Into The Shadows
1087 Words
The gentle murmur of Belgrade’s early morning was interrupted only by the rhythmic clang of a passing tram. Nathan Cross hovered in the shadows of a derelict café, the steel thermos he held offering little relief against a bitter winter chill. He had come hours earlier using fake credentials, his face buried under a hood and scarf. In this city of stone facades and cold eyes, he was just another bare named traveler.
A folded map lay on the small table in front of him, its surface covered in circles and lines that crisscrossed in a maddening maze of purpose. At its heart was a symbol that sent a chill down Nathan’s spine every time he saw it: the Circle.
They were here. Kane was here.
The Meeting
Nathan’s initial step was to verify Kane’s base. The data they had stolen from Drakov suggested a warehouse in the industrial district, but that was just a suggestion; Nathan needed more than a damn suggestion. He had contacted an old associate of his, a former operative-turned-smuggler who had ties to Belgrade’s underworld, Luka Petrović.
Luka came to the café right on time, a wiry man with sharp, darting eyes. He flopped into the chair across from Nathan, his breath puffing clouds into the air.
“You’re cross,” said Luka with a smirk. “I thought you were dead.”
“Not yet,” Nathan said coolly. “You have what I requested?”
Luka looked around anxiously and took out a USB drive from his coat. “Drakov’s files didn’t lie. Kane’s holed up in the old Slavić Steelworks. Tight security. Armed guards. But there’s more.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Go on.” “They’ve been moving some kind of something. Big. I couldn’t get close, and I’m hearing whispers something about a new weapon, or even worse. Whatever it is, Kane plans to use it soon.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened. “And my family?”
Luka hesitated, the guilt shining in his eyes. “I don’t know, Cross. If they’re alive, they’re with him.” But you’re entering a stronghold. You sure about this?”
Nathan lunged forward, his voice low and lethal. “I don’t have a choice.”
Nathan approached the steelworks, and the coming of nightfall engulfed it in shadow. The factory factory was a yard sale, its rotting smokestacks looming over a bleak yet lonely sky. Floodlights swept the perimeter, lighting up razor-wire fences and patrolling guards.
Nathan hunkered down in the underbrush, breathing slow and even. His route had been planned carefully to take advantage of patrol patterns’ blind spots.
He used a grappling hook, scaled the fence and landed quietly on the other side. Baring them all his silenced pistol the cold metal reassuring in hand as he moved in silence never straying from the shadows.
Two guards waited outside, at a side entrance, voices muffled by the wind. Nathan waited for one to turn away, then he struck. A swift jab to the neck dropped the first guard, a silenced round took out the second.
Squeezing through, Nathan stepped into a cavernous hall, alive with the whine of rusting machinery, with crates piled to the ceiling. The smell of oil and decay hung heavily in the air.
Once he was inside this labyrinth of halls, pastes and concrete, Nathan weaved his way around patrols and disarmed security cameras with ease. He arrived at an office that overlooked the main factory floor, its windows aglow from the lights within.
He looked through the glass to see a group of men clustered around a table. In the center was Kane, his demeanor both commanding and calm. Before him on the table lay a blueprint of sorts, the details obscured by the distance.
Nathan switched on a small listening device he had placed earlier. Kane’s voice crackled in his ear.
“All is in place,” Kane said. “The prototype will be ready for deployment in 48 hours. No one can stop this not Cross, not anyone."
Nathan’s blood ran cold. A prototype? What was Kane building? He glanced around the room and spotted a laptop sitting alone on a table. “If he could get into that, he might find the answers he needed.”
Nathan was fast, but soundless, eventually making his way down the stairs to the factory floor. He stayed low, dodging crates and machinery until he reached within just meters of the group.
But then, his luck ran out.
A guard turned the corner, his flashlight flashing the briefest glint of Nathan’s weapon.
“Hey!” the guard yelled, brandishing his rifle.
The room erupted into chaos. Kane’s men unsheathed firearms, and Nathan flung himself to safety as bullets ricocheted off all sides. He fired back, his motions measured and precise. The guards fell, one at a time, but the commotion had allowed Kane to escape.
Nathan chased him through the steelworks, the cadence of their steps ringing in the great rooms of the plant. He followed Kane to a lower level, a vast laboratory brimming with glowing monitors and bizarre machinery.
In the middle of the room was the prototype: a smooth, dark machine glowing with an eerie light.
“You’re too late, Cross,” Kane said, moving behind the machine. “This is the future. You can’t stop progress.”
Nathan raised his pistol. “I’m going to end whatever this is, and I’m going to end you.” Kane laughed. “Go ahead. Shoot me. It won’t change anything.”
Nathan readied his gun, but an explosion shook the room. Beady lights danced across the prototype before it let out a high-pitched whine, sending sparks shooting from its core. Kane took advantage of the distraction to turn and flee, disappearing into a hidden passageway.
Nathan averted his eyes from the c*****e, his focus on the prototype. If Kane’s plans centered on this device, smashing it could be his only shot at saving his family.
Nathan set explosives on the machine and programmed them for three minutes. When the countdown started, alarms sounded in the facility. Guards poured into the lab, but Nathan barrelled through them, wanting only to escape.
He stepped into the cold night air just as the explosion went off, ripping through the steelworks. The earth trembled under him as a column of fire and smoke leapt into the sky.
Nathan didn’t pause to look back. He’d destroyed the prototype, but Kane remained out there.
And so was his family.
- Writer
