Crimson eyes blazed into Orlando's. The Awakened subject, a woman twisted by Chimera's malice, shrieked, her claws tearing through Ghost's reinforced ballistic mask. Shards of composite polymer flew, exposing the face beneath. Orlando’s breath hitched. Not a stranger. Not a faceless operative. His mind scrambled, pulling at threads of memory, a name whispering from the depths of his Specter Network files. Dr. Aris Thorne. That was the name. A brilliant neuroscientist, renowned for his groundbreaking work in cognitive mapping, then vilified, accused of unethical experiments, and finally, vanished without a trace years ago. The official reports claimed a mental breakdown, a retreat from the public eye. The Specter files, however, hinted at a more sinister truth: a forced disappearance, a silencing. His eyes snapped back to the present. Thorne was fighting, even unmasked, a grim set to his jaw, a flicker of raw anger in his gaze. He parried a feral lunge, the exposed skin of his cheek already bleeding from the initial strike, a jagged scar tracing a line from his temple to his chin – a mark Orlando hadn't seen in the archived photos, a new testament to his hidden war.

Chapter 34: Ghost's True Identity