Chapter 188 The Man Beyond the Gate
Chapter 188 The Man Beyond the Gate
Sirens wailed across the freight district.
Medical teams rushed into the tunnel as race marshals waved yellow flags, bringing the Circuit Trial to an immediate halt. Smoke drifted from the twisted motorcycles lying across the wet concrete, while emergency lights painted the tunnel walls in flashes of red and blue.
Zara eased off the throttle as she crossed the finish line alone.
The timing board declared her the winner, but there was no celebration.
No raised fists.
No smile beneath her helmet.
Only silence.
She parked her motorcycle near the inspection area and removed her helmet with trembling hands.
Samuel reached her first.
“You made it.”
She nodded, still catching her breath.
“Barely.”
Kim hurried over with a tablet.
“Five riders were taken to the hospital.”
“What about the leader?”
Kim’s expression darkened.
“Critical.”
Zara closed her eyes for a brief moment.
The cable hadn’t been meant to scare anyone.
It had been placed to kill.
Ronan approached, studying her carefully.
“You’re injured.”
She looked down.
A tear in her racing suit exposed a shallow cut across her left arm, probably from flying debris inside the tunnel.
“I didn’t even feel it.”
“Adrenaline.”
Medical staff moved toward her, but she waved them away.
“Later.”
Her attention remained fixed on the maintenance gate she had seen only moments before.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
“I know.”
“There was someone there.”
Ronan’s eyes sharpened.
“What did you see?”
She described the worker in detail.
“Average height.”
“Heavy boots.”
“Road crew overalls.”
“Orange stripe on the right sleeve.”
Samuel frowned.
“I don’t remember seeing any crew dressed like that.”
Kim quickly searched through the official maintenance roster.
Her fingers stopped moving.
“There isn’t one.”
Silence settled over the group.
Someone had entered the race disguised as maintenance personnel.
Inside the Dominion control room, Marcus watched emergency vehicles flood the course.
One adviser spoke quietly.
“Our operative escaped.”
Marcus nodded.
“As expected.”
“And Zara?”
Marcus smiled without warmth.
“She noticed him.”
The adviser looked confused.
“Wasn’t that a mistake?”
“No.”
Marcus turned away from the window.
“Now she’ll chase him.”
“And while she’s chasing him…”
“…she’ll discover exactly what I want her to discover.”
Elsewhere, beyond the freight district, the mysterious worker drove an old maintenance truck toward an abandoned rail depot.
Once inside the warehouse, he removed the stained overalls.
Beneath them was a black tactical uniform.
Several people waited in the shadows.
One of them asked, “Did she recognize you?”
He nodded once.
“Good.”
The woman sitting at the far end of the room smiled faintly.
“Then Phase Two begins.”
She slid a weathered file across the table.
Stamped across the front were three words:
PROJECT BLACK CIRCUIT
The operative opened it slowly.
Inside were photographs.
Old race courses.
Destroyed motorcycles.
Missing riders.
And one photograph that made even him pause.
A much younger Ronan.
Standing beside Marcus.
Both wearing Dominion uniforms.
Neither looked like enemies.
Back at the freight district, Zara finally allowed the medics to clean the cut on her arm.
As they worked, Ronan stood a few feet away, unusually quiet.
She noticed.
“You’re hiding something.”
He didn’t answer.
She stepped closer.
“The photograph I found in your apartment…”
“…the one you burned…”
“It was taken here, wasn’t it?”
Ronan’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“You and Marcus built the Circuit Trials together.”
Another long silence.
Finally, he looked directly into her eyes.
“We didn’t build the races.”
He swallowed heavily.
“We built the system that turned them into weapons.”
Before Zara could respond, Kim came running across the paddock, breathless.
“You need to see this.”
She held out her tablet.
Someone had uploaded a video from inside the tunnel.
The footage was shaky, recorded by a spectator hidden above the maintenance walkway.
For only two seconds, the camera captured the person who had installed the steel cable.
The image was blurred.
But the face was just clear enough.
Samuel stared at the screen.
His voice became barely a whisper.
“No…”
Zara looked at him.
“You know him?”
Samuel nodded slowly.
“I trained with him eight years ago.”
“I watched him die.”
The screen froze on the man’s face.
Beneath the image appeared a single name.
IVAN KESSLER
A man officially declared dead…
…had just tried to murder every rider in the Circuit Trial.
Samuel’s face drained of color.
“Ivan Kessler…” he whispered again. “That’s impossible.”
Zara kept her eyes fixed on the frozen image. The man’s features were older, marked by a jagged scar running from his temple to his jaw, but there was no mistaking the cold stare.
“You said he was dead.”
“He was supposed to be,” Samuel replied. “Eight years ago, during the Black Ridge Trial, his bike exploded. We recovered what we believed were his remains. The Dominion declared him dead, and the case was closed.”
Kim zoomed in on the grainy footage.
“Then someone wanted everyone to believe he died.”
Ronan’s expression hardened.
“Or someone helped him disappear.”
A heavy silence settled over the group before Ronan looked toward the tunnel, now crawling with investigators.
“If Ivan is alive,” he said quietly, “then everything we thought we knew about Project Black Circuit is wrong.”
Just then, Zara’s private communicator crackled to life.
A distorted voice came through the speaker.
“You survived… just as he predicted.”
Before anyone could trace the signal, the caller continued.
“The tunnel was only a warning.”
A burst of static followed.
“Next time… you won’t be so lucky.”
The transmission ended.
Zara slowly lowered the communicator, her eyes burning with determination.
“He wants me afraid.”
Ronan met her gaze and gave a slight shake of his head.
“No.”
“He wants you to chase him.”
“And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Kim’s tablet suddenly chimed with a new notification.
She frowned as encrypted data began downloading from an unknown source.
“I didn’t request this,” she murmured.
Within seconds, a single file appeared on the screen.
It contained only a set of GPS coordinates and one sentence.
“If you want the truth, come alone before sunrise.”
Beneath the message was a symbol Zara had seen before—the same black serpent insignia carved into the hidden chamber beneath Dominion Headquarters.
Ronan’s face turned grim the moment he saw it.
“They’ve finally made their move.”
Zara slipped her helmet back on, determination burning in her eyes.
“Then before sunrise… we’ll have our answers.”
Ronan reached out and caught Zara’s arm before she could walk away.
“Not alone.”
She looked back at him.
“The message specifically says to come alone.”
“That’s exactly why it’s a trap.”
Samuel crossed his arms.
“We’re not letting you walk into another ambush.”
Kim continued analyzing the encrypted file.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“The GPS coordinates…”
Her fingers flew across the screen.
“They don’t point to a building.”
“They point beneath one.”
Ronan stepped closer.
“What do you mean?”
She enlarged the satellite map until a familiar section of the city appeared.
The coordinates rested directly beneath Dominion Tower.
“There are underground levels that don’t exist on any public blueprint.”
Zara felt her pulse quicken.
“The hidden facility.”
Ronan nodded slowly.
“I’ve heard rumors for years.”
“But I never found an entrance.”
Kim swallowed hard.
“Whoever sent this wants us inside.”
Samuel frowned.
“Or wants to lock us inside.”
Before anyone could respond, a convoy of black Dominion SUVs rolled through the freight district gates.
Their headlights cut through the mist like blades.
Every conversation stopped.
Doors opened in perfect unison.
Dozens of armed Dominion security officers stepped out, forming a line across the yard.
Then Marcus emerged from the center vehicle.
He adjusted his gloves and smiled as his eyes settled on Zara.
“It seems,” he said calmly, “our conversation can no longer wait.”