Chapter 84 Fake video
For one dreadful second, the rain went silent.
The moment Heaven’s body hit the asphalt, the men chasing her scattered like startled rats.
Rain hammered down, washing her blood into the gutters.
One of the men pulled out a phone with shaking hands.
“You didn’t trust us enough to handle it?” he asked the receiver, eyes darting between the shadows. “Well… it’s done.”
He ended the call quickly. The other group, the ones who had also been chasing her looked unsettled before disappearing into the storm.
Somewhere far away, Eva stood at her window, watching the rain fall. Her fingers tightened around her phone.
A slow, satisfied smile spread across her lips.
\~~~~~~~~~~~
The night wind howled across the remote terrain where Maverick had been stationed for the last three weeks.
The tents flapped loudly in the wind.
The mission was supposed to last a month, but Maverick had forced it to end early, single-handedly accelerating every phase.He had worked like a man trying to outrun something.He needed to go back.He needed to see her. He needed to fix everything he’d broken.
He walked toward his command tent, boots heavy with exhaustion. He looked like a man carved out of stone.A man carrying a storm inside him. John trailed behind him.
“Sir,” John said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, voice steady despite his exhaustion. “The last of the consignment is loaded. We leave at dawn.”
Maverick barely nodded.
John continued, “The chopper will arrive by 12:00 noon.”
But he stopped abruptly.
Two young soldiers stood with their backs turned, hunched over a phone, snickering.
John peaked above Maverick’s shoulder and followed his gaze, he paled. He tapped the boys sharply.
They spun around instantly, snapping to attention at the sight of their captain, hiding the phone behind them quickly.
“Sir!” They both said I once, their eyes almost bulging out.
Maverick’s eyes were cold, his face unreadable.He didn’t blink.
“How,” he asked, voice like a tsunami, “am I in that video?”
The soldiers trembled like chickens about to be slaughtered.
John stepped forward, trying to protect the soldiers. “Captain…it’s… it was designed.”
“Designed how?” Maverick’s tone dropped lower, more dangerous.
The soldiers nearly wet themselves.
“Sir, it’s a new app,” one stammered. “You can… you can create any video you want. You just need a face. The app does the rest. We…uh…we made one of you. Dancing.”
John glared at them for confessing too much. Maverick didn’t hear the last sentence. His pulse slammed violently in his ears.
“You mean,” he said quietly, “there is an app that can make people do things… without them actually doing it?”
“Y..yes, sir.”
A buzzing sound filled Maverick’s head.
He saw Heaven again crying, trembling, voice breaking in desperation: “I have no recollection of me doing that. Maverick please… Please believe me.”
His stomach dropped so fast he felt sick.
“Show me,” Maverick said suddenly, finger pointing at John. “Do it. Make a video. Of him.”
The soldiers obeyed instantly. They snapped a picture of John and within seconds there it was. John… dancing like an idiot.
Maverick’s vision swam.His hands went cold. His throat tightened.
He grabbed John by the collar and dragged him into the tent. Inside, his breath trembled, his chest rising and falling too fast.
He had never panicked before. Not in war. Not in combat. Not even when a bomb detonated five meters from him. But this…This shook him to his core. He pulled out his phone with shaking fingers and shoved the screen toward John.
“That video,” Maverick rasped. “Check it. Check if it’s real.”
John looked at it, eyes widening at the explicit content and the fact that it was his former captain's wife but military training kept him composed.
He watched. Analyzed. Zoomed. Checked metadata. Found it.
“It’s fake, Captain,” John said quietly. “It’s a generated video.”
“H-how do you know?” Maverick forced out, voice barely a whisper.
“Loo here.There’s one finger missing in the reflection, then see where the finger appeared on the ladies own. These AIs get realistic, but they always slip somewhere…”
Maverick forgot how to breathe. The world tilted. Silence roared in his ears. He swayed slightly.
He didn’t finish.
Maverick’s roar shook the tent.
“FUCK!!!!”
John stared stunned.
Their captain faced bullets without flinching. Maverick Richard never reacted to anything. But right now, he looked like a man drowning, like a man breaking apart from the inside.
Maverick pressed a hand to the table to steady himself.He couldn’t breathe.He had condemned Heaven.Punished her. Humiliated her.
Touched her when she was emotionally broken and begging him to stop all for something she didn’t do.
He had destroyed the only person he,He clutched his chest, struggling to inhale.
John quick and observant immediately understood.
This had something to do with his brothers wife.
“Captain… it’s not too late,” John said quietly. “You can still apologize. Fix it.”
Maverick lifted his head. His eyes were no longer cold.They were furious.Panicked.Unstable.
“Call the chopper,” he ordered. “Now.”
“Sir? It’s scheduled for…”
“NOW,” Maverick growled. “We’re leaving. I’m done here.”