CHAPTER 5 – The Ghost Behind the Screen
Across New York...
London...
Rome...
Dubai...
Every encrypted server connected to the Moretti syndicate began flashing the same warning.
DATA BREACH DETECTED.
Within minutes, billions of dollars disappeared from offshore accounts.
Politicians erased years of messages.
Judges abandoned courtrooms.
Crime bosses fled private compounds.
The world wasn't witnessing the collapse of one mafia empire.
It was watching the collapse of every criminal network connected to The Circle.
Deep beneath the abandoned subway station, Vincent stared at the broadcast.
"I didn't release those files."
Sophia slowly lowered her eyes.
"Neither did I."
Elena's heartbeat quickened.
"Then who did?"
Before anyone could answer, every screen in the tunnel suddenly went black.
A single symbol appeared.
A white raven.
Vincent's face drained of color.
"No..."
"That's impossible."
Sophia whispered the name she hadn't spoken in three decades.
"Orion..."
Elena frowned.
"Who's Orion?"
Vincent answered with a trembling voice.
"The only assassin my father ever feared."
"He wasn't hired to kill people."
"He erased entire organizations."
"No photographs."
"No fingerprints."
"No identity."
"People called him a ghost because no one who met him survived."
The screen flickered.
A distorted voice echoed through the tunnel.
"You've spent thirty years chasing the wrong enemy."
Sophia stepped forward.
"You've been dead for twenty-eight years."
The voice laughed.
"So did you."
Static filled the room.
Then thousands of confidential files appeared.
Each document carried one signature.
Sophia Moretti.
Vincent looked at his mother in disbelief.
"These operations..."
"...they were authorized by you."
She shook her head violently.
"They're forged."
But Orion spoke again.
"Are they?"
More files appeared.
Audio recordings.
Video clips.
Financial transfers.
Every piece of evidence pointed to one horrifying conclusion.
Sophia herself had founded The Circle decades earlier.
Elena stared at the woman she had just begun to trust.
"You lied to us..."
Sophia's eyes filled with tears.
"I hid the truth."
"There is a difference."
Before she could explain—
The tunnel shook violently.
Explosives.
The emergency exit collapsed.
Concrete buried the only escape route.
Hidden speakers came alive.
"You wanted to destroy the empire."
"So I locked you inside its grave."
Suddenly, poison gas began pouring through the ventilation system.
Vincent immediately tore off his jacket and wrapped it around Elena's face.
"There has to be another exit!"
Sophia looked toward an old steel vault at the end of the tunnel.
"There is."
"But only one person can open it."
"Who?"
She looked directly at Vincent.
"The man buried behind that door..."
"...is the only founder of The Circle who never betrayed his oath."
Vincent's blood froze.
"That's impossible."
"My father died forty years ago."
Sophia slowly whispered,
May you like
"No..."
"I buried someone else."
