The journey through the winding defiles leading to the Khyber Pass was a masterclass in tension. Our MRAP, a steel giant with air conditioning battling the external heat, felt claustrophobically small. The ozone smell of electronic equipment, the stale sweat of body armor, and Koko Hekmatyar's citrus perfume created a surreal blend.
I was sitting across from her. Beside her, Valmet watched me with barely disguised hostility, her muscles tense and ready to spring. On the other side, Lehm seemed almost asleep, but I knew, by the way his eyes moved beneath his eyelids, that he was as alert as a hawk. My team, Thorne, Marcus, and Javier, tried to appear indifferent, but the presence of Koko's elite bodyguards and her palpable aura of power kept them on edge.
For me, however, the outside world was the real focus. My mind, now unified, functioned with terrifying clarity. Kenji's consciousness felt the visceral danger of the terrain: every rocky outcrop, every shadow on the mountainside, every possible place for an IED. It was a paranoia born of trauma. At the same time, Alex's consciousness overlaid this paranoia with cold tactical analysis. My vision was constantly filled with system data: optimal fire arcs, escape routes, convoy blind spots.
"You seem concerned, Kage-san," Koko's lilting voice cut through my thoughts. She held a tablet, but her blue eyes were fixed on me.
"I'm focused," I replied, my voice flat.
"An admirable quality," she smiled. "What do you think about when you look at the mountains? The geology? The rugged beauty?"
"Where a sniper would hide."
My answer was so quick and devoid of emotion that Lehm opened one eye and looked at me with genuine interest. Valmet snorted, as if my reply were insolent arrogance. But Koko laughed, a clear, crystalline sound that seemed out of place in the brutality of our surroundings.
"I like you," she declared. "Straight to the point. No pretense."
Before I could formulate a professional response, hell found us.
There was no warning. The MRAP ahead of us, about fifty meters away, simply ceased to exist. A deafening explosion, far more powerful than the IED in Zarin Dah, turned it into a fireball and twisted metal that completely blocked the narrow pass. An anti-tank missile. Professional. Precise.
Immediately afterward, the air filled with a tearing sound, as if the very fabric of reality was ripping apart. It was the concentrated fire of multiple heavy machine guns and the sharp, distinctive crack of high-caliber sniper rifles, all raining down from the heights on both sides of the pass.
Third person.
Chaos is absolute. The second MRAP, carrying the rest of Kilo's men, crashes into the flaming wreckage of the first. .50 caliber bullets pound the vehicles' armor, tearing off chunks of metal. Thorne shouts orders over the radio, but communication is a mess of static and screams. The contractors, though trained, are overwhelmed. They are trapped in a perfectly executed kill zone. It's a massacre.
Inside Koko's vehicle, everyone is thrown by the force of the blast. Marcus curses as he tries to aim his rifle through the firing port. Javier is pale, frozen for an instant. Thorne tries to coordinate a defense.
But Kage is already in motion. The fusion of his two halves has eliminated hesitation. There is no panic, only lightning-fast data processing. He rises, stabilizing himself against the vehicle's sway, eyes closed for a split second.
First person.
The world becomes a three-dimensional tactical map in my mind. Bullet trajectories are red lines. Machine gun nests, flickering icons. Snipers, lens glints. The battle plan forms instantly, not as a thought, but as an instinct. A perfect solution to a deadly problem.
I open my eyes. Kenji's fear is there, a cold knot in my stomach, but it's locked in a cage of Alex's logic. It's fuel, not paralysis.
I look at Lehm, whose eyes are now fully open and shining with the light of battle. "Lehm," my voice is calm, but it cuts through the din. "Sniper. Right cliff. 280 meters, near the V-shaped rock formation. Second one is on the left, higher up, 400 meters. Take care of the closer one first."
Lehm stares at me, his veteran brain processing the impossibility of my statement. There's no way I could have located both so quickly. But there's no time to hesitate. He nods once, a show of professional trust, and heads to the rear hatch, his sniper rifle already in position.
I turn to Valmet. Her hostility has been replaced by murderous focus. "Valmet. Two machine gun nests have us pinned. One on the left, one on the right. The left one has a better field of fire. We'll go for that first. I need a distraction."
"And what's your brilliant plan, Shadow?" she hisses, her knife already in hand.
I open the system menu, my eyes never leaving hers.
Confirm.
"A smoke screen," I reply. I look at Koko. She's not ducking or scared. She's observing me, an enigmatic smile on her face, as if she's watching the most fascinating performance in the world.
The rear ramp of our MRAP lowers. The outside world is a hell of bullets and dust. Lehm is already prone, his first shot reverberating with a crack that is different from the enemies'. A choked cry is heard from the cliff. One less sniper.
"Thorne, suppressive fire on everything that moves on the right side of the pass!" I order over my comm. Thorne, from the co-driver's position, hesitates for an instant hearing my authoritative tone, but the logic of the order is sound.
"Do it!" he roars to the others.
It's my cue. I throw the small smoke drone outside. It rises ten meters and detonates, releasing an incredibly dense, fast-deploying smoke cloud that envelops our vehicle and the area directly to our left, completely blinding the machine gun nest on that side.
"Let's go!" I shout to Valmet.
Second person.
You leap from the MRAP and land in a world of gray chaos. The smoke is thick, stinging your eyes and throat. Beside you, Valmet moves with inhuman speed, a panther in the fog. You run, crouched, the Dead Silence perk making your steps ghostly whispers.
