All Chapters of Echoes Of Deception : Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
30 chapters
The Man In The Woods
Pain.Blinding, raw, pulsing pain.Nick awoke with a strangled gasp, his body buried in pine needles and ice. His bloodstained clothing stuck to his flesh. The trees above moved in slow, staggering cycles. Something was buzzing in his ears like static or distant voices.He tried to sit up. Pain exploded from his side. His fingers shook as they reached down and came away wet and sticky. Blood. A gunshot wound.His heart thudded. Fast. No memory. No face. No name. Just pain. And fear.Nick forced his body to move. He crawled toward the nearest tree, dragging himself with one arm while the other pressed against his bleeding side. Snow crunched under his knees. The cold barely registered.There was a note in his jacket pocket. Crumpled. Damp.He unfolded it with trembling hands. Just one line, written in shaky black ink:“Don’t trust the man who saved you.”What man? What did it mean?A twig snapped in the distance.He froze. Another snap—closer this time. Heavy boots on dead leaves. Some
The Chip
Nick sat on the kitchen floor, back against the wall, blood drying on his hands. Leah hadn’t said a word since the fight. She just stared at the three masked guys tied with electrical cables and bedsheets, half in wonder, partially in fear.One of them moaned and moved. Nick aimed for the knife on the counter and focused his attention on the man.“Don’t,” he growled. “You move again, and I swear I’ll cut off your trigger finger.”The man went still.Leah swallowed hard, her eyes moving from the intruders to Nick. “What’s that?”He looked up at her, his chest rising and dropping. "I don't know." "You moved like you've done this before."“Maybe I have.”“That doesn’t scare you?” He askedNick wiped the blood with a towel. “It terrifies me.”He took a glance at the floor. During the fight, one of the males dropped a small black device, similar to a phone but slimmer.. Nick picked it up and pressed the screen.A red light blinked.Then a soft voice said, “Target acquired. Coordinates sen
No One To Trust
Nick’s boots crunched the frosted gravel as he followed Leah through a narrow trail behind her cabin. The wind bit through his jacket, but his focus stayed sharp, heart pounding with the weight of unanswered questions. His mind was still a blur, but instincts whispered things—how to track, how to move silently, how to kill.Leah glanced back, eyes darting. “You’re sure no one followed you last night?”“I didn’t hear anyone,” Nick said. “But I wasn’t exactly at full capacity.”She stopped and knelt beside a tree. “We’re not safe here anymore. I saw tire tracks this morning. Deep ones and Fresh.”Nick crouched next to her, studying the faint indentations in the snow. “Military-grade. SUV. Four passengers. Too heavy for just one or two.”Leah blinked. “You’re not just some random guy with memory loss, are you?”Nick stood slowly. “I don’t know who I am. But I know I am not helpless.”Leah looked down at the snow, fidgeting with her sleeves. “That chip under your skin… we need answers. An
A Mind Not Your Own
The next morning, Remy handed Nick a device that looked like a modified VR headset, patched together with wires, sensors, and exposed circuits.“This is the neural sync reader,” Remy said. “It’ll pull data from the implant in your neck, whatever still stored locally. But I’m warning you, it’s going to hurt like hell.”Nick barely flinched. “Pain means I’m still in control.”Leah hovered by the door, arms crossed. “Are you sure about this?” She asked.“No,” Nick replied. “But I have to know.”Remy powered up the device. As it whirred to life, Nick settled into the metal chair and gritted his teeth as the sensors clamped onto his temples.The moment Remy initiated the sync, Nick’s vision blurred. The room tilted. A low-frequency crawled through his skull. Then—FLASH.He was running down a corridor lit by flashing red lights. His heart thundered, not from fear, but from precision. He was hunting.He kicked open a door.A woman screamed. Her hands were raised.Nick raised a weapon and—F
Ghosts We Bury
Anna stood just outside the door, shivering in the cold, her coat drenched, her face looked pale but recognized. Nick stared at her, as if he saw a ghost. His breath seized in his throat and memories clung at the limits of his mind, her laugh, the warmth of her hand and the way she used to speak his name. It struck him like an important train. He took a step back and silently invited her inside.Leah stayed standing, eyes fixed on Anna, stiff with caution. “You said you used to love him. Who are you to him now?” She asked.Anna glanced between them. “I—I don’t know. I thought he was dead. I thought they killed him. But when I heard whispers and i saw the footage online… I had to come.”Nick sat on the edge of the bed, still trying to make sense of it all. “We knew each other? Before… everything?” He asked.Anna sat too, clutching her two hands. “We were engaged, Nick. Before Veratech. You enlisted in a private security job, something temporary. You needed the money for our wedding.” S
