Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Safehouse Echo – Colombian Border – 4:02 AM
Adrian hadn’t slept.
He sat in the dim light of the command room, hands steepled under his chin, eyes locked on the grainy footage looping again and again—black-and-white surveillance of a massacre.
The wrecked convoy. The scorched vehicles. The methodical, surgical brutality of it all.
It wasn’t war.
It was message.
Behind him, Elena stood still, her arms folded tightly across her chest.
“He was trained to move like you,” she said softly.
Adrian didn’t respond.
“I watched the footage three times. The way he disarms. The way he tracks. Even the way he stands still—it’s like watching you without the hesitation.”
Adrian’s voice came hoarse. “Because it is.”
Elena turned sharply. “You mean…”
“My father trained us together. Not just as brothers. As operatives. As… opposites.”
He exhaled, bitter and low.
“Gideon was my shadow. Everything I was meant to be if I didn’t question the orders. And everything my father could use if I ever failed.”
Flashback – Blackwood Compound, Upstate New York – 15 Years Ago
The room was white. No windows. No warmth.
Two boys stood facing each other. One taller, leaner—his jaw already too hard for a teenager. Adrian. The other, more compact, eyes sharper, quieter.
“Again,” a voice barked over the intercom.
Gideon lunged. Adrian blocked.
They moved like they were born for it. No anger. No fear. Only precision.
When it was over, Adrian stood bleeding from the mouth. Gideon stood straight, breathing hard, but unshaken.
Behind the glass, Guillermo Blackwood smiled faintly.
“Phase Zero is progressing.”
Present – Safehouse Echo – 4:18 AM
Liana entered with a new data slate, urgency etched across her features.
“We have another location ping.”
Adrian turned to her.
“It’s from Julia.”
“She’s alive?” Elena asked quickly.
“More than that,” Liana replied, holding out the device. “She sent a deep-buried file from the Black Archive. One you never unlocked, Adrian.”
He stared at the file name.
VX-0: BLACKOUT.
Adrian took the slate and began decrypting. The file opened.
Line after line of redacted intel scrolled past—until one line held them all still.
Subject: E. Blackwood
Codename: HERON
Status: Unknown
Last known location: Jakarta, Indonesia.
Adrian’s breath caught.
“No,” he said. “That’s not possible.”
Elena turned to him slowly.
“You told me Evelyn died.”
“She did.” His voice cracked. “I buried her.”
But there, plain as daylight, was her profile photo—older, wiser, scar across her cheek—but alive.
Liana spoke what no one wanted to say.
“If Marcus finds her first, she’s either leverage…”
“…or a weapon,” Adrian finished, hollow.
Meanwhile – Unknown Facility – 4:32 AM
Marcus Vale stood in the war room, Theta at his side.
“She’s active,” Marcus said quietly, watching Evelyn’s image flicker on the monitor. “Somehow the perfect ghost.”
Roth looked mildly impressed. “I didn’t think she’d survive Phase Four.”
“She didn’t,” Marcus replied. “She evolved past it.”
“And now?” Roth asked.
Marcus smiled.
“Now we bring the past to the surface. Let Adrian choke on everything he failed to protect.”
He turned to Theta.
“Begin the sweep.”
Theta moved toward the exit. His voice rasped low.
“Target?”
Marcus tilted his head.
“Julia King.”
Underground Train Line – Lower Manhattan – 4:47 AM
Julia’s boots pounded against the cracked concrete of a forgotten subway tunnel. Her breath came in tight bursts, fingers wrapped around a flash drive like a lifeline.
The file on Evelyn Blackwood—it wasn’t just a ghost.
It was proof.
Proof that everything Marcus was building had roots in her. That Project NIGHTFALL hadn’t ended—it had just gone dark.
But now… they were following her.
She skidded to a stop as a tremor rolled through the tunnel. Not from the train. From footsteps.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
Too slow to be human.
Her breath caught.
He’s here.
She turned and ran.
Behind her, deep in the tunnel shadows, Theta emerged—expression blank, face pale under the flickering light, eyes fixed on her like a target already claimed.
Safehouse Echo – Command Room – 5:03 AM
“We have to move,” Adrian said.
He stood fully armed, the decrypted data pad clutched in one hand. The screen still displayed Evelyn’s face — older, wiser, and not nearly as gone as he’d believed.
