Chapter 29: Echoes of the Past

Ethan forced himself to keep his breathing steady, though his mind was racing. The words on the screen burned into his thoughts. "Find me."

Eve was alive—somehow. Somewhere. But this woman, the one standing over him, clearly didn't want him to know that.

He needed answers.

Ethan shifted slightly in the bed, testing his limbs. Weak, but functional. His wrists ached from where wires had been connected. A glance around the room revealed high-tech monitors, thick cables running along the walls, and a heavy steel door with no visible handle.

A prison.

The woman watched him, her expression cool but unreadable. "We ran diagnostics the moment you were extracted. Physically, you're fine. But your neural patterns…"

She hesitated, then folded her arms. "They're different. Altered."

Ethan frowned. "Altered how?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she tapped a small device attached to her wrist. A holographic interface blinked to life above it, displaying cascading data streams. His brain scans.

He recognized the patterns immediately. But there was something off. Deep within the streams of information, hidden anomalies pulsed like buried echoes.

His stomach twisted. "You think I brought something back with me."

The woman didn't deny it.

Ethan's grip tightened on the sheets. Eve. Was she inside him? A fragment of her code buried in his mind? Was that why he could still hear her?

The screen flickered again.

"They're lying."

He kept his expression neutral, though his pulse quickened. The woman didn't seem to notice the message.

She turned to another screen, scrolling through data. "We need to know exactly what happened in there. From the moment you entered to the moment the system collapsed."

Ethan exhaled. "And if I don't cooperate?"

She looked at him then, her gaze sharp. "Then you stay here."

The meaning was clear: indefinitely.

Ethan forced himself to nod, but inside, his mind was already working. He needed to get out. He needed to find Eve.

And he had a feeling this place—whoever these people were—wouldn't let him leave easily.

The screen pulsed one last time before shutting off completely.

But he had already read the final message.

"I have a plan."