple, the pain in his eyes deeper than any wound. “He built the key. But he also built the lock.”
Elena paced, hand trembling near her badge.
“Then why did he run? Why leave this behind?”
“Because he realized what it could become,” Julia said. “And he couldn’t stop it.”
Adrian stood slowly. “Which means the only way to finish this… is to dismantle it from inside.”
Elena looked up. “You want to go back into the Foundation?”
He nodded. “I still have one active admin override left. One chance to purge Nightfall from the source.”
Julia stepped in. “And if you’re wrong? If the override’s been corrupted?”
“Then we make our stand there,” he said. “Because the people who built Nightfall won’t wait. They’ll come for us next. And we either bury it—”
“—or it buries us,” Elena finished.
Outside, thunder cracked.
A new storm was coming.
And this time, it had names.
Blackwood Foundation – Exterior Surveillance Feed – LIVE – 4:31 PM
A silent figure moved across the Foundation’s restricted wing—hooded, badge-cloaked, precise. He bypassed the thermal sensors with ease, using blind spots mapped years ago. Security didn’t even flinch.
Inside his pocket was a data drive.
Inside the data drive was everything.
And on the basement floor, where the servers hissed like sleeping serpents, Agent Monroe inserted the drive and walked away—without ever looking back.
Julia’s Apartment – 4:42 PM
Liana’s phone lit up.
“Shit,” she muttered. “Adrian. There’s been another breach.”
Elena spun. “Where?”
“The Foundation. But not the server room. This time it was physical access—vault-level clearance. Someone tampered with the archive again.”
Adrian’s fists clenched. “That’s impossible. That floor was locked down.”
Liana nodded grimly. “Not anymore.”
Adrian turned to Elena. “We don’t have days. We don’t even have hours.”
Julia’s voice was a whisper. “We have minutes.”
Somewhere Across the City – Unmarked Warehouse – 4:57 PM
Marcus Vale watched the camera feed from a dusty monitor. He looked pale, half-bandaged, one arm wrapped in a crude sling. But his eyes? They were wide open.
He rewound the surveillance again.
Paused.
Zoomed.
On the screen was Elena, standing beside Adrian. Their profiles, side by side, reflected in Julia’s laptop screen as the NIGHTFALL file played.
“I told you,” Marcus murmured. “She’s not just part of the story anymore.”
His phone buzzed.
He answered. “Monroe?”
A pause.
A whisper.
Then Marcus smiled.
“Perfect. Let them believe they’re close. They haven’t even seen the real war yet.”
Julia’s Apartment – 5:02 PM
Elena stood at the window, the skyline stretching before her like a graveyard of lies.
“You okay?” Adrian asked softly, coming to her side.
She nodded slowly. “Just thinking.”
“About what?”
She turned to him.
“If my father helped build Nightfall…” Her voice caught. “Then who designed the part meant to destroy me?”
Adrian said nothing.
But the silence answered everything.
If Elena was never supposed to survive Nightfall… was her entire investigation orchestrated from the start?
Rain slicked the tarmac, clouds hanging low like bruises in the sky. The jet’s wheels screeched lightly as they touched down—smooth, quiet, forgettable. Just another private arrival in a city too loud to care.
But nothing about this return was ordinary.
Inside the cabin, Elena stood before the hatch, her nerves coiled tight beneath her skin. Her hand hovered near the small pistol tucked beneath her coat—standard Foundation issue, untraceable. It wasn’t fear that made her grip it tighter. It was instinct. Something in her gut whispered that this city no longer felt like home.
Adrian descended slowly behind her, his limp still sharp despite the painkillers. His eyes scanned the airstrip, sharp, calculating. Every movement was a test. Every second, a potential ambush.
Liana met them at the base of the stairs, soaked to the elbows, earpiece crackling.
“No tail,” she reported. “At least not one we can see.”
Elena arched an eyebrow. “That’s not exactly comforting.”
“It’s not meant to be.”
They climbed into the SUV waiting near the hangar—black, armored, government-exempt plates. The city stretched in all directions as they pulled away—an empire built on secrets, and about to drown in them.
