Location: City Park – Late Afternoon
Ash hurled a half-eaten sandwich at a flock of pigeons.
"Bet that one's in college too. Look at the dead eyes."
Leo smirked, sprawled across the sun-warmed bench with his legs crossed at the ankle.
"Guess we're not the only ones flunking adulthood."
Ash stretched like a cat in the sun. "We're not flunking. We're… marinating. Letting life soak in."
"Sure," Leo said. "Like two potatoes in a hot soup of mediocrity."
"That's the spirit."
No one mentioned family. Or futures. Or what came after this. That was the unspoken rule: summer was sacred. College could wait.
Ash pulled out a small sketchpad, holding it up.
"Rate my masterpiece."
It was a stick figure falling off a Ferris wheel, arms flailing.
Leo squinted. "Symbolic. Tragic. Bold."
"Right? I call it: 'Last Ride of the Brain Cell.'"
They both laughed too hard.
Location: Madrid – Construction Zone Perimeter – 03:20 AM
Nox crouched on the roof of an unfinished building, eyes behind night-vision goggles.
Below, Ortega's convoy crawled along a restricted service road—two SUVs and a black sedan. Nox counted wheels, scanned faces through tinted glass. His lips barely moved.
"Driver two is new."
In his earpiece, a woman's voice replied. "Confirmed. No records. Hired off-grid."
"Outsider," Nox muttered. "Potential Ghost placement."
He set the rifle down, not to fire, but to watch. Ortega stepped out of the car flanked by guards, entering a warehouse.
The location wasn't listed in any of Ortega's official rotations.
That made it important.
Nox vanished into the shadows.
Location: Town Arcade – Evening
"Best of three?" Ash asked, gripping the joystick.
"You already owe me boba and two tacos," Leo said, slotting in a coin.
"That's just motivation."
The racing game lit their faces in bright blue and red. Ash crashed into a virtual billboard. Leo coasted past the finish line.
"Again!" Ash yelled. "You cheated."
Leo leaned back, smug. "I can't help it if I was born with fast reflexes and humble charm."
They were ridiculous. No guards. No whispers. No tracking devices. Just two guys, arcade lights flickering on their skin, pretending life was this simple.
And for now, Leo let himself believe it.
Location: Madrid – Warehouse Interior – 04:02 AM
Nox's footsteps were silent across the concrete beams. Below, Ortega was meeting two men—one bald, covered in tattoos; the other in a sharp grey suit with gloves on.
No names. No eye contact. But the conversation was clear.
Payment. Exchange. Schematics for something coded "Kitefall."
Nox's lens zoomed in on a blueprint flashed across a projector.
Not weapons—communications grid override. Military-grade.
That wasn't arms dealing. That was infiltration.
He recorded everything. One of the men laughed.
"The Americans won't even know we're inside the backdoor until the lights go out."
Nox slipped away before the laughter faded.
Location: Carnival Grounds – Afternoon
Leo stumbled off the spinning teacup ride, laughing, arms flailing.
"I'm gonna hurl," he groaned.
Ash handed him cotton candy like it was a cure-all. "Sugar solves everything."
They wandered past booths and music, Ash trying to win stuffed animals with terrible aim, Leo pretending not to be good at ring toss.
They rode the Ferris wheel at sunset, Ash yelling about the view, Leo quietly sipping from a soda can that definitely wasn't just soda.
No talks of home. No questions. Just space.
Just stillness.
Leo didn't notice the two men watching from afar. Black sunglasses. Identical earpieces.
They nodded as he passed, then turned back toward the shadows.
Location: Madrid – Abandoned Substation – 05:10 AM
Nox placed the data chip into a portable decryptor. Schematics scrolled fast across the screen—Kitefall wasn't just a plan, it was active.
Phase One was tomorrow.
He exhaled.
The Ghost wasn't just targeting Ortega. He was using him as a launchpad.
If this spread, dozens of power grids across Europe could be compromised.
He uploaded the data to a black vault server. Redacted files began unlocking, revealing a web of names, blurred photos, encrypted chatter.
One name glowed faintly on the screen: Émile Ravel – French tech mercenary, presumed dead.
Nox's eyes narrowed.
The Ghost was building an army of phantoms.
Location: College Dorm Rooftop – Night
Leo lay on a blanket, pointing lazily at constellations he was probably naming wrong.
Ash played guitar badly beside him, fingers fumbling through chords like a sleepwalker.
"This song's called Sad Boy with No Rent Money."
Leo snorted. "It's a classic."
He closed his eyes, the music blending with the rustle of trees below.
Ash yawned.
"So... what next?"
Leo didn't open his eyes. "Does it matter?"
Ash grinned. "Nah."
That was the magic.
They didn't ask what next. They asked what now.
Leo thought of nothing. Not his last name. Not the locked room beneath the house he was born in. Not the blade that followed him in dreams.
Just this.
Location: Madrid – Edge of the City – 07:00 AM
Nox stepped into a rundown café, unarmed, face clean.
A woman at the counter nodded. "Coffee?"
He didn't answer.
She slid him a folded note instead of a receipt.
It read:
Target has moved. Ghost is expecting you.
Nox smiled thinly. "Then we'll disappoint him."
He sipped the bitter brew and vanished before the second hand on the clock reached 12.
End of Chapter 39