Three days later, an explosive headline began making waves on the internet: "Classified Super-Soldier Program Exposed – Project Prometheus Uncovered." News sites and social media buzzed with leaked documents detailing human experimentation, covert corporate alliances, and damning evidence implicating high-ranking officials. By the time dawn broke on the fourth day, the world knew about the Prometheus Serum.
For Kabelo, Khumalo, and Colonel Mabaso, the leak was the culmination of sleepless nights and perilous maneuvers. After escaping SynGen, they'd crossed into Botswana and hunkered down at a safehouse run by one of Mabaso's trusted contacts – a small game reserve lodge far from prying eyes. There, using a secure satellite uplink, they uploaded the Prometheus files to global whistleblower networks and reputable journalists simultaneously. The data scattershot into the public domain, unstoppable.
Now they sat in the lodge's modest common room, watching a satellite news channel on a battery-powered TV. A stern-faced anchor read off details from the documents: unethical trials on soldiers, mercenary cover-ups, corporate collusion. A scroll at the bottom listed names now wanted for questioning: among them, General Kagiso Mohlase of the SANDF, SynGen CEO Richard Cole, and several executives of Helios Defense Labs. Crimson Shield was denounced as an illegal paramilitary group and reportedly had gone to ground.
Khumalo let out a low whistle as a clip played showing protesters gathering outside a SynGen office in London. "We actually did it," he murmured, still sounding amazed.
Mabaso sat back, a sheen of sweat on his brow from the fever of his healing wound. "We did. The truth is out." His voice was proud but weary.
Kabelo allowed himself a small, long-overdue smile. For the first time since this nightmare began, he felt the weight on his shoulders lighten. They were no longer fugitives in the shadows; they had seized control of the narrative and dragged the conspiracy into the light.
Yet victory remained tempered by caution. "They won't go quietly," Kabelo said. His eyes stayed on the scrolling news ticker. There were already reports of certain implicated figures disappearing — General Mohlase among them. "Rats are scurrying. Some will try to run or fight back."
As if to echo his words, an alert chimed on Mabaso's phone — a secure messaging app. He opened it and grimaced. "It's from one of my sources in Gaborone. They say a helicopter crossed the border from South Africa last night, under radar. Possibly Crimson Shield extracting someone."
Khumalo frowned. "Steyn?"
"Maybe," Mabaso said. "Or General Mohlase. Or both."
Kabelo's jaw tightened. Steyn had gone silent since the ambush at the farm, but Kabelo doubted the man had given up. "If he's still in play, he'll be desperate. We should be on guard."
They had fortified the lodge as best as possible, placing crude booby traps and using Mabaso's satellite link sparingly to avoid detection. But with the leak live, they hoped their enemies would be too busy fleeing.
Nevertheless, all three kept their weapons within arm's reach.
By afternoon, a hot stillness settled over the reserve. Mabaso dozed fitfully on a couch, recovering strength. Kabelo stepped outside onto the porch to get fresh air. Brown grasslands stretched under a shimmering horizon, the chatter of cicadas the only sound.
Khumalo joined him, gingerly adjusting a bandage on his healing forearm. "Hell of a journey, hey Shadow?"
Kabelo nodded, watching a pair of antelope graze in the distance. "We couldn't have done it without you and the colonel."
Khumalo chuckled. "You kidding? Without you, I'd be dead ten times over by now. You and that ghost-walk trick of yours." He grew somber. "Think they'll ever let you live a normal life after this? I mean, you're in every news story — 'the Phantom Sniper', they're calling you."
Kabelo had seen the nickname floating around online attached to sensational accounts of his portal exploits. He shrugged. "Normal life? Probably not. But I'd settle for a safe one, where we're not being hunted."
Behind them, Mabaso stirred and called weakly from inside, "Anything on the news now?"
Khumalo turned to answer when a sudden burst of gunfire shattered the quiet. Wood splinters sprayed from the lodge's doorframe as bullets ripped through it. Mabaso cried out in pain.
In an instant, Kabelo shoved Khumalo down behind the porch's low wall and threw himself to the side. His eyes caught a flash of movement near the treeline 50 meters out — men in camouflaged fatigues advancing in a semicircle, rifles blazing.
The enemy had found them.
Kabelo's heart pounded as adrenaline surged. This was no police raid; it was an assault. Likely Crimson Shield or others loyal to the project, coming to exact revenge.
He crawled to Mabaso, who lay just inside the door, bleeding anew from a fresh wound in his thigh. Kabelo dragged the colonel back from the doorway, out of direct line of fire. Mabaso gritted his teeth, face pale. "They... found us..."
"Shadow, five tangos, maybe more!" Khumalo shouted over the din, peeking around the wall long enough to fire a couple of suppressive shots with his rifle. One attacker went down, clipped in the shoulder, but the others kept advancing, now fanning out to encircle the lodge.
Kabelo's mind raced faster than ever. They needed to break this ambush or they'd be overwhelmed. He looked to Mabaso, who was struggling to stay conscious. The colonel pressed a pistol into Kabelo's hand. "I'm slowing you down. Do what you have to," he gasped.
"No one gets left, sir," Kabelo growled, refusing to even consider abandoning him. "Khumalo, cover me!"
He concentrated and opened a small portal just outside the porch. Through it, he spotted two mercenaries trying to flank from the rear. Taking a deep breath, Kabelo lobbed one of their remaining fragmentation grenades through the portal.
A concussive thump and screams rewarded him — two fewer pursuers to worry about.
But an instant later, a new sound cut through the gunfire: the heavy thrum of a helicopter approaching low. The same black chopper they'd seen at the farm now crested over the savannah scrub, bearing down on the lodge with terrifying speed.
The helicopter's side door gun swung to bear. Kabelo shouted a warning and tackled Mabaso flat as a storm of bullets from the minigun shredded the flimsy walls of the lodge. Windows blew out, furniture exploded into splinters. The roar was deafening.
In the chaos, Kabelo saw Khumalo diving for cover inside, narrowly avoiding the sweeping gunfire. The entire lodge was being torn apart. Shadow and his allies were out of time.