The rain hammered against the Brooklyn Bridge's steel structure, creating a metallic symphony that echoed through the darkness. Ethan Mason pressed his back against one of the massive support beams, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The wound in his side burned like fire, and he could feel warm blood seeping through his fingers as he tried to staunch the flow.
Lightning split the sky, briefly illuminating the rain-slicked bridge and the approaching figures in tactical gear. Their movements were too precise, too coordinated to be regular military. Ethan had served with Special Forces long enough to recognize enhanced soldiers when he saw them.
"Target spotted on the eastern support structure," a voice crackled through the night. "All units converge. Remember, Subject 7 needs to be taken alive. The serum hasn't completed its cycle."
Ethan's enhanced hearing picked up the words clearly despite the storm's fury. These changes had started three days ago, after they'd caught him helping the children escape. The increased strength, the heightened senses, the burning sensation that seemed to pulse through his veins - all part of whatever they'd injected him with during those endless hours strapped to the lab table.
"You can't run forever, Lieutenant," a familiar voice called out. Colonel Richards. The man who had once trusted him as his best officer, before discovering the truth. "Your noble act of defiance has cost us years of research. Those children were carefully selected test subjects!"
"They were innocent children!" Ethan growled, surprised by the animalistic quality of his own voice. Images of the facility's holding cells flashed through his mind - dozens of terrified faces, some as young as six or seven, strapped to beds and hooked up to machines. Out of the twenty-three children in the facility, he'd managed to help eight escape through the old maintenance tunnels before the alarm was raised. Sarah, the little girl with braided hair, had been the first. Her trust in him had given the others courage.
But before he could return for the rest, Richards had discovered his betrayal. The last thing Ethan saw before they captured him was the remaining children being evacuated by the facility staff - his actions had forced them to move the entire operation. At least it had bought time for the escaped children to get away.
Another lightning flash, and Ethan caught movement from above. A figure perched on one of the bridge's cables, too graceful to be human. As his vision adjusted, he made out long dark hair whipping in the wind and eyes that gleamed blood-red in the darkness.
"Look at this little wolf," the figure, a woman, spoke in a voice like silk over steel. "Still so new to the gift."
Ethan's instincts screamed danger. This new player was neither military nor one of Richards' enhanced soldiers. There was something ancient about her presence, something that made his poisoned blood burn hotter in his veins.
"Lilith," Richards' voice held both recognition and fear. "Subject 7 is military property. This doesn't concern your kind."
The woman, Lilith, laughed, the sound carrying clearly over the storm. "Everything about the wolves concerns my kind, Colonel. We've been hunting them far longer than your primitive experiments have existed."
Ethan used their exchange to edge closer to the bridge's edge. The East River churned below, black waters promising either escape or death. His enhanced body might survive the fall, but in his current condition...
A rifle crack split the air. One of the approaching soldiers dropped, a precise shot through the head. More shots followed, dropping three more before the rest could take cover. Through his blurring vision, Ethan could barely stay conscious. Blood loss and whatever they'd injected him with were shutting down his body, system by system. His heartbeat was becoming erratic, each breath more labored than the last.
"Sniper!" Richards bellowed. "Multiple hostiles on the north tower! Squad Two, locate and eliminate!"
Lilith's attention shifted to the darkness beyond the bridge. "Interesting. It seems the old wolf still has hunters in play." Her crimson eyes narrowed, scanning the shadows with ancient predatory instinct.
Through the haze of pain, Ethan heard Richards speaking urgently into his radio. "The traitor is compromised. Unknown parties attempting extraction. Switch to Protocol Omega."
"Sir, we should try to..." someone protested.
"He made his choice! Better dead than helping the enemy. Blow the bridge!"
Ethan's enhanced hearing picked up the sound of multiple detonators being armed. They were going to bring down the entire section of the bridge. In his current state, he wouldn't survive both the explosion and the fall.
He tried to push himself up, but his legs had long since gone numb. The poison was spreading through his chest now, each heartbeat pushing it closer to vital organs. His fingers were already cold and lifeless, and dark spots danced at the edges of his vision. He was dying, and he knew it.
A new voice cut through the rain, clear, feminine, commanding. "Ethan! Jump now!"
Something in that voice triggered a primal response in his poisoned blood. Without conscious thought, he rolled over the railing just as the first explosions rocked the bridge's support structure.
The world became chaos. Steel screamed as massive cables snapped like whips. Concrete shattered. Through the mayhem, he caught a final glimpse of Lilith's face, no longer smiling, but twisted in fury as her perch disintegrated.
"Run, little wolf," her voice somehow reached him even as he fell. "This is only the beginning."
The fall seemed endless. Wind and rain lashed at his unresponsive body as the black water rushed up to meet him. He couldn't feel his limbs anymore, couldn't even tell if he was still breathing. The poison had reached his heart, each beat weaker than the last. His vision tunneled to a single point of light from the explosions above.
The last thing Ethan saw was another explosion lighting up the night sky, illuminating the falling debris of the Brooklyn Bridge. Then the dark waters claimed his nearly lifeless body, and consciousness fled into total blackness.
[To be continued...]