Chapter 13 - The building began shaking.Not from an explosion.

From power systems shutting down.

Doors slammed.

Emergency shutters dropped.

We were trapped.

Thomas pulled himself upright.

Cross was unconscious but alive.

Marcus stared at the screens.

“Echo is transmitting.”

“To where?”

“Everywhere.”

Paige checked the network.

“Phones.”

“What?”

“Every connected device.”

She looked horrified.

“It's sending files to the public.”

Thomas smiled.

“That was always the purpose.”

My mother stared at him.

“You'll destroy everything.”

“Yes.”

“People will die.”

“People already died.”

She looked at me.

“I tried to stop them.”

I stared at her.

“You waited too long.”

She nodded.

“I know.”

Then the floor beneath us exploded.

We fell.

I woke in darkness.

Gwen was beside me.

“David?”

“I'm here.”

She grabbed my hand.

“I thought you were dead.”

I laughed weakly.

“Apparently we're both hard to kill.”

We crawled through broken concrete.

The drive inside me felt like a burning point beneath my ribs.

Then memories flooded in.

My father.

The red room.

Blackridge.

Gwen.

The night she first met me.

She hadn't been spying from the beginning.

She had been fighting them.

I remembered her stealing files.

I remembered her whispering:

“Run.”

I remembered my mother opening a door.

I remembered Paige standing outside.

And I remembered the real reason my father died.

He hadn't discovered the program.

He had discovered the person funding it.

Thomas Reed.

Marcus's brother.

My father had confronted him.

Thomas ordered his death.

My mother had been forced to choose between protecting her children and exposing the truth.

She chose the children.

But Blackridge kept the leash.

The memory continued.

My father gave me the drive.

He told me:

“Never let them know you have it.”

Then Cross captured us.

He implanted the drive.

He erased the memory.

My father died.

Years passed.

Then I joined the military.

Blackridge sent me overseas.

They thought I no longer remembered.

But a fragment remained.

The drive.

The evidence.

Inside me.

I opened my eyes.

Gwen was crying.

“I remember everything.”

She whispered:

“So do I.”

We held each other.

For the first time, neither of us was hiding.

Then we heard a gunshot.

Marcus.

We ran toward the sound.

He stood in the corridor.

His gun pointed at Thomas.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Marcus looked at me.

“Finishing what my father started.”

Thomas smiled.

“You still don't understand.”

“I understand enough.”

Marcus pulled the trigger.

Thomas fell.

I looked at Marcus.

“You killed him.”

“He killed your father.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because I was protecting you.”

I almost laughed.

Everyone had used that sentence.

Everyone.

Then Cross appeared behind Marcus.

Blood stained his shirt.

He fired.

Marcus dropped.

Gwen screamed.

I fired back.

Cross disappeared into the darkness.

We found Marcus bleeding but alive.

He grabbed my arm.

“David.”

“Stay awake.”

“Listen.”

I leaned closer.

“Your mother wasn't the final betrayal.”

“What?”

Marcus coughed.

“Paige.”

I looked toward my sister.

She was standing at the end of the hallway.

Holding the Project Echo drive.

I raised my weapon.

“Paige.”

She smiled.

“I needed it.”

“For what?”

“To finish the program.”

Gwen froze.

“No.”

Paige shook her head.

“You still don't understand.”

She held up the drive.

“Project Echo wasn't designed to destroy Blackridge.”

She looked at me.

“It was designed to replace it.”

I stared.

“What?”

Paige's eyes were empty.

“They taught me everything.”

Then she pressed a button.

The lights turned red.

Every screen displayed a single message:

SUBJECT D-17: FINAL PHASE

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Paige looked at me.

“Welcome back, brother.”