Chapter 5 - I have been hunted before.In war zones.
In cities.
Across borders.
But being hunted is different when you don't know what the enemy wants.
You can fight a soldier.
You can fight a sniper.
You can fight a man with a knife.
You cannot fight a question.
For forty-eight hours, I found nothing.
No calls.
No messages.
No ransom demand.
Nothing.
That frightened me.
If they wanted money, they would ask for money.
If they wanted revenge, they would come for me.
They wanted something else.
They wanted me to understand.
I returned to my house.
The front door was unlocked.
I had locked it.
I entered slowly.
Nothing was disturbed.
That meant someone wanted me to know they had been there.
On my kitchen table sat a cup of coffee.
Still warm.
Beside it was a photograph.
Me.
Eleven years earlier.
Standing beside Rex.
Except Rex was younger.
And the man holding his leash was not me.
It was General Vale.
I stared at the photograph until my vision blurred.
I remembered that day.
The award ceremony.
The medal.
The applause.
Rex had already been wounded.
I had been told he would never return to active duty.
But the photograph showed something else.
He had been standing.
Alert.
Listening.
Alive.
Healthy enough to serve.
I looked at the picture again.
Behind Vale was a whiteboard.
On it was written:
ECHO SUBJECT 04.
Then underneath:
MEMORY RETENTION: SUCCESSFUL.
I dropped the photograph.
A sound came from the hallway.
I reached for my weapon.
A voice whispered:
“You finally remembered.”
I turned.
Elena stood there.
Blood on her coat.
My weapon stayed raised.
“Where is Rex?”
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“He's safe.”
“That's not an answer.”
“You don't understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
I stepped closer.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe Rex was retired.”
“Yes.”
“You watched them take him.”
“Yes.”
My finger tightened around the trigger.
Elena didn't move.
“Then why are you here?”
“To tell you the truth.”
“What truth?”
Her eyes filled with something I had never seen there.
Fear.
Not for herself.
For me.
“Rex isn't a service dog.”
I laughed bitterly.
“I know.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You don't.”
She removed a small device from her pocket.
A digital recorder.
She pressed play.
A young man's voice filled the room.
My voice.
Eleven years younger.
“If you're hearing this, then the mission failed.”
I froze.
My younger voice continued.
“Project Echo was never designed to create super-soldiers. It was designed to create human witnesses capable of surviving psychological conditioning without losing operational memory.”
I stared at Elena.
“What the hell is this?”
She whispered:
“You.”
The recording continued.
“There are four subjects.”
My breath stopped.
“Subject 01 disappeared.”
The voice crackled.
“Subject 02 died.”
Another pause.
“Subject 03 became compromised.”
Then:
“Subject 04 is still active.”
The recording ended.
I looked at Elena.
“I'm Subject 04.”
She nodded.
“Then what's Rex?”
She took a breath.
“Subject 05.”
Silence.
My mind rejected the words.
“He's a dog.”
“He was trained to retain conditioned memory through sensory association.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he remembers things humans were forced to forget.”
My heart hammered.
“The airfield.”
“The people.”
“The mission.”
“And the location.”
“What location?”
Elena looked toward the window.
“Where Project Echo began.”
A black car rolled slowly past my house.
Elena saw it.
Her expression changed.
“They found us.”
I grabbed my weapon.
“How many?”
She looked at me.
“Enough.”
The car stopped.
Doors opened.
Three men stepped out.
Then another vehicle appeared.
Then another.
Elena whispered:
“Don't fight them.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because they're not here to kill you.”
“What are they here for?”
May you like
She looked directly into my eyes.
“They're here to take back what you forgot.”
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