Julia King’s Apartment – 3:41 PM
Julia had triple-locked the door. She hadn’t left the apartment since the file decrypted. Every sound outside sent her stomach twisting—elevators, sirens, even footsteps in the hallway.
The city hadn’t changed, but she had.
When the knock came, she didn’t open it. Not at first.
Then she heard Elena’s voice. “It’s us.”
Only then did the door swing open.
Elena stepped in first, followed by Adrian and Liana. The apartment smelled like burnt coffee and cold sweat. Screens lined Julia’s desk—code streaming across each of them.
“Jesus,” she said, pulling Elena into a quick, breathless hug. “You look like hell.”
“Same to you.”
Adrian stepped toward the screens. “You opened it?”
Julia nodded. “Half. The rest is sealed behind biometric encryption. I couldn’t bypass it without triggering a full wipe.”
“Biometric?” Elena asked. “Like fingerprints?”
“No. Retinal and voice.”
Julia clicked her mouse.
The screen displayed a lock symbol. Under it, one line:
Clearance Protocol: CRUZ-BLACKWOOD Access Required.
Elena froze. “That’s not random.”
“No,” Adrian said. “It’s a contingency.”
“Which means someone planned for us to find this together,” Julia added. “Or someone knew we’d be the last ones standing.”
Liana crossed her arms. “So let’s open it.”
Elena glanced at Adrian. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
They stepped forward. Julia initiated the scan.
“Retinal Scan: Confirmed. Voice Authentication: Pending.”
Adrian spoke first. “Blackwood. Adrian.”
A pause.
Then Elena: “Cruz. Elena.”
The lock blinked once.
Twice.
“Clearance Confirmed. Welcome, successors.”
The screen went black.
Then white text spilled onto it.
FILE: PROJECT NIGHTFALL
CLASSIFICATION: OMEGA
PRIORITY THREAT LEVEL: CRIMSON
PRIMARY FUNCTION: CONTAINMENT & TERMINATION OF INTERNAL ASSETS COMPROMISED BY PSYCHOLOGICAL FRACTURE, INTELLIGENCE BREACH, OR IDEOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE.
LIST OF ACTIVE TARGETS (AUTO-GENERATED):
1. CRUZ, ELENA
2. KING, JULIA
3. BLACKWOOD, ADRIAN
4. ??? [CENSORED]
“NIGHTFALL WAS NEVER A PROTOCOL FOR ENEMIES.
IT WAS FOR ALLIES WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.”
The room went dead silent.
Julia stepped back from the screen, blood draining from her face. “We’re not just looking at a kill list. We’re on it.”
Adrian’s fingers curled into fists.
“This wasn’t meant to protect anyone,” he said. “It was meant to erase loose ends.”
Elena swallowed hard. “Someone activated this.”
“No,” Julia whispered, backing up. “Someone never deactivated it.”
Liana’s comms buzzed once. She answered quickly, then froze.
“What is it?” Elena asked.
Liana’s eyes flicked up, sharp. “I just got word. There’s been a breach at the Foundation.”
“Breach?” Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Server room fire. And a missing security agent. The one assigned to oversee your father’s vault backup—Agent Monroe.”
Elena’s stomach turned. “That name… I saw it in the ROOK-72 logs.”
Liana nodded. “Then we just found our mole.”
Elsewhere – Unknown Location – 4:03 PM
Agent Monroe stood in a darkened room, his face half-lit by monitors. Marcus Vale’s voice crackled through the speaker overhead.
“They opened the file.”
Monroe’s jaw tightened. “Are we cleared for Phase Two?”
“No,” Marcus replied. “They still believe this is about me.”
He chuckled lowly.
“Let them run. Let them panic. They’re only running toward the real enemy now.”
Blackwood Foundation – Undisclosed Server Room (Flashback) – 7 Years Ago
The room buzzed with electricity, cold and clinical. Walls lined with servers blinked in rhythmic pulses, the heartbeat of a secret no one was meant to find.
Guillermo Cruz stood over a console, hands gloved, eyes sharp behind thick-rimmed glasses. He typed without hesitation—line after line of code that pulsed red the moment he hit enter.
