Phantom Code

Chapter 1: End of a Mission

the city was silent in Ciphers wake, The bodies Of Twenty men lay sprawled around him, their blood dark against the rain-slicked pavement. He reloaded his silenced pistol, stepping over the corpses without a second glance.

His earpiece crackled. "Cipher. Report."

"Target neutralized." His voice was devoid of life, as always.

"Good. Proceed to the next mission. New objective incoming."

Cipher didn't respond. He simply moved. He did not think about his kills. He did not remember their faces. They were irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was execution.

Arriving at the next location, he prepared for another clean kill. But as he entered the dimly lit apartment, his enhanced vision locked onto a single figure. A girl-small, trembling, holding a blood-streaked datapad.

"You're... him," she whispered. "The Reaper."

Cipher raised his silencer. "You are the target."

She didn't plead. Instead, she stared at him, unblinking. "They'll come for you too, you know. The second you stop obeying."

Cipher's finger tightened trigger. There was no hesitation.

A gunshot echoed.

The bullet pierced through her shoulder, disabling but not killing.

Not a mistake. Not mercy.

Simply calculation.

Let her bleed. Extract information. Then eliminate.

Nothing had changed. Nothing would ever change.

Cipher remained a machine.

And machines do not feel.

Chapter 2: Collateral Damage

Luna collapsed against the wall, gripping her bleeding shoulder. Her breath came in ragged gasps, but her eyes remained locked onto Cipher-cold, unreadable, inhuman.

"You... hesitated," she said between shallow breaths.

Cipher stepped forward, gun still aimed. "Incorrect." His voice was devoid of anything resembling emotion. "A kill shot would have rendered you useless. You will answer my questions. Then you will die."

Luna gave a weak smirk. "And what if I don't answer?"

Cipher fired another round. The bullet grazed her leg, precise and deliberate. She bit back a scream.

"Pain is irrelevant. You will break," he stated, unmoved.

She glared at him, her defiance faltering as the blood pooled beneath her. "You're already broken. You just don't know it yet."

Cipher did not react. He holstered his silencer and activated his comm. "Captured the target. Proceeding with interrogation."

But before he could extract further information, his instincts flared. Enhanced perception detected movement-three units approaching, silent, methodical.

Echelon operatives.

Cipher turned to the window. The city skyline flickered with distant neon lights, but in the darkness below, shadows moved unnaturally fast.

"They're here," Luna whispered.

Cipher didn't need her warning. The moment he confirmed their presence, his course of action was clear.

He shot her again-this time in the thigh.

She screamed, collapsing fully. "What the hell?!"

Cipher ignored her. "You are now a liability. They will prioritize you over me."

A calculated distraction.

He turned and stepped into the shadows, seamlessly blending into the environment as the assassins breached the room.

Luna gasped as masked figures surrounded her. One of them, clad in tactical black, knelt beside her. "Where is Cipher?"

She gritted her teeth, still in pain. "Gone."

A metallic whisper cut through the air.

A single figure emerged behind them-Cipher, moving like a phantom. Before they could react, he struck.

Three shots. Three kills. Silent. Efficient.

The last operative staggered, eyes wide in shock. Cipher had moved faster than humanly possible. The assassin barely had time to comprehend his own death before Cipher finished him with a single neck snap.

The room fell silent again.

Cipher turned to Luna, who stared at him, eyes wide.

"You..." she breathed. "You could've left me to die."

Cipher reloaded his weapon. "I don't leave loose ends."

Without another word, he lifted her onto his shoulder like dead weight and disappeared into the night.

Luna didn't know if he had just saved her... or if she had become something worse than a target.

A possession.

A tool.

And Cipher?

He remained exactly what he had always been.

A perfect killer.

An emotionless machine.