The Last Order
Some secrets on the dark web should never be uncovered
Ethan Cole had spent years navigating the darkest corners of the internet. A hacker by trade, he specialized in uncovering secrets people wanted buried. Blackmail, stolen databases, offshore accounts—nothing was truly hidden from someone who knew where to look. But tonight, he had gone too deep.
The job had seemed simple enough: infiltrate Black Lotus, a notorious darknet marketplace, and extract transaction logs. The client was anonymous, as always. Payment was upfront in Bitcoin, no questions asked. That was the only way Ethan worked.
Cracking into Black Lotus wasn’t easy. Layers of encryption, firewalls, and anti-tracing mechanisms surrounded the site like a fortress. But Ethan was good—one of the best. After an hour of careful probing, he slipped in unnoticed, bypassing the barriers one by one. The transaction logs lay before him: drug deals, arms trades, fake identities, human trafficking—evidence that could put governments on high alert.
Then, something unusual caught his eye.
"Order ID: #46291. Target acquired: Ethan Cole. Status: Processing."
His stomach dropped. He refreshed the page. His real name. His home address. His last known location. Someone had placed a hit on him.
His hands trembled as he scrolled down.
"Hunter assigned. ETA: 15 minutes."
A chill crawled up his spine. This wasn’t just some hacker prank. This was real. The Black Lotus had found him.
Ethan slammed his laptop shut. He knew better than to stay put. His go-bag was already packed—burner phones, cash, forged IDs. He snatched it up and bolted for the fire escape. Three floors down. Hit the pavement. Keep moving.
As he reached the street, headlights turned toward him. A black SUV with tinted windows. No plates.
They were already here.
Ethan cut through an alley, moving fast. He ducked into a closed café’s side entrance and sprinted through the empty kitchen, bursting out onto a parallel street. His breath was ragged, his heart hammering in his chest.
Then his phone vibrated.
Unknown Number: “Running won’t help, Ethan. We see everything.”
A fresh wave of panic hit him. They weren’t just tracking his digital footprint. They were tracking him.
He looked up. A man in a hoodie stood at the end of the alley. Motionless. Watching. The dim glow of a streetlamp cast a glint of metal in his hand—a silencer.
Ethan turned on his heels and ran.
Footsteps pounded behind him. The SUV screeched around the corner, cutting him off. The driver’s side door flung open, and two men stepped out, guns drawn.
“Get in,” one of them ordered.
Ethan hesitated for half a second before feeling the cold barrel of a gun press against the back of his head.
“Now.”
He had no choice.
The moment the door shut, the SUV peeled off, speeding through the city streets. The air inside was suffocating, thick with unspoken threats. The hooded man sat in the passenger seat, his face now visible in the faint glow of the dashboard. A scar cut across his left cheek, and his eyes were void of emotion.
“You should’ve never opened that file,” he said, his voice smooth, almost amused.
Ethan clenched his fists. “Who hired you?”
The man chuckled. “You already know.”
The Black Lotus. Ethan had always assumed the people behind it were faceless criminals, lurking in the shadows, untouchable. But now, they had a face. And he was sitting just a few feet away.
The driver took a sharp turn onto an empty road. Industrial buildings loomed in the distance. They were taking him somewhere secluded. A place where no one would hear a gunshot.
Think.
Ethan's mind raced. His phone. They hadn’t taken it. That was a mistake. If he could send a signal, anything
The hooded man glanced at him and smirked. “Don’t bother. We already disabled it.”
Ethan’s stomach twisted. They were always a step ahead.
The SUV rolled to a stop near an abandoned warehouse. The driver and the second man stepped out first, weapons still in hand.
This was it.
The hooded man turned to Ethan, studying him for a moment. “You’re good. But not good enough.”
Ethan exhaled slowly, feeling the weight of inevitability pressing down on him. He had spent years exposing secrets. Now, he was the secret that would be buried.
The door opened.
A gust of cold night air hit him.
The last order had been placed. And Ethan Cole would never be seen again.
About the Creator
Waqar Ahmad
I am Software Engineer , Linked with Dark Web
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