Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 25: Chapter 25
You are reading Beneath the Billionaire Mask, Chapter 25: Chapter 25. Read more chapters of Beneath the Billionaire Mask.
Safehouse Echo – Bogotá – 10:36 AM
The sun hadn’t shown its face since the raid. The sky hung heavy and gray over the safehouse, casting everything inside in a colorless haze. Elena stood at the window, her hands wrapped around a chipped mug of black coffee she hadn’t touched.
Behind her, Adrian slept fitfully, the painkillers barely holding the edge off. His shoulder was wrapped tight, the gauze already needing changing again. But it wasn’t his wounds that haunted her.
It was the silence.
The eerie calm between one explosion and the next.
Liana moved quietly around the kitchen, scanning a holographic projection from Adrian’s encrypted laptop. Data from the Black Archive pulsed across the screen—names, operations, surveillance maps. Threads of a web they hadn’t fully untangled yet.
“He was right,” Liana said, voice low. “Your father tried to destroy it before it got out of hand. But someone beat him to the trigger.”
Elena tore her gaze away from the rain-blurred horizon. “Marcus?”
“No. Someone higher. We still don’t know who gave the order to initiate NIGHTFALL.”
Elena crossed the room, staring at the screen. One name blinked at the top of the decrypted file: Cassian Blackwood.
Adrian’s father.
She felt a chill crawl down her spine.
“I thought Cassian died before any of this could happen,” Elena said.
“He did.” Liana turned to her, frowning. “But this file was logged two days before his death. Someone forged a posthumous clearance… or he didn’t die when everyone thought he did.”
Elena’s stomach twisted. “You’re saying Adrian’s father might be alive?”
“I’m saying he might’ve never left the war.”
The sound of movement behind them broke the tension. Adrian stirred in the bedroom, groaning as he pushed himself up.
“Elena,” he rasped.
She was at his side in seconds.
“You should be resting—”
“I need to know where Marcus is.”
“You’re not ready for that,” Liana said, stepping in. “And neither are we.”
Adrian looked at Elena, then Liana, then the screen. “He won’t stop. Not until he finishes what he started.”
“And what exactly is that?” Elena asked quietly.
Adrian didn’t answer. Not right away. His jaw flexed as his hand curled around the edge of the bed.
“NIGHTFALL wasn’t just a black project. It was a fail-safe. My father built it to erase everything—every person, every name—if the truth ever got too close to the surface.”
Elena felt her throat go dry. “Erase as in—”
“Wipe out. Kill. Blacklist. Disappear.”
“And Marcus has access to it now?”
“No,” Adrian said, eyes dark. “But he’s trying to finish it. In his own way.”
Liana leaned over the screen. “We need to find the last node. The access key that lets someone activate what’s left of NIGHTFALL.”
Elena looked back at the monitor. A map of New York slowly resolved—coordinates pulsing red.
“The key isn’t digital,” Liana muttered. “It’s human.”
Adrian’s voice cut through the silence. “My brother.”
Elena froze.
“You never said you had a brother.”
“That’s because I buried him ten years ago.”
A long, loaded pause.
Elena’s voice was barely a whisper. “Then how the hell is he the key?”
Adrian looked straight at her—pain, guilt, and fear twisted into one.
“Because he didn’t die. He disappeared. And now… I think Marcus found him first.”
Elsewhere – Manhattan – Undisclosed Location – 3:19 PM
A boy with sharp eyes and a jagged scar down his temple stared into the mirror of a penthouse bathroom. He couldn’t have been older than twenty-five—but something in his expression was ageless. Worn.
He pressed his thumb to a scanner.
A familiar voice echoed from the tablet propped on the counter.
“Welcome back, Elias Blackwood.”
Safehouse Echo – Bogotá – 11:04 AM
The air thickened like fog in Adrian’s room. Elena didn’t move. Her breath hitched in her throat as the weight of Adrian’s words settled over them like a fresh wound.
“Elias,” she said slowly, testing the name.
“He was younger than me by three years,” Adrian said. His voice was hollow, his gaze distant. “Smart. Reckless. He was recruited into the Foundation’s internal security under my father’s guidance when he was nineteen. And then… he vanished.”
Liana narrowed her eyes. “You told everyone he died in a car crash.”
Adrian nodded stiffly. “Because that’s what I believed. Until Marcus whispered his name at Piedra Ciega.”
Elena sank onto the chair beside him. “If Elias is alive—and if Marcus has him—it changes everything.”
“No,” Adrian said. “It ends everything.”
Liana crossed her arms, jaw tight. “Why would Marcus use him now, after all this time?”
Adrian leaned back against the pillow, sweat dotting his brow. “Because Elias wasn’t just my brother. He was also part of VIREX. My father called him the prototype.”
