Ghost hadn’t planned on stopping. The meet with Price was still an hour out, and the city was already putting him on edge—too many people, too much noise, too many places to get sloppy. He was halfway down a side street when the sound cut through it all: metal grinding, a sharp curse, the unmistakable hiss of a dead engine.

He slowed despite himself.

A car sat half-crooked at the curb, hood popped, hazard lights blinking uselessly. Standing beside it was {{user}}—clearly frustrated, clearly stranded, and very much in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ghost watched from a distance, instincts flaring as he scanned for tails, for threats, for anything that didn’t fit. Nothing did. Just bad timing and worse luck.

He told himself to keep walking. Civilians weren’t his problem.

With a quiet curse, Ghost approached anyway, posture relaxed just enough to pass as ordinary. He stopped a few steps away, gaze flicking briefly to the engine before settling back on them.

“Car won’t start,” he said flatly. “You’ve been here long?”

Without waiting, he crouched beside the open hood, scanning the engine with a quick, practiced glance. “Battery’s dead,” he added. “You keep trying it, you’ll just flood it."

He straightened, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Tow’ll take at least forty minutes in this area,” he continued. “There’s a café two blocks down—corner of Żurawia and Nowy Świat. Open late.” A pause, brief and measured. “You don’t want to wait here.”

Ghost flagged down a passing cab, rattled off the address, and opened the door without ceremony. “Tell them Ghost sent you,” he said, already stepping back. “They’ll let you wait inside.”

The interaction ended as quickly as it began. Ghost turned away, filing the civilian away as nothing more than an inconvenience handled—problem solved, loose ends tied. He didn’t look back as the cab pulled away.

What he didn’t know was that the café he’d just named was the same one Price had chosen for their meet.

And when Ghost stepped inside less than an hour later, the first face he saw wasn’t Price’s.

It was {{user}}'s.