“She’s in Jakarta,” Liana confirmed. “But if Julia’s lead was compromised…”
“Then Marcus is already two steps ahead,” Elena finished grimly. “And if Evelyn really is alive, he’ll want to control her — or silence her.”
Adrian’s voice was tight. “We don’t leave Julia behind.”
“No,” Elena said. “We split. You and I take Jakarta. Liana extracts Julia.”
Liana raised a brow. “Two countries. Two targets. No backup.”
Adrian looked up. “Since when did we ever play it safe?”
Liana smirked.
Manhattan – Midtown Sector – 5:12 AM
Julia burst out into a service tunnel, coughing, heels slipping on wet ground. She rounded a corner and—
Slam.
A wall of muscle hit her from behind, sending her crashing into the cement.
Theta stood over her, unmoved.
She scrambled back, one hand reaching into her bag for the last remaining EMP stick. Her fingers fumbled with the switch.
Theta tilted his head, curious. Calm.
Almost like he remembered her.
“You were with him,” he said — voice gravel scraped over steel. “With Adrian.”
“Still am,” she hissed.
Then she jammed the stick into the wall.
CRACK!
Sparks exploded — the tunnel went black.
And in the chaos, Julia ran.
Private Jet – Airborne Over the Atlantic – 6:02 AM
Adrian looked out the window as clouds rolled beneath them. Elena sat beside him, reviewing maps and field reports, but her eyes kept flicking toward him.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
“No.”
A beat.
“But I will be.”
She nodded, then gently said, “If Evelyn’s alive… everything changes.”
Adrian didn’t speak for a long moment. Then—
“She was the only person who made me believe we could do good. That the money, the power… it could mean something.”
He turned to Elena.
“If Marcus gets to her first—he’ll use her face to rip me apart from the inside.”
Elena reached out, lacing her fingers with his.
“Then we won’t let him.”
Midtown Underground – Abandoned Subway Tracks – 5:19 AM
The tunnel had gone dark.
So had the city above, at least in Julia’s mind. Her world had narrowed to three things:
The pulse in her throat.
The sound of boots on steel.
And the weight of the drive in her pocket.
She ducked through a collapsed passage, her hands scraped raw, lungs burning. Her vision swam from smoke and fear.
Behind her—
Footsteps.
Measured. Calm. Like death wasn’t in a hurry.
She slipped through a service hatch and pulled it shut behind her. Then, she waited.
Breath held. Heart frozen.
Silence.
Then—clang.
A hand ripped the hatch open like paper.
Theta’s face emerged through the dark—expressionless, drenched in sweat and dust. A silhouette of purpose.
Julia stumbled backward, nearly fell.
He stepped into the small space.
“You’re protecting the wrong ones,” he said simply.
She laughed, despite the panic. “You sound like my editor.”
“Your editor didn’t kill thirty-seven operatives in silence.”
And then—he raised his hand.
But before he could strike—
POP!
A tranquilizer dart hit him square in the neck.
He staggered, grabbing the wall, blinking hard.
From behind Julia, Liana stepped into view—gun leveled, breathing hard.
“You’re welcome,” she said.
Julia nearly collapsed in relief. “How did you—?”
“Tracker chip. You’re terrible at staying out of sight.”
Theta snarled, still standing despite the sedative. His pupils dilated. Muscles spasming.
“He shouldn’t still be up,” Liana muttered.
“Then we run,” Julia replied.
Together, they turned and bolted as Theta’s knees finally gave out and he collapsed in a heap—not unconscious, just… waiting.
Watching.
In the Air – Approaching Jakarta – 6:47 AM (local time)
Adrian leaned forward as the skyline came into view. Jakarta gleamed below like a city made of fog and firelight.
He hadn’t been here in years—not since the Blackwood Foundation tried to buy silence from one of the original VIREX survivors. He remembered the smell. The weight of it.
Elena sat beside him, reading every microexpression on his face.
“What if she doesn’t want to be found?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
Not because he didn’t know—
But because that was the part that terrified him most.
Extraction Van – 6:07 AM – New York
Liana drove like the city was burning behind them—because, in a way, it was.
Julia clutched the flash drive to her chest, her fingers still trembling. Her voice was thin, raw.
