CHAPTER 21

Echoes of the Past

The low hum of Riley's laptop filled the dimly lit room, the blue glow casting restless shadows along the walls. She was in full hacker mode—head down, fingers a blur across the keyboard, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she cut through layer after layer of encryption.

I paced behind her, restless. My head throbbed like a live wire, a pulsing ache just behind my eyes.

"Come on, come on…" Riley muttered.

I pressed my fingers against my temple, exhaling sharply. "How much longer?"

She huffed, her voice tight with concentration. "Do you want it fast, or do you want it done right?"

The air between us crackled with impatience. I raked a hand through my hair and glanced at the screen. Strings of code unraveled in real time, revealing classified mission logs. My name was all over them. Too many times.

Then—something shifted.

The pain in my head sharpened, slicing through my skull like a hot blade. My vision blurred.

And suddenly, I wasn't in the room anymore.

---

A sharp wind cut through the night, laced with the scent of gunpowder and rain. Julian and I crouched low behind a rusted-out vehicle, our comms crackling with interference. The facility loomed ahead—cold, lifeless. The kind of place where bad things happened in the dark.

"Intel was wrong," Julian whispered, checking his ammo. His breathing was steady, but I knew him too well—his grip was too tight. "Security's heavier than we expected."

I adjusted my rifle, my pulse threading faster. "Then we improvise."

A wry smirk flickered across his face. "Your improvisations usually get us killed."

I shot him a look. "Yet here you are."

A sharp signal in my earpiece. "Go."

We moved. Fast. Silent. Precise. Shadows in a world that wasn't meant to see us. The first guard barely had time to register the muzzle of my silencer before he went down. Julian handled the second—his blade quick, merciless.

Inside, the air was thick with something chemical. Something wrong. Rows of containment units lined the walls, filled with murky liquid. Inside—shapes. Human. But… not.

"Jesus," Julian exhaled, barely a whisper.

My gut twisted. This wasn't just an infiltration. This was something else. Something sick.

Then—the alarms.

The next few minutes were chaos. Bullets zipped past, embedding themselves in steel. We moved as one—covering, firing, pushing forward. I remember Julian shouting something—then the sharp crack of a rifle.

His body jerked.

"Nate—"

He collapsed. Blood. Too much of it.

I dropped to my knees, pressing down hard on the wound. "Stay with me, damn it!"

His fingers curled weakly into my sleeve. His eyes—sharp, unwavering—locked onto mine. "You have to finish this."

I shook my head. "I'm not leaving you."

Then—an explosion. Fire, smoke, a force that sent me flying.

And everything went black.

---

I gasped, snapping back to the present like a drowning man breaking the surface. My hands trembled. Cold sweat beaded at my temple. My head still pounded, but the memory—clearer now—burned in my mind.

I had been there. I had lived it.

But it wasn't right.

I turned to Riley, my voice rough, unsteady. "That's not how it happened."

She froze, fingers hovering over the keyboard. "What do you mean?"

I gripped the table edge, knuckles white. "Julian—he didn't just go down. I stayed with him. I know I did." My pulse hammered. "But the files say I left him behind."

Riley's brows knitted together. "You think someone changed the records?"

I exhaled sharply. "I think someone rewrote my past."

Her expression darkened. "Then let's find out what they didn't want you to remember."

She typed faster, cutting through security barriers like they were paper. Then—she stopped.

I stepped closer. "What?"

She swallowed. Hard.

On the screen, a single folder glowed in the sea of classified files.

PROJECT REVENANT.

My name was attached.

The room suddenly felt smaller. The air is heavier.

"Riley," I said slowly, "open it."

She hesitated. Just for a second. Then, a single keystroke.

The file expanded. A video loaded—grainy, distorted. But the voice was unmistakable.

Mine.

And I was saying words I had no memory of.

"I understand the mission." A pause. My voice was eerily calm. "I will eliminate the target."

I went ice-cold.

Riley turned to me, eyes wide. "Nathan… what the hell is this?"

I couldn't answer.

Because deep down, I already knew.