The Code(2025)

Gregg Hurwitz

In the latest short story from bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz, discover the teenage missions of Orphan X.

Before he was the feared black ops government assassin Orphan X, operating in the shadows and spoken about in whispers, Evan Smoak was a teenager, undergoing the most rigorous of training. At 17, Evan is sent off by his handler, ex-CIA station agent Jack Johns, to take the most intense U.S. military training course. But that is only part of the challenge before him - Evan has to get there and back, safely and quietly, maintaining operational security. And along the way, facing unexpected challenges, Evan must use everything he's learned since the day he was taken from the foster home in East Baltimore, lessons that Jack Johns has drilled into him, laws of life and death that are to become The Code.