Helix Protocol

Chapter 16– Helix Protocol

The rain hadn't stopped.

It tapped softly on the tunnel's emergency exit door as if the sky itself was whispering warnings. Amara stood beside it, waiting. For Elias. For words. For clarity.

But none came.

Instead, Nyra reappeared behind her, holding a flash drive in her hand—the one she'd extracted from the panic room's console.

"I copied the Helix files," she said. "All of them."

Amara turned slowly. "Do you even understand what's in there?"

Nyra hesitated. "Enough to know it's not just about Evelyn."

Amara stepped closer. "Then tell me."

Nyra looked away. "Project Helix… was an experiment. A psychological conditioning trial tied to Daedalus. Started over two decades ago."

"And Elias?"

Nyra nodded grimly. "He was one of the primary subjects. Except… he doesn't remember."

---

Back inside the safe room

Elias returned after nearly an hour, soaked and quiet.

He didn't look at anyone when he walked back in. Just moved toward the table where the files lay open. He stared at the screen—his name appearing in file after file.

Subject 7C – Alias: Elias Grant

Conditioning began at age 6. Location: Sequoia Hills Experimental Ward (closed 2008).

Method: Induced trauma via controlled environments.

Goal: Strip down ethical resistance, rebuild identity under operative command.

Status: Failure to comply. Project terminated after memory severance procedure.

Elias stared so long, it felt like time stalled.

Amara stood by him now, reading each line, her hands trembling.

"You were part of this," she whispered. "They… built you for something."

"And they failed," he said hoarsely.

Michael walked in, expression tight. "We intercepted a transmission from Evelyn. She knows we accessed the drive. She's moving—fast."

Mason followed with maps. "There's another site mentioned in the Helix logs. Zurich. Looks like a backup facility. Experimental records. Names. Maybe survivors."

Elias looked at the team.

"I need to go there. Alone."

Amara stepped forward. "No. Not again."

"I don't know what I am," he said quietly. "But I can't drag all of you through this."

Nyra's voice was soft. "You're not dragging us. We chose to be here."

Amara's gaze locked with his. "If you leave me behind, I will follow you anyway."

Elias looked between them—one woman who had seen him when he was breaking, and another who had been made from the same cracks.

He gave a slow nod.

"Then we go together."

---

Later that night

They settled in a temporary safehouse. Mason stood guard outside while Michael cleaned weapons.

Inside, Amara sat with Elias in the dim kitchen, silence between them once again thick.

Finally, she asked, "Do you think this changes who you are?"

Elias looked down. "I think it explains the parts of me I never understood. The way I… disconnect when things get hard. The rage. The walls."

"But it doesn't define you."

He looked up, eyes meeting hers. "Then what does?"

Amara reached across the table and placed her hand over his. "The choices you make now. And the people you let in."

He didn't pull away.

Not this time.

---

Across the city

Evelyn Bell watched them from a screen—live feed from one of her planted drones.

She smiled.

"Let them think they're gaining ground."

Her assistant turned. "Should we deploy the Zurich unit?"

Evelyn shook her head.

"No. Let him come. Let Elias Grant walk into the place where his mind was rewritten. Let him remember what we erased."

She raised a glass of wine, her smile cold.

"Only then will he understand who he really is."

The plane descended into Zurich under a blanket of heavy clouds, the city glowing coldly beneath them. The chill in the air matched the weight pressing down on Elias Grant's chest. He hadn't spoken much since they'd boarded—his thoughts consumed by the files, by the ghost of West Solarin, by the quiet warning that haunted his dreams:

"Tell him. Don't trust anyone."

But who had she meant?

---

They moved quickly once they landed, escorted by a local contact named Tessa Monroe—an old ally of Michael's from his counter-intelligence days. Tessa was all sharp cheekbones, cigarette smoke, and narrowed eyes that missed nothing. She handed them encrypted access badges and got them into a forgotten underground facility beneath an abandoned research wing tied to Daedalus.

"You've got three hours before this place starts pinging signals again," she warned. "Whatever you're here to find—get it fast."

The place was colder than the outside world, a ghost of old science and sealed truths. Each hallway smelled of sterile chemicals and static.

"This is it," Nyra whispered. "This is where it started."

---

The memory chamber

Amara found the room first. It was round, domed, with dozens of pods lining the walls—like a cocoon farm. In the center stood a rusted operating chair, and beside it, a terminal blinking to life with Elias's biometric proximity.

"Access granted: Subject 7C – Elias Grant."

The room buzzed.

Nyra moved toward the terminal. "It's a memory reconstruction interface. They used these to wipe subjects—feed synthetic memories and rewire moral response."

Elias sat in the chair without hesitation.

"Are you sure?" Amara asked.

"No," he said. "But I need to know who I was—so I can finally choose who I'll be."

Nyra synced the feed. The screen lit up. Amara stood beside Elias, watching his face tighten.

Then—

The first flash

A boy screaming. A room flooded with bright lights. His father's voice, cold and commanding. "Emotion is weakness, Elias. You were born for more."

The second

West Solarin, younger, holding Elias's hand. She whispered, "I'm trying to get you out." Then sirens. Then fire.

The third

A teenage Elias, eyes wild with grief, locked in a chamber. A screen showed another name beside his own: Amara Cole.

Amara gasped.

"What—what is that?" she asked.

Nyra leaned forward. "Wait. Back it up."

They did.

The footage was old, grainy, but there was no mistaking it—Elias and Amara had been tracked in the same experiment series. She wasn't a stranger to Daedalus.

She was part of it.

Or had been.

---

Outside the room

Mason's comm crackled. "We've got movement. Unmarked vehicle approaching. Fast."

Michael swore and moved to block the entrance. "We're out of time!"

Inside, Elias gripped the arms of the chair, his knuckles white. "Show me the rest," he growled.

The system buzzed.

But Nyra hesitated.

"There's a lock. One final sequence. But it's restricted. I need to override it."

Amara stepped forward.

"I'll stay with him. You hold them off."

Mason and Michael nodded and rushed to the upper hall.

Nyra paused—eyes lingering on Elias longer than necessary.

"I'll be back," she said. "Promise."

Amara nodded, catching the look.

She didn't say anything.

But she noticed.

---

Moments later

In the dim light, Amara sat beside Elias. He looked shaken—like his body was here but his mind was caught in another life.

"You okay?" she asked.

"No."

She reached for his hand. He let her.

"This is why West warned you," Amara said softly. "She knew they'd buried you alive in memories that weren't real."

"And you," Elias whispered. "You were part of it."

"I didn't know," she said, truthfully. "But maybe that's why we found each other now. Maybe we were meant to."

Silence settled.

But the look in his eyes had changed.

Less guarded.

More afraid.

Not of her—but of what came next.

---

Outside

Gunshots.

Mason barked a warning through the comms. "We've got company—Evelyn's men!"

Nyra was at the console again, trying to force the lock.

Inside, alarms screamed.

The memory pod began to overheat.

"Elias!" she yelled from the corridor. "You have to get out of there!"

But Elias didn't move.

He stared at Amara, eyes wide.

"I remember something else."

She stepped closer. "What?"

He looked at her—haunted.

"You were the reason I broke the programming."