Cipher sat cross-legged on the thin mattress of his safehouse, an abandoned dorm room near España. The walls were cracked, graffiti bleeding through peeling paint, but it was quiet, away from the jeepney-choked roads. His laptop glowed faintly, the only light in the room, bathing his face in electric blue.
Delgado's weakness was easy to spot. The man lived like a king on a soldier's pay. Luxury condos. Sports cars registered under straw names. Offshore accounts barely concealed through shell companies. Cipher had scraped the trail from Salonga's compromised phone, each breadcrumb leading to a sprawling web of graft.
But greed wasn't just about money—it was about ego. Delgado needed to be seen as untouchable, a man who could take what he wanted without consequence. And Cipher knew how to poison that need.
He'd spent three nights slipping through the digital underbelly—hacking municipal servers, cloning contractor bids, weaving false trails into legitimate paperwork. The result: a phantom defense contract worth millions, promising access to cutting-edge surveillance tech. Delgado would see it as a bribe dressed as opportunity.
And Delgado, Cipher thought grimly, could never resist a bribe.
At dawn, Cipher launched the hook. The contract appeared in a private channel Delgado's network monitored, routed through dummy accounts and a Singaporean front company. The bait was irresistible: low oversight, high payout, and hidden ties to the Haraya infrastructure Delgado already touched.
Within an hour, Delgado bit.
Cipher watched the alert ping across his screen—Delgado's proxy servers probing the phantom deal, his men scrambling to secure access. The Shadow thought he was pulling strings, but each keystroke dragged him deeper into Cipher's maze.
The hacker's fingers flew over the keyboard, redirecting Delgado's connection into a mirrored environment—a digital hall of mirrors where every move was observed. Delgado was handing over not just his greed, but his secrets: offshore accounts, middlemen identities, dirty contracts with generals. Cipher copied it all, burning it into multiple drives.
But information wasn't enough. To cripple a Shadow, Cipher needed to turn Delgado's empire against him. So he pushed the files one step further—into the inbox of a rival contractor with ties to the New People's Army extortion network, then another to a watchdog journalist hungry for blood. The rival would see Delgado's corruption as betrayal. The journalist would smell a scandal. By the time Delgado realized, he would be standing in a fire of his own making.
Cipher leaned back, chest tight with the thrill of the move. It was dangerous—loud, messy. But Delgado wasn't just a Shadow. He was the fat vein feeding Haraya's secret funding. If that vein burst, the Shadows would bleed resources.
Still, something gnawed at him. The ease of it. Delgado hadn't masked his entry well. His proxies were sloppy, his timing rushed. It was too smooth.
Cipher frowned, scanning the logs. A spike appeared in the data flow—not Delgado's usual pattern, but an overlay. Another hand was riding Delgado's greed, watching from above.
The Shadows.
Cipher's stomach dropped. This wasn't just Delgado reaching for money. This was the net tightening, just as Torres had planned. The "contract" Delgado had sniffed out wasn't just bait—it was bait wrapped in bait, a layered trap meant to drag Cipher into the open.
But the Shadows hadn't counted on one thing. Cipher was already inside Delgado's system before they had even finished laying their snare.
He exhaled slowly, forcing his pulse steady. This wasn't a disaster. This was opportunity. If he played it right, he could make Delgado look like the weak link, like he had been sloppy, exposing the Shadows' hand to Cipher instead of the other way around.
The game had just shifted from a heist to counterintelligence. And Cipher was smiling.
"Nice try," he whispered to the empty room, fingers returning to the keys. "But greed always eats itself first."
The first files began uploading—ready to ignite Delgado's downfall, even as the Shadows unknowingly handed Cipher another glimpse into their hunting methods.