Bullets from the machine gun on the right side continue to impact the vehicles, but here, in the smoke, you are safe for now. You see the muzzle flash from the machine gun nest on the left, firing blindly through the smoke screen. You are close.
You reach the base of the rocky outcrop where they are entrenched. Valmet doesn't wait. She begins to climb, using her knives to find purchase on the rock with a gravity-defying agility. You cover her, your M4 ready. An enemy peeks over the edge. A double-tap. He falls silently.
You reach the top just behind Valmet. There are three men, surprised by your ghostly appearance. What follows is not a fight. It's an execution.
Valmet is a whirlwind of violence. She lunges at the gunner, her knife slitting the man's throat in a crimson arc. She spins, dodging a burst of AK-47 fire, and breaks the second man's arm with a dry crack before plunging her knife into his chest.
You are the silent counterpoint. The third man aims at you. Time slows. The system highlights his silhouette. Your rifle comes up. Two shots, perfectly spaced, to his head. He drops like a sack of potatoes. The machine gun nest falls silent.
You look at Valmet. She's covered in blood, breathing heavily, her eyes gleaming with wild euphoria. She looks at you, and for the first time, there's no hostility. There's... awe.
First person.
"Left machine gun nest eliminated!" I report over the radio. "Lehm, how's it going?"
"Second sniper's shifted position. Looking for him," his calm voice replies. "Good work, kid."
From our new elevated position, I see the battlefield spread out below me. The smoke is dissipating. The attackers, now without support from one of their heavy weapons and a sniper, are exposed. They are mercenaries, judging by their gear and discipline. And there are many of them.
"Valmet, with me. We're going to sweep them from above," I say.
We begin to move along the ledge, a methodical hunt. My Kage mind works in perfect sync with my body. I identify a target. I aim. I fire. The enemy falls. I identify the next. Repeat. There's no emotion, no doubt. It's an algorithm of elimination. I am a machine. A machine that bleeds and feels the recoil of its rifle, but a machine nonetheless.
Lehm's second shot echoes in the valley. Enemy fire falters. Below, Thorne has managed to organize the Kilo survivors, and they are mounting an effective defense, emboldened by our success.
I see a group of enemies trying to flank our vehicles from the right side. They are using a dry riverbed as cover. They are too far for a sure shot with my M4.
I look at my funds account. It's still considerable. I need something to clear an area.
It's expensive. Very expensive. But it will end this.
Confirm.
I raise my wrist, where a phantom laser designator materializes, visible only to me. I aim at the riverbed. "Attention all, mortar fire incoming on the right flank! Take cover!" I shout over the radio.
A sharp whistle cuts through the air, growing in intensity. A second later, a single, massive explosion shakes the ground, throwing dirt and smoke into the air. When the dust settles, the riverbed is silent. The flank threat has been vaporized.
That was the coup de grâce. The remaining mercenaries, seeing their assault crumble and their leaders eliminated, break ranks and flee. The battle has lasted perhaps ten minutes, but it has felt like an eternity.
Silence returns to the Khyber Pass, this time for real. A heavy silence, filled with the smell of explosives and death.
I descend the slope, Valmet following closely. The team gathers among the smoking vehicles. We've lost four men from Kilo team. Marcus has a shrapnel wound in his leg, but he's alive.
Koko Hekmatyar exits the MRAP. Her white suit is impeccable, not a single speck of dust or blood. She walks among the bodies of the fallen mercenaries, examining their unmarked uniforms and state-of-the-art gear with purely academic interest.
Lehm joins us. He claps Valmet on the shoulder, a gesture of approval. Then he turns to me. "Kid, you got the best eyes I've ever seen. And that mortar... where the hell did you get that?"
Before I can invent a lie, Koko speaks. Her voice is soft, but it reaches everyone. "That wasn't a Horizon mortar, Lehm. Just as that wasn't a standard smoke drone."
She stops in front of me. The playful smile is gone. Her face is now that of a CEO evaluating a priceless asset.
"The men who attacked us," she says, holding a tablet she pulled from somewhere, displaying the logo of a rival military corporation, "belong to 'Sovereign Path.' My competitors who don't like HCLI expanding into their territory. This meeting with the elders was a sham. It was a trap for me."
Her blue gaze locks with mine. "A trap you got me out of. Your performance, Kage, wasn't that of a soldier. It was that of a strategist with perfect information. You predicted every move, every threat. As if you were playing a game and already knew how to win."
The air freezes. She knows. She doesn't know how, but she knows I'm not normal.
"Forget the elders. Forget this mission," she continues, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "When we get back to the FOB, your contract with Horizon Security is nullified. I'll buy you out, whatever the cost."
She takes another step closer, her face inches from mine.
"You don't work for them anymore. You work for me. I want to know what you are. And I'm going to find out. Consider this your signing bonus."
She turns and begins giving orders to her team, organizing a perimeter and an extraction request as if she owned the world.
And in that moment, I realized that she did. At least, of my world.
I had survived the deadliest ambush of my life. I had proven that the fusion of Alex and Kenji made me an almost supernatural soldier. But in doing so, I had jumped from the frying pan of a mercenary war into the fire of global geopolitics, bound to the most unpredictable and dangerous woman on the planet.
My life as a simple contractor was over. My new life as Koko Hekmatyar's enigmatic possession had just begun.