Chapter 10 – The Man Behind the Mask
732 Words
The first volley of bullets hammered into the metal crates around them with deafening force. Lucas grabbed Evelyn and dove behind a stack of wooden pallets.
“Keep your head down!” he shouted over the roaring gunfire.
Evelyn pressed against him, trembling. “We’re trapped…”
Lucas scanned the area, eyes sharp despite the pain in his shoulder. “Not trapped. Just… outnumbered.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better!”
“It wasn’t supposed to.”
He peered between the crates, calculating angles, distances, escape routes.
Then he found one.
“There,” he said. “A maintenance hatch. Leads into the sub-storage level.”
Evelyn followed his gaze and saw a metal square bolted to the floor across the open walkway—completely exposed.
“They’ll shoot us before we get there!”
Lucas looked at her, expression softening for a heartbeat. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said instantly. “Of course I—”
Before she finished, Lucas ripped a smoke canister off one of the fallen crates and yanked the pin.
He hurled it across the warehouse.
Smoke erupted, thick and fast.
“Go!” he ordered.
They sprinted.
Bullets sliced through the air, blind and scattered. Sparks burst off the metal floor as Evelyn and Lucas slid to the hatch.
Lucas slammed his fist against the bolts—they didn’t budge.
“Move back,” he said.
“What are you—”
He drove his boot into the latch. Metal cracked. A second kick—and the hatch sprang open.
“Down,” he said, pushing her gently.
Evelyn dropped into darkness, landing on a cold concrete surface. Lucas followed and pulled the hatch shut above them just as gunfire rattled against the metal.
The space below was cramped, barely lit by flickering emergency strips along the floor.
Evelyn exhaled shakily. “Lucas… how long can we stay here?”
“Until they realize the hatch is reinforced from the other side,” he said. “We have less than a minute.”
He staggered slightly.
Evelyn caught him. “Lucas! Your shoulder—let me see it.”
He didn’t resist this time.
When she pulled back his shirt, Evelyn’s stomach twisted. The wound was deeper than she thought. Blood soaked the fabric.
She whispered, “You need medical help…”
Lucas met her eyes, and something vulnerable flickered in his expression. “People like me don’t get hospitals. We get termination orders.”
Evelyn swallowed hard. “Why are they doing this to you?”
Lucas didn’t answer immediately.
He sat against the wall, breath heavy.
Finally, he said, “Because I was their best weapon… until I tried to be a person.”
Her voice trembled. “What do you mean?”
Lucas looked at her with haunted eyes.
“I wasn’t recruited,” he said quietly. “I was made.”
Evelyn’s breath caught.
“I was twelve when they took me. They erased everything—my name, my memories, my choices. I became Hale—the perfect operative. Until I failed a mission on purpose. Because there was a child involved.”
He touched his shoulder lightly, wincing.
“They don’t forgive disobedience.”
Evelyn sank down beside him. “You’re not a weapon anymore.”
“That’s the problem,” Lucas whispered. “To them, I still am.”
Above them, the gunfire stopped.
Heavy footsteps thudded overhead.
“They’re spreading out,” Lucas said. “They’ll try to corner us again.”
Evelyn placed her hand on his. “Then we keep moving. Together.”
Lucas stared at her hand—small, warm, steady on his blood-stained fingers.
Something inside him softened.
He nodded once. “Together.”
A metallic clang echoed through the sublevel.
Lucas stiffened.
Evelyn whispered, “What was that?”
Someone else was in the dark corridor ahead of them.
A silhouette stepped into the faint strip of red light.
Tall. Calm. Controlled.
Not one of the soldiers.
A different presence.
The man’s voice was smooth, almost polite.
“Lucas Hale,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
Lucas swore under his breath. “Of all people… you.”
The man smiled faintly.
“Hello, brother.”
Evelyn froze.
Lucas’s breath stopped.
And the darkness around them tightened like a noose.
- Writer
