Prague was colder than he remembered.
Grey stone buildings pressed in around narrow streets, and the sky hung low, promising rain. Ethan stood beneath the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square, blending into the crowd of tourists taking photos—none of them aware that a war was about to begin in the shadows.
The time was 11:56 a.m.
He scanned the square. No sign of her.
Then—
"Still hate clocks?"
He turned.
Lucia Marek.
Her hair was shorter now, darker too. Still the same sharp, cut-glass blue eyes. She wore a long black coat and a neutral expression that didn't match her racing heartbeat.
He could tell. He always could.
"You're late," he said.
"You're still alive," she replied. "That's surprising."
He didn't smile. "Jakob's dead."
Her expression shifted. She looked away. "How?"
"Shot. Cabin attack. He gave me this." He pulled out the USB. "Encrypted. Deep."
She took it carefully, glanced around, then gestured. "Walk with me."
They moved away from the square, slipping into side alleys. She spoke without looking at him.
"I've heard whispers. Something buried in old Interpol logs. Military backdoors, tied into financial systems. Then redacted from existence. No access—not even through backchannels."
"Shadow Protocol?" Ethan asked.
She nodded. "The ultimate fail-safe. Built after the 2008 collapse. If it's triggered, every digital ledger across the G8 goes into systemic lockdown. It doesn't just crash the economy—it resets it."
Ethan's chest tightened. "Weaponized economics."
"And someone wants it live again," she added. "I traced activity to Zurich. Then Istanbul. Then... nothing. Silence. Like something swallowed every lead."
He paused. "I've seen a pattern—former agents, cryptographers, AI systems specialists. All dead. Or missing."
She stopped walking. Her breath was visible in the cold air.
"What if... what if this isn't about money?" she whispered. "What if it's about control? Someone could collapse the world... then write the next version of it."
Ethan looked down at the USB in her hands.
"It's the trigger," he said. "Jakob hid something inside. Code. Maybe names."
Lucia took a breath. "Then we need someone who can open it safely. Someone with no ties. No trail."
Ethan hesitated. "I know a guy in Budapest. Doesn't trust anyone. Still codes on paper."
Before they could move, a black van skidded onto the narrow street ahead of them.
Lucia's eyes widened. "Down!"
Gunfire erupted—silenced, but deadly. Ethan pulled her behind a column, drawing his Glock. The bullets hit close—too close. This wasn't random.
"They found us," Lucia gasped.
"Not us," Ethan said grimly. "You."
---
End of Chapter 4