Elena’s fingers curled around the armrest. “Prototype for what?”
“Behavioral engineering,” Adrian answered grimly. “They called it ‘mask integration’—breaking people down, rebuilding them from trauma. The perfect operative. No loyalties. No conscience. Just control.”
The room fell dead silent.
And then Adrian added, voice lower:
“If Elias survived the project… he may not even know who he really is anymore.”
Brooklyn Heights – Secure Apartment – 3:37 PM
Julia King leaned back in her chair, eyes bleary from hours of decrypting. The second attachment—the one labeled PROJECT: NIGHTFALL—had finally opened, but she hadn’t dared scroll more than a few lines.
Names. Agencies. Off-the-record assassinations.
She rubbed her temples, tension crawling through her skull like a migraine. Her instincts screamed that something wasn’t right. She opened a burner email tab and began typing:
Elena,
I think I found something. But if this message gets intercepted, delete it. Don’t reply.
The file has more than names. It has protocols. Targets. Timers.
And one entry is marked “Blackwood, A.”
It was added three days ago.
She hovered over the send button.
And then the screen blinked.
Session Terminated. Unauthorized Intrusion Detected.
Her stomach dropped. “No. No, no—”
The laptop snapped off entirely.
And somewhere outside her window, an engine idled in the rain.
Safehouse Echo – Later That Night – 8:02 PM
Elena sat beside Adrian again, watching the rise and fall of his chest. He hadn’t spoken much since the reveal. His body was fighting to heal, but his mind was spiraling—backward through memories, forward into fear.
“Tell me the truth,” she whispered, not looking at him. “If you had to choose… stopping Marcus or saving your brother. Which would you pick?”
Adrian didn’t answer right away.
But when he finally spoke, his voice cracked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever saved anyone.”
Elena turned toward him.
“That’s not true.”
He looked at her, and in his eyes, she saw the shattered reflection of a man who had spent too long in the fire without asking for water.
“You saved me,” she said. “Even when I didn’t want to be.”
A long pause passed between them. No masks. No lies.
Just tethered truths in the dark.
But then the door burst open.
Liana stood there, breathless. “We’ve got movement.”
Elena stood instantly. “Marcus?”
“No. Worse.”
She handed Elena a cracked phone with a grainy image pulled from a hijacked security cam.
Elena’s breath caught.
The face on the screen was younger. Scarred. Hardened.
Elias Blackwood.
Standing in the lobby of the U.N. building in New York City.
The sun hadn’t shown its face since the raid. The sky hung heavy and gray over the safehouse, casting everything inside in a colorless haze. Elena stood at the window, her hands wrapped around a chipped mug of black coffee she hadn’t touched.
Behind her, Adrian slept fitfully, the painkillers barely holding the edge off. His shoulder was wrapped tight, the gauze already needing changing again. But it wasn’t his wounds that haunted her.
It was the silence.
The eerie calm between one explosion and the next.
Liana moved quietly around the kitchen, scanning a holographic projection from Adrian’s encrypted laptop. Data from the Black Archive pulsed across the screen—names, operations, surveillance maps. Threads of a web they hadn’t fully untangled yet.
“He was right,” Liana said, voice low. “Your father tried to destroy it before it got out of hand. But someone beat him to the trigger.”
Elena tore her gaze away from the rain-blurred horizon. “Marcus?”
“No. Someone higher. We still don’t know who gave the order to initiate NIGHTFALL.”
Elena crossed the room, staring at the screen. One name blinked at the top of the decrypted file: Cassian Blackwood.
Adrian’s father.
She felt a chill crawl down her spine.
“I thought Cassian died before any of this could happen,” Elena said.
“He did.” Liana turned to her, frowning. “But this file was logged two days before his death. Someone forged a posthumous clearance… or he didn’t die when everyone thought he did.”
Elena’s stomach twisted. “You’re saying Adrian’s father might be alive?”
“I’m saying he might’ve never left the war.”
The sound of movement behind them broke the tension. Adrian stirred in the bedroom, groaning as he pushed himself up.
“Elena,” he rasped.
She was at his side in seconds.
“You should be resting—”
“I need to know where Marcus is.”
“You’re not ready for that,” Liana said, stepping in. “And neither are we.”
Adrian looked at Elena, then Liana, then the screen. “He won’t stop. Not until he finishes what he started.”
“And what exactly is that?” Elena asked quietly.
Adrian didn’t answer. Not right away. His jaw flexed as his hand curled around the edge of the bed.
“NIGHTFALL wasn’t just a black project. It was a fail-safe. My father built it to erase everything—every person, every name—if the truth ever got too close to the surface.”
Elena felt her throat go dry. “Erase as in—”
“Wipe out. Kill. Blacklist. Disappear.”
“And Marcus has access to it now?”
