Chapter 7: The Dead Don't Look Back

Cipher moved through the underground tunnels with precision, his senses heightened. Every step was calculated, every corner approached with the expectation of ambush. The mission had changed—he was no longer the hunter but the hunted.

Luna followed behind, slower, struggling to keep up with her injuries. "You always this paranoid?" she muttered.

Cipher didn’t slow down. "Paranoia implies uncertainty. I deal in certainty."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Right. Because you're some perfect killing machine, completely untouchable."

Cipher stopped abruptly. The movement was so sudden that Luna nearly ran into him.

His gaze locked onto her, cold and unyielding. "Yes."

Luna swallowed, suddenly aware of how close she was to something inhuman.

Cipher turned away, focusing back on the tunnel ahead. "Keep moving."

As they reached an old maintenance shaft, Cipher’s vision flickered—his cybernetic enhancements picking up heat signatures. Three hostiles. Armed. Approaching fast.

Luna noticed the change in his posture. "What is it?"

Cipher didn't answer. He just moved.

Before Luna could process what was happening, he was gone—vanishing into the shadows.

The moment the operatives entered the tunnel, they didn’t even have time to react.

Cipher struck like a phantom. The first man died with a silenced shot to the head.

The second barely had time to raise his rifle before Cipher crushed his windpipe with brutal efficiency.

The third turned, trying to flee.

Cipher appeared behind him, whispering the last thing the man would ever hear.

"You were dead the moment you entered."

A single gunshot. The body crumpled.

Cipher reloaded his weapon, stepping over the corpses as if they were nothing.

Because to him, they were.

Luna stared at the carnage, shaking her head. "You don’t hesitate, do you?"

Cipher looked at her, expression unreadable. "Hesitation is the difference between life and death."

And he had never once chosen death.

Cipher led them deeper into the city, avoiding surveillance, blending into the darkness like he had done countless times before.

But this time was different.

This time, he was the target.

Luna sighed, pressing against the alley wall. "We can't keep running forever."

Cipher checked the street, then turned to her. "I do not run. I reposition."

She exhaled. "Right. You reposition. Like a robot."

Cipher ignored the remark. "We need information. Echelon will not stop. We find their weakness, or we die."

Luna hesitated. "And by 'we,' you mean 'me,' right?"

Cipher didn’t answer. He pulled out a small device and pressed a button. A holographic map flickered to life—a blueprint of a high-security data vault.

"We infiltrate this facility. Retrieve the files on Project Requiem. Then, we end this."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "And how do you plan on breaking into one of the most secure places in the city?"

Cipher holstered his weapon. "The same way I do everything."

He stepped into the street, disappearing into the neon-lit crowd.

"With absolute efficiency."

Luna swallowed, then followed.

Because whether she liked it or not, Cipher was her best—and only—chance at survival.

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