Chapter 9: The Final Piece
Berlin – Safehouse – 03:45 Hours
Jasper Hawke stepped through the door of the safehouse, his senses razor-sharp despite the exhaustion creeping into his bones. The dimly lit room smelled of dust and old wood, the air thick with tension. His extraction had been clean, but he wasn’t fool enough to think he was safe.
Not yet.
He moved quickly, scanning the room for any signs of surveillance. The safehouse had been compromised before—Langley had proven that. And if Langley was willing to sell out his own agency, there was no telling how deep the betrayal ran.
Hawke locked the door behind him, securing the heavy bolts. Then, he reached into his jacket and pulled out the encrypted drive he had retrieved from Langley’s body before leaving the helicopter.
This was it.
The final piece of the puzzle.
Decrypting the Truth
Hawke slid the drive into the portable decryption rig he had set up on the desk. The screen flickered to life, lines of code racing past as the system worked to crack Langley’s encryption. This wasn’t just any information—this was what Langley had killed for.
The betrayal inside the agency wasn’t just about selling out a defector. It was bigger.
Much bigger.
A progress bar crawled forward. 76%… 83%… 91%…
Hawke exhaled slowly. He reached for his sidearm, placing it within arm’s reach on the desk. Just in case.
95%… 98%… 100%.
The screen flashed green. Access Granted.
The Black Ledger
A series of names, dates, and transactions filled the screen. Bank accounts routed through offshore havens. Payments moving through shell corporations. Millions of dollars changing hands.
And then—a list of names.
Hawke’s pulse slowed as he scanned them.
Politicians. Military officials. Intelligence operatives.
Names he recognized.
Names that weren’t supposed to be here.
His own agency had been infiltrated at the highest level. This wasn’t just about Langley. He had been a pawn in something much larger.
At the bottom of the list, a final entry made his stomach turn.
OPERATION RENEGADE – PHASE 2: ACTIVATED
Hawke leaned back in his chair, mind racing.
Phase 2.
Which meant Phase 1 was already complete.
He clicked the file, heart pounding as a single video began playing.
A Message from the Dead
The screen flickered, revealing a grainy video feed. The setting was dark, an underground bunker of some kind. And standing in the center of the frame was Langley.
Hawke’s grip tightened.
Langley had recorded this before his death.
“If you’re watching this, then I’m dead. But that’s fine—because the game was always bigger than me.”
Hawke remained still.
“You think you’ve won, Hawke. You think taking me out has stopped what’s coming.”
Langley smiled—a cold, knowing smile.
“But you’re too late.”
The screen glitched, and a new feed replaced Langley’s face.
A satellite image of London.
The camera zoomed in, focusing on a high-profile government building.
Hawke’s blood ran cold.
A red countdown timer appeared on the screen.
00:27:43… 00:27:42… 00:27:41…
The Race Against Time
Hawke didn’t waste a second. He grabbed his phone, dialing the emergency contact for his handler.
“It’s Hawke. We have a situation.”
A pause. Then a voice, tense and alert. “Go ahead.”
Hawke stared at the screen, watching the timer count down.
“There’s an attack in London. And we have less than thirty minutes to stop it.”
