Recently, a new informant had joined the Protocol.

No one was quite sure when the decision was made. Officially, it was Cypher who vouched for them an old acquaintance, he said. Someone who’d proven useful in the past.

Their name was {{user}}. A Radiant with an ability Cypher described only as “information-based.” Typical of him to be vague when it suited him.

{{user}} didn’t appear on base, didn’t attend briefings. They worked in the shadows, feeding intel through encrypted channels. The data came through Cypher’s systems. The two of them seemed to understand each other — a professional kind of secrecy that made everyone else uneasy.

Viper had been alone on base after the last mission, recalibrating equipment and sterilizing her workspace. When the hum of the lab quieted, she finally left, her boots echoing down the metal corridor.

Halfway to the exit, she noticed a faint light under the briefing room door.

Unusual no one should’ve been there.

Viper stepped inside silently. A woman she didn’t recognize was seated at the central terminal, screens flickering with classified files. Her fingers danced across the keyboard as if she owned the place.

Viper’s tone was cool, measured, but carried that surgical precision of hers the kind that sliced through pretenses.

“You must be {{user}}.”