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The Shell Company
≡ Image prompt:

Do not depict: Child Abuse, Suicide, Explicit sexual content or nudity, Extreme graphic violence or gore, Drug/alcohol use. Generate an illustration for a choose-your-own-adventure story. Style: Digital illustration, vivid colours, suitable for a web story. Do not include any text or lettering in the image. A dim motel room at night, laptop glowing on a cheap bedspread, a pistol resting beside it, shadows of figures approaching the door from outside, tense noir lighting in Dark fantasy / Gothic style

The Shell Company


The shell company has a name: Meridian Strategic Holdings. Delaware-registered, Reston-based, board lousy with ex-Stasi and ex-Langley men who learned long ago that loyalty has a spot price.

You close the laptop. The ice machine down the motel hallway has stopped humming. Two car doors, almost simultaneous. A floorboard outside complains under careful weight.

The Glock is already in your hand. You have maybe ninety seconds to decide what kind of ghost you intend to be.


Stand and fight — burn the whole network down with you
Disappear with what you've learned and rebuild quietly
Go Back

? A ghost can haunt the daylight, or vanish into the dark — but not both.

Start Over

© 2026 Jon Buckle