PROJECT NIGHTFALL – ALGORITHM STABILITY: 87%
Asset Containment Logic: ENABLED
Adaptive Threat Assessment: LIVE
A man stood behind him. Older. Suited. A Blackwood by blood, but colder than Adrian would ever become.
Robert Blackwood.
“You’re sure this is the only way?” he asked.
Cruz didn’t stop typing. “You built a machine that can’t be trusted. A web of secrets stacked so high it’s collapsing under its own weight. If even one operative turns—”
“They won’t.”
“They always do.” Cruz paused, voice lower. “Even your own son will question you, one day.”
Robert stepped closer. “Then make sure the system doesn’t.”
Cruz’s jaw tightened. He hit the final key.
NIGHTFALL – ARMED
Failsafe triggered: Initiation protocol locked. Authorized access: CRUZ-BLACKWOOD only.
Present – Julia’s Apartment – 4:19 PM
Elena’s breath hitched as the footage finished playing.
“That’s him,” she whispered. “That’s my father. He… he didn’t just try to escape Nightfall. He helped create it.”
Julia sat in stunned silence.
Adrian rubbed his temple, the pain in his eyes deeper than any wound. “He built the key. But he also built the lock.”
Elena paced, hand trembling near her badge.
“Then why did he run? Why leave this behind?”
“Because he realized what it could become,” Julia said. “And he couldn’t stop it.”
Adrian stood slowly. “Which means the only way to finish this… is to dismantle it from inside.”
Elena looked up. “You want to go back into the Foundation?”
He nodded. “I still have one active admin override left. One chance to purge Nightfall from the source.”
Julia stepped in. “And if you’re wrong? If the override’s been corrupted?”
“Then we make our stand there,” he said. “Because the people who built Nightfall won’t wait. They’ll come for us next. And we either bury it—”
“—or it buries us,” Elena finished.
Outside, thunder cracked.
A new storm was coming.
And this time, it had names.
Blackwood Foundation – Exterior Surveillance Feed – LIVE – 4:31 PM
A silent figure moved across the Foundation’s restricted wing—hooded, badge-cloaked, precise. He bypassed the thermal sensors with ease, using blind spots mapped years ago. Security didn’t even flinch.
Inside his pocket was a data drive.
Inside the data drive was everything.
And on the basement floor, where the servers hissed like sleeping serpents, Agent Monroe inserted the drive and walked away—without ever looking back.
Julia’s Apartment – 4:42 PM
Liana’s phone lit up.
“Shit,” she muttered. “Adrian. There’s been another breach.”
Elena spun. “Where?”
“The Foundation. But not the server room. This time it was physical access—vault-level clearance. Someone tampered with the archive again.”
Adrian’s fists clenched. “That’s impossible. That floor was locked down.”
Liana nodded grimly. “Not anymore.”
Adrian turned to Elena. “We don’t have days. We don’t even have hours.”
Julia’s voice was a whisper. “We have minutes.”
Somewhere Across the City – Unmarked Warehouse – 4:57 PM
Marcus Vale watched the camera feed from a dusty monitor. He looked pale, half-bandaged, one arm wrapped in a crude sling. But his eyes? They were wide open.
He rewound the surveillance again.
Paused.
Zoomed.
On the screen was Elena, standing beside Adrian. Their profiles, side by side, reflected in Julia’s laptop screen as the NIGHTFALL file played.
“I told you,” Marcus murmured. “She’s not just part of the story anymore.”
His phone buzzed.
He answered. “Monroe?”
A pause.
A whisper.
Then Marcus smiled.
“Perfect. Let them believe they’re close. They haven’t even seen the real war yet.”
Julia’s Apartment – 5:02 PM
Elena stood at the window, the skyline stretching before her like a graveyard of lies.
“You okay?” Adrian asked softly, coming to her side.
She nodded slowly. “Just thinking.”
“About what?”
She turned to him.
“If my father helped build Nightfall…” Her voice caught. “Then who designed the part meant to destroy me?”
Adrian said nothing.
But the silence answered everything.
If Elena was never supposed to survive Nightfall… was her entire investigation orchestrated from the start?
End of Beneath the Billionaire Mask Chapter 22. Continue reading Chapter 23 or return to Beneath the Billionaire Mask book page.