THE BLACK BOX

Chapter 12

The Black Box

Phantom had always known that the answers he sought were buried beneath layers of secrecy, hidden behind walls of encrypted files and false memories. But the black box—a file that had been locked away by the agency—was different. It wasn't just data. It was a key. And he needed it more than ever.

He stood in a dimly lit alley, the chill of the night air biting at his skin. His fingers moved over the burner phone in his hand, the screen illuminating his face as he typed in a string of code that felt like second nature. A series of encrypted files had been lifted from the agency's central server—a heist so clean, even the agency had no idea it had happened. But now, that stolen data was in his hands, and he was about to learn something that would change everything.

His contact, a shadow in the underground network of hackers, had managed to break through one layer of encryption, giving him access to parts of the black box that had eluded him. A flash of text flickered on the screen, and a low hum filled the air around him as the file unlocked further.

FINAL MISSION – MISSION STATUS: INCOMPLETE.

It wasn't much, but it was enough. The words burned themselves into his mind. His final mission. The one they had wiped from his memory.

Why had it never been completed? What had gone wrong?

Phantom's pulse quickened as he typed in another set of commands. This wasn't just any mission—it was the one they erased, the one that held the key to everything. The reason he had been reduced to a ghost, a weapon with no past. His identity, his life—everything had been taken from him. And now, in these stolen files, he was finally getting closer to the truth.

The phone vibrated in his hand as a new message from his contact came through.

Found something else. You won't like it. Check the rest of the file.

Phantom's gaze shifted to the screen, his heart pounding. The rest of the file—this was it. He could feel it. The last piece of the puzzle. With a few more keystrokes, the screen shifted to reveal a series of documents and coordinates. One document caught his eye.

Operation Blackout – Termination Protocols.

The file seemed to be a list of assets—agents who had either failed their missions or had become liabilities. But there, at the bottom of the list, was a name he hadn't seen in years. His own.

He read the words again, slower this time.

Agent Phantom – Subject terminated. Final mission compromised.

The shock hit him like a physical blow. Terminated? No. That wasn't possible. They had erased him, yes, but he hadn't been terminated. He had been... repurposed.

He slammed his fist against the brick wall beside him, his breath ragged with frustration. Everything he had been told, everything he had believed about himself, was a lie. His mission, whatever it was, had been compromised, and that wasn't the end of it. They hadn't just erased his memory—they had turned him into a ghost.

A tool.

He was supposed to be dead.

Phantom's mind raced, the pieces of the puzzle slowly coming together. The agency had lied to him about everything. They hadn't just wiped his memory to control him—they had wiped it because they had failed to control the outcome of his last mission. But what had gone wrong? And why had they chosen to keep him alive?

A new message popped up from his contact.

More bad news. Looks like you weren't the only one erased.

Phantom's heart skipped a beat. What did that mean?

He quickly scanned the rest of the decrypted file, his eyes narrowing as he read through the final notes. The document contained a list of people who had undergone the same procedure as him—agents who had been subjected to the same erasure, the same manipulation. The names were all familiar—names he hadn't even realized he remembered.

Agent Seraphine. Agent Hunter. Agent Dahlia.

All of them were connected to Operation Blackout. All of them had been erased from the agency's official records.

Phantom's mind whirled. He wasn't the only one. There were others. Others like him.

He had to find them. He had to know what had happened on that final mission, the one that had sent him to the brink of death, the one that had led the agency to eliminate him—and everyone else involved.

The next set of coordinates blinked on the screen—an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city. A place Phantom recognized. It was where his training had started. A place that held memories he'd buried long ago.

With a deep breath, he stuffed the burner phone into his jacket pocket and turned his attention to the shadows.

The city was still watching him, still waiting. But now, he wasn't just running to escape. He was running toward something bigger. Something that could shatter the foundation of everything he thought he knew.

He wasn't alone. And the agency would soon realize that they had underestimated him once again.