Into The Trap
The plan was simple on paper: get to Redstone City, locate Dr. Mallory Kern and uncover the kill code before Veratech used it or worse, activated the remaining units to erase Nick for good. But nothing in Nick’s life had ever been simple.By 2 a.m., they were back on the road. Anna sat in the backseat of the rusted sedan Remy had rigged with stolen plates. Leah drove while Nick kept his eyes locked on the side mirror, scanning for headlights that stayed too long or moved too smooth.Leah broke the silence. “We should have stayed and fought.”“No,” Nick said, eyes still on the mirror. “They would’ve leveled the whole block. We need to make them come to us. On our terms.”Anna leaned forward. “Redstone isn’t like here. Veratech has surveillance, drones, corrupt local forces. If we go in loud—”“We won’t,” Nick cut in. “We go in quiet. We find Kern. We get the code. Then we wipe every trace of Project Echo.”Leah gripped the wheel tighter. “And if we don’t?” She asked.Nick looked at her
Echoes Of Control
The rain masked their footsteps as they weaved through Redstone’s industrial ruins, keeping to the shadows. Every step was heavier now, not from fatigue but from doubt.Inside Nick’s head, the whisper still echoed.Neutralize the threat. Obey.He pressed his palm against the side of his skull as if he could crush the command, force it out. But it clung, tightening like a noose he couldn’t see.Anna walked beside him, her breath shallow. “If the command is active, we have to isolate you—”“No,” Nick said quickly. “Not yet. If I go under, we lose our chance. We don’t even know what triggers the full protocol.”Leah, walking a few paces ahead, spun around. “What if we’re the threat the code wants you to neutralize?”Nick stopped. Their eyes met. He didn’t flinch.“Then I’ll fight it.” He said.Leah stared at him for a long second. Then nodded.Anna checked the stolen tablet. “We need shelter. And a way to purge the neural code before it roots any deeper.”Nick looked up at the blinking s
Into The Core
The relay station loomed like a monolith of glass and steel, sitting in the belly of Sector 12—Veratech’s most fortified zone in Redstone City. Surveillance drones buzzed overhead, patrol units marched with synthetic precision, and the sky never stopped blinking with motion sensors.Nick stood across the street with Anna and Leah, all three tucked beneath the crumbling facade of an abandoned rail station. He’d shed the worn leather jacket, now dressed in black thermals and gloves. His eyes scanned every angle.“There are three access points,” Anna whispered, tapping on the schematics she’d pulled from Remy’s server. “The west stairwell has the thinnest security wall. But we’ll need a biometric scan to override the first barrier.”Nick glanced at her. “Kern’s handprint still in the system?”“Likely. But we don’t have his hand.”Leah reached into her bag and pulled out a glass vial. “We don’t need the hand. Just his print. I lifted it from the lab’s control panel before we left.”Anna b
Ghost Protocol
They hid out in the upper levels of an abandoned metro tower, a place too high for drones and too unstable for Veratech to care. The glass was cracked, the wind howled through broken walls, and the city below blinked like a war zone in waiting.Anna stood over a makeshift table of broken monitors and old maps. Leah cleaned her pistol in silence. Nick sat against a steel beam, his head tilted back, letting the cold air keep him grounded.Anna broke the silence. “Kern isn’t just a ghost in the system. He’s still somewhere physical. Someone had to trigger the failsafe. The override wasn’t automated.”Nick opened his eyes. “So we find the body that matches the voice.”Leah nodded. “And if he is not alone?”Nick gave a half-smile. “Then we make him wish he was.”Anna pulled out a small chip drive and slid it across the table. “This is everything the counter-signal flushed out of the core. Locations, access codes, facility records… and one encrypted ping.”Nick leaned forward. “From where?”
Echoes In The System
The sunrise over Redstone City was a bleeding orange smear against the horizon. A beautiful lie painted across a broken skyline.Nick sat on the hood of a silent car they had stolen again, watching the smoke coil from a distant factory as if the city was exhaling secrets. His ribs ached. His knuckles were raw. But he was alive. And more importantly, free.Leah emerged from the side street, a canvas bag slung over her shoulder. “Supplies. Rations, flash drives, burner coms. And I found this.” She tossed him a folded sheet, an old classified Veratech map, half-burned, marked in red with the title: Echo Units Global Deployment Sites.Nick unfolded it slowly. Dozens of dots. Different countries. Different cities.Anna stepped beside him, reading over his shoulder. “There’s more of you out there.”Nick nodded. “And we have no idea how many are active.”Leah crossed her arms. “So what’s the plan? We just start hopping borders and hope they haven’t been triggered yet?”“No,” Nick said. “We f