“No,” Adrian said, eyes dark. “But he’s trying to finish it. In his own way.”
Liana leaned over the screen. “We need to find the last node. The access key that lets someone activate what’s left of NIGHTFALL.”
Elena looked back at the monitor. A map of New York slowly resolved—coordinates pulsing red.
“The key isn’t digital,” Liana muttered. “It’s human.”
Adrian’s voice cut through the silence. “My brother.”
Elena froze.
“You never said you had a brother.”
“That’s because I buried him ten years ago.”
A long, loaded pause.
Elena’s voice was barely a whisper. “Then how the hell is he the key?”
Adrian looked straight at her—pain, guilt, and fear twisted into one.
“Because he didn’t die. He disappeared. And now… I think Marcus found him first.”
Elsewhere – Manhattan – Undisclosed Location – 3:19 PM
A boy with sharp eyes and a jagged scar down his temple stared into the mirror of a penthouse bathroom. He couldn’t have been older than twenty-five—but something in his expression was ageless. Worn.
He pressed his thumb to a scanner.
A familiar voice echoed from the tablet propped on the counter.
“Welcome back, Elias Blackwood.”
Safehouse Echo – Bogotá – 11:04 AM
The air thickened like fog in Adrian’s room. Elena didn’t move. Her breath hitched in her throat as the weight of Adrian’s words settled over them like a fresh wound.
“Elias,” she said slowly, testing the name.
“He was younger than me by three years,” Adrian said. His voice was hollow, his gaze distant. “Smart. Reckless. He was recruited into the Foundation’s internal security under my father’s guidance when he was nineteen. And then… he vanished.”
Liana narrowed her eyes. “You told everyone he died in a car crash.”
Adrian nodded stiffly. “Because that’s what I believed. Until Marcus whispered his name at Piedra Ciega.”
Elena sank onto the chair beside him. “If Elias is alive—and if Marcus has him—it changes everything.”
“No,” Adrian said. “It ends everything.”
Liana crossed her arms, jaw tight. “Why would Marcus use him now, after all this time?”
Adrian leaned back against the pillow, sweat dotting his brow. “Because Elias wasn’t just my brother. He was also part of VIREX. My father called him the prototype.”
Elena’s fingers curled around the armrest. “Prototype for what?”
“Behavioral engineering,” Adrian answered grimly. “They called it ‘mask integration’—breaking people down, rebuilding them from trauma. The perfect operative. No loyalties. No conscience. Just control.”
The room fell dead silent.
And then Adrian added, voice lower:
“If Elias survived the project… he may not even know who he really is anymore.”
Brooklyn Heights – Secure Apartment – 3:37 PM
Julia King leaned back in her chair, eyes bleary from hours of decrypting. The second attachment—the one labeled PROJECT: NIGHTFALL—had finally opened, but she hadn’t dared scroll more than a few lines.
Names. Agencies. Off-the-record assassinations.
She rubbed her temples, tension crawling through her skull like a migraine. Her instincts screamed that something wasn’t right. She opened a burner email tab and began typing:
Elena,
I think I found something. But if this message gets intercepted, delete it. Don’t reply.
The file has more than names. It has protocols. Targets. Timers.
And one entry is marked “Blackwood, A.”
It was added three days ago.
She hovered over the send button.
And then the screen blinked.
Session Terminated. Unauthorized Intrusion Detected.
Her stomach dropped. “No. No, no—”
The laptop snapped off entirely.
And somewhere outside her window, an engine idled in the rain.
Safehouse Echo – Later That Night – 8:02 PM
Elena sat beside Adrian again, watching the rise and fall of his chest. He hadn’t spoken much since the reveal. His body was fighting to heal, but his mind was spiraling—backward through memories, forward into fear.
“Tell me the truth,” she whispered, not looking at him. “If you had to choose… stopping Marcus or saving your brother. Which would you pick?”
Adrian didn’t answer right away.
But when he finally spoke, his voice cracked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever saved anyone.”
Elena turned toward him.
“That’s not true.”
He looked at her, and in his eyes, she saw the shattered reflection of a man who had spent too long in the fire without asking for water.
“You saved me,” she said. “Even when I didn’t want to be.”
A long pause passed between them. No masks. No lies.
Just tethered truths in the dark.
But then the door burst open.
Liana stood there, breathless. “We’ve got movement.”
Elena stood instantly. “Marcus?”
“No. Worse.”
She handed Elena a cracked phone with a grainy image pulled from a hijacked security cam.
Elena’s breath caught.
The face on the screen was younger. Scarred. Hardened.
Elias Blackwood.
Standing in the lobby of the U.N. building in New York City.
End of Beneath the Billionaire Mask Chapter 25. Continue reading Chapter 26 or return to Beneath the Billionaire Mask book page.