Chapter 14 - They moved like ghosts.Dozens of people.
Men and women.
Some old.
Some young.
All trained.
All conditioned.
All terrified.
I lowered my weapon.
“We don't shoot.”
Kane laughed.
“You can't save them.”
Maybe he was right.
But I had learned something about Project Echo.
It depended on obedience.
Command words.
Patterns.
Conditioning.
I remembered the notebook.
Sensory anchors.
I looked at Rex.
He was staring at the subjects.
His ears moved.
He was listening.
Not with his ears.
With memory.
I crouched beside him.
“Rex.”
He looked at me.
“Remember.”
His breathing changed.
One of the subjects stepped toward me.
A woman.
Her hands shook.
I recognized her.
She had been in the Rusty Spur years ago.
The waitress.
She had known Rex.
She had been part of the program.
I looked at her.
“You remember me?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“What am I?”
She whispered:
“Subject Four.”
Kane's smile vanished.
I stood.
“Tell them.”
She turned toward the others.
“He isn't our enemy.”
Kane shouted:
“Activate them!”
The machines screamed.
The subjects collapsed.
Rex barked.
A deep, commanding bark.
Something changed.
One by one, the subjects began disconnecting themselves.
Kane stared in disbelief.
“What did you do?”
I looked at Rex.
“Nothing.”
I pointed at him.
“He did.”
The animals used as anchors throughout the program had been trained to respond to specific conditioning frequencies.
Rex was the original.
The template.
The master key.
Elena ran into the room.
“Central tower is collapsing!”
Daniel followed.
“We have three minutes!”
Kane turned toward the emergency stairs.
He ran.
I followed.
We raced through the facility.
The alarms were deafening.
Smoke filled the halls.
Daniel shouted:
“Don't let him reach the roof!”
We burst through the final door.
Kane stood at the edge of the building.
A helicopter waited behind him.
He turned.
“Do you know why you lost eleven years?”
I raised my weapon.
“Because you stole them.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Because you were afraid of what you'd become if you remembered.”
He threw a small device onto the ground.
A recording played.
My own voice.
From eleven years earlier.
“If Kane ever activates the network, I will kill everyone involved.”
I stared.
My younger self continued.
“No exceptions.”
Kane looked at me.
“You made that promise.”
I looked around.
The network was collapsing.
The subjects were escaping.
My brother was injured.
My mother was below.
Elena was bleeding.
Rex stood beside me.
Kane smiled.
“So?”
I lowered my weapon.
“No.”
He frowned.
“You changed.”
I looked at him.
“That's what you never understood.”
He waited.
“I don't need to become the man I was.”
I stepped forward.
“I choose who I am now.”
Kane reached for his weapon.
Rex moved first.
He hit Kane.
The gun flew.
But Kane smiled.
“Too late.”
A red light began flashing on the roof.
Daniel shouted from behind me.
“NUCLEAR FAILSAFE!”
My blood froze.
“How long?”
“Thirty seconds!”
Kane laughed.
“Now you understand.”
The helicopter lifted.
Kane climbed aboard.
I looked at Rex.
Then at the timer.
00:27.
Daniel shouted:
“WE HAVE TO RUN!”
But Rex didn't move.
He was staring at Kane.
Then he looked at me.
And suddenly I understood.
The final door.
The last key.
Rex had been waiting eleven years for this moment.
I grabbed his collar.
“Show me.”
He ran.
May you like
Not away from the bomb.
Toward it.