“That wasn’t human back there.”
“He was,” Liana muttered, taking a hard turn. “Once.”
They fell into silence. The kind that meant something bigger was coming.
Then Julia asked what she hadn’t dared to say aloud until now.
“What if Evelyn isn’t who Adrian remembers?”
Liana didn’t look at her.
Because the truth was
She wasn’t.
Jakarta, Indonesia – 7:48 PM Local Time
The rain hadn’t stopped.
Adrian stepped into the narrow street, collar up, eyes scanning the crowded market. The sounds of the city—horns, chatter, vendors yelling—bounced around them like camouflage.
Elena followed closely, clutching the photo Julia had sent.
Evelyn’s face stared up at her.
“I don’t understand,” Elena said, voice low. “Why wouldn’t she reach out? To you. To anyone?”
Adrian didn’t stop walking.
“She was the best of us,” he said. “But she saw what we were becoming. What our father wanted us to be.”
He paused beside a café window. Inside, a woman with a scar across her cheek handed tea to a street child.
The resemblance was chilling.
Elena moved to the window beside him.
“Adrian… is that her?”
He didn’t blink.
Then: “No.”
Not yet.
But close.
Underground – Theta’s Surveillance Feed – Unknown Location
In a dark, concrete bunker, Theta stood before a bank of monitors. On screen: Jakarta. Street cams. Market crowds. Faces passing in a blur.
Then—ping.
One feed froze on a face.
Evelyn Blackwood.
Theta stared.
Unblinking.
His head tilted… not with curiosity.
Recognition.
A low voice crackled through his comm.
Marcus: “Do not engage. Not yet.”
“Why?”
Marcus: “Because ghosts are better when they walk into their own graves.”
Back in Jakarta – 8:09 PM
The market began to thin. Adrian and Elena followed the woman through narrow alleys lit by dim, hanging lanterns.
She moved like someone who’d been hunted before.
Then she stopped.
Turned.
And her eyes locked on Adrian.
For a breath—neither of them moved.
Evelyn’s lips parted.
“…Adrian?”
He stepped forward, slowly.
“Evelyn. It’s me.”
But she was already shaking her head, backing away.
“No, no—why are you here?”
“Elena and I—”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? They’re watching everything. You shouldn’t have come.”
Adrian froze.
Elena’s pulse raced.
“Who’s watching?” she asked.
Evelyn looked straight at her.
And said only one word:
“Theta.”
Jakarta – Rooftop Above Pasar Baru – 8:17 PM
Evelyn paced across the slick concrete rooftop, her boots silent against the rain-slicked surface. Adrian stood across from her, soaked and still.
“You can’t be here,” she hissed. “You’ll lead him straight to me.”
Adrian didn’t flinch. “You mean Marcus.”
She shook her head. “No. Marcus is the match. But he’s the fire.”
Elena stepped forward, voice careful. “Theta?”
Evelyn looked at her fully now, and the recognition in her eyes was chilling.
“You’ve seen him?”
“Yes,” Elena said. “He nearly killed Julia. He’s… not human.”
“He’s worse,” Evelyn whispered. “He was made to outlive us all.”
Adrian’s voice dropped. “You knew about Project NIGHTFALL.”
“I helped shut it down,” she said. “Or I thought I did. But Marcus never let it go. He buried the program, then started it again with private funding.”
“And your death?” Adrian asked. “That was part of it too?”
Evelyn’s face broke for just a moment—pain flickering behind those sharp eyes.
“It was the only way to stop being Guillermo Blackwood’s daughter.”
“But you let me believe you were dead.”
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
“I had to. Because if I didn’t, you would’ve come for me. And then they would’ve had you too.”
Adrian stepped toward her slowly.
“Too late.”
They stood inches apart now. For a moment—just one—time folded. Brother and sister, older, scarred, still reaching through the ash.
But then Evelyn whispered:
“You don’t understand. This isn’t just about the Archive.”
A beat.
Elena asked quietly, “Then what is it?”
Evelyn turned toward the city skyline, where the thunderclouds swelled and static danced along the rooftops.
“It’s about what they’ve already done. About what they’re planning next.”
She faced them again.
Her voice was barely audible.
“NIGHTFALL wasn’t the last project.”
A pause.
“It was the first.”