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Chapter 19: Codename: Echo
The desert air sizzled as Eliot's truck rolled up to the outer checkpoint of the biotech facility—a dusty, steel-toothed compound hiding hell underneath.
Savannah wore a lab coat over combat boots. Rina's hair was dyed, tied up. Eliot played the mute security detail.
They handed over fake credentials.
The guard scanned them, squinting. Then nodded.
"You're late," he said, waving them through.
Beneath the facility, the real heart of Nyx Vault opened: white corridors, humming lights, and surveillance that didn't blink.
Rina's stomach turned. The place smelled like memory—sterile, cold, familiar.
Like a nightmare reassembled.
They reached the observation deck. Behind thick glass: rows of children, no older than ten, wired to monitors.
Some asleep.
Some twitching.
Some… staring back.
"What are they doing to them?" Rina whispered.
"Programming loyalty," Savannah said. "Genetic obedience. Phase IV is creating soldiers without fear."
Eliot's jaw tightened. "Or conscience."
A voice behind them made Rina freeze.
"Well well… the prodigal returns."
She turned slowly.
A tall man in a white coat.
Salt-and-pepper beard. Gold ring with a phoenix crest.
Dr. Adrian Voss.
Her father's partner.
"Did you think we forgot you, Echo?"
The name hit her like a flood.
She remembered it now.
Her code name.
Her origin.
And suddenly, the fire inside her wasn't fear.
It was fury.
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