Location: Open-Air Market – Late Morning
Ash wore sunglasses too big for his face and was juggling a pineapple. "This one speaks to me. I feel its chaotic energy."
Leo rolled his eyes, examining a rack of cheap sunglasses. "You feel chaotic because you had gummy worms and iced coffee for breakfast."
Ash grinned. "Fuel of champions."
They drifted between stalls, buying snacks and useless souvenirs. No one looked at them twice. Just two college guys wasting a summer day in the sun.
Leo picked out a small shell necklace, mostly for the way it clicked when he shook it. Ash bought a bucket hat covered in flamingos.
"You're impossible to take seriously," Leo muttered.
"That's the goal."
They laughed, unaware of the pair of plain-clothed men who had briefly mirrored their steps before disappearing into the crowd.
Location: Madrid – Hotel Rooftop – 03:33 AM
Nox stared through a scope mounted on the railing. Across the street, through tinted windows, a group of high-ranking ex-military contractors sat in a meeting room. All of them were on Ghost's payroll.
One of them passed a tablet across the table.
Nox's feed caught the reflection: grainy schematics, but recognizable.
"Kitefall. Phase Two," he murmured.
In his earpiece, the handler responded: "Confirmed. Upload to Vault-6. We'll scramble clean copies."
"Any word on Ghost's location?"
"Not yet. Last confirmed ping was Portugal. He's not on the ground here."
"Doesn't need to be," Nox muttered. "He's working through ghosts of his own."
He packed up without another word, vanishing into the pre-dawn dark.
Location: Beach Town Boardwalk – Afternoon
Ash twirled a bag of snacks like a prize. "I vote this our new tradition. Beach before responsibilities."
"So basically... never go home?" Leo asked.
"Exactly."
They kicked off their shoes and headed down toward the sand, sun overhead, breeze tangled in their hair.
Leo felt the ocean nip at his feet. For a moment, he let it all go—his last name, his missing phone, the father he hadn't heard from in weeks.
Ash cannonballed into the water. Leo followed, less graceful but laughing just the same.
They wrestled waves, built half-hearted sandcastles, bought churros, and walked the length of the beach like they weren't being watched.
They didn't notice the silver drone high above the shore.
Location: Madrid – Safehouse Tunnel – 11:58 PM
Nox pulled a bloodied flash drive from a corpse's coat.
The man had been the last known link to Émile Ravel—a tech mercenary presumed dead but now revealed as a core operative for Ghost.
Nox examined the drive. It was encrypted with three-layer quantum locks.
"No one does that unless they're hiding war crimes," he said into the comms.
The handler replied, "Do you think this leads to Ghost directly?"
"I think Ravel wasn't building Kitefall. He was stress-testing it. Ghost's got something bigger coming. Something surgical."
He pocketed the drive and walked away, boots echoing in the tunnel.
Location: Dorm Rooftop – Night
Ash strummed his guitar lazily. Leo lay beside him on the blanket, arms behind his head, staring at stars.
"What would you do if you had no past?" Leo asked quietly.
Ash shrugged. "Probably this. Be broke, be dumb, play guitar like I'm good at it."
Leo smiled faintly. "Sounds nice."
Ash tilted his head. "You okay, man?"
"Yeah. Just tired."
And he was. Tired of pretending he wasn't pretending.
He sat up, grabbed a half-smoked cigarette from Ash's pack.
"Didn't know you smoked."
"I do . When I feel like it."
They laughed again, the night easy, simple, unmarked by danger.
Below them, across the street, in a car with tinted windows, someone took a photo. A silent click. A timestamp. A file marked: Leo – Confirmed.
The ambush wouldn't happen until tomorrow.
But the watchers were already in place.
End of Chapter 40