15 Miles: The Heist
By Rapwizzy Debaron
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Episode 4: Operation Ghost Net
Fifteen miles beneath the city streets, the silence inside D7's temporary hideout was sharper than any gunshot.
Julian paced.
Eve watched Carter like a hawk, finger never leaving the trigger guard.
Max slammed his laptop shut after trying to reroute their comms. "EMP fried the encryption. We're deaf, blind, and dead in the water."
Reese groaned. "We need a reset. If we don't get out of these tunnels soon, we're sitting ducks."
Julian stopped mid-stride. "No. We need to dig deeper."
Carter looked up from the makeshift medical table where he was being patched up. "We've never faced this kind of coordination before. It's not just the FBI anymore. They've formed something bigger… faster."
Max nodded grimly. "Yeah. I picked up a signal just before the EMP hit. It wasn't from any known agency. It was encrypted using a military-grade protocol I've never seen."
Julian's jaw clenched. "They've built a ghost unit."
Carter swallowed. "They call it Operation Ghost Net. A black-ops task force. No names. No files. No oversight. Their mission is simple: eliminate D7."
A moment of silence.
Then Eve's voice sliced through it. "They'll come harder now. Smarter. They know we're not just thieves."
Julian nodded. "Because we're not."
He turned to the team.
"We were never in it for the money. Not completely. The vault was step one. But the real target—the truth—lies beyond that vault."
Reese raised a brow. "You're saying we go back?"
Julian locked eyes with him. "I'm saying we finish what we started."
Suddenly, a high-pitched chirp echoed from the wall. Max spun toward the source, eyes wide. "Motion sensors. They've breached the tunnel system."
Everyone snapped into motion.
Julian grabbed his rifle. "We hold them off just long enough to access the backup escape tunnel. Max, get us eyes."
Max threw a portable drone into the air—it clicked, buzzed, then projected a heat map onto the wall. Red dots moved fast through the tunnel, tight formation. Tactical gear. Silent.
"They're less than 90 seconds out," Max reported.
"Too fast," Eve muttered. "They know our playbook."
Julian cursed. "They're already inside our heads."
Reese slid open a maintenance panel in the wall. "I found something."
Behind the panel was a forgotten maintenance shaft—tight, vertical, and pitch black.
"This goes straight up into an old railway junction. It's unstable, but it's our best shot."
Julian nodded. "Move!"
One by one, the team disappeared into the shaft—until only Julian remained, covering their escape.
Footsteps echoed closer. Shadows flickered at the end of the tunnel.
Then, a voice. Cold. Familiar.
"Julian."
He froze.
That voice belonged to a man they had all believed dead.
Lucian.
Julian's twin.
Once part of D7.
Once family.
Now the leader of Ghost Net.
Julian's knuckles whitened around the rifle. "I should've known you'd crawl back from the dead."
Lucian stepped into view, dressed in sleek black armor, visor down. "I didn't crawl. I evolved. Unlike you."
Julian smirked. "Betrayal's not evolution."
Lucian raised his weapon. "This ends tonight, brother."
Julian didn't hesitate. He fired, hitting a smoke canister just as he leapt into the shaft and pulled the hatch closed behind him.
Smoke swallowed Lucian's team.
But Julian knew this was far from over.
This was personal.
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Above ground, the city was still sleeping. Unaware. Unmoved. But beneath it, a war had begun.
As D7 emerged from the ruined junction into the broken light of dawn, bloodied and breathless, one thing was clear:
This wasn't just a heist anymore.
It was vengeance.
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> To be continued…
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15 Miles: The Heist