All Chapters of THE MAN WHO RETURNED AS THORN: Chapter 61
- Chapter 70
86 chapters
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The tower was burning from the inside out. Sparks rained from the ceiling, scattering across the metal floor like angry fireflies.Finn coughed through the smoke. “We can’t stay here! He’s tearing the relay apart!”June was frantically typing on the console. “If I can isolate the core frequency, maybe I can push him back into the drive—”Shawn—or what was left of him—was standing in the center of the room. His body trembled as blue energy pulsed through his veins, crawling up his neck like lightning trapped beneath skin.Vivianne stepped closer, ignoring June’s warning. “Shawn! Listen to me! You have to fight him!”His eyes snapped open, glowing the same eerie silver she’d seen once before—years ago, in the lab where Project Lyra was born.“Fight me?”“You mean fight myself?”The voice that came from Shawn’s mouth was layered—his and the Director’s overlapping, discordant, almost melodic.Finn aimed his gun. “You shoot him, or you exorcise him, Vale, because I’m two seconds away from
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The desert was silent except for the hum of the satellite dish above them—its rotation slow, deliberate, like it was listening to something far beyond the stars.Finn adjusted his comm link. “Are you sure this is where it happened?”June crouched beside the control panel, the glow of the holographic map painting her face blue. “The signal originated from here—old relay station forty-two. The same frequency Vivianne used before she vanished.”Finn’s jaw tightened. “Vanished or died?”She looked up at him, eyes cold. “You heard her. She’s still inside the network.”Finn exhaled. “Yeah, and that’s exactly what scares me.”They moved inside the ruined station. The air smelled of dust and ozone. Racks of dead servers stood like tombstones.June connected her tablet to the console. “I’m patching into the relay. If she’s trying to reach us again, this’ll catch the signal.”Finn scanned the shadows. “Feels like we shouldn’t be here.”“You say that every time we try to help someone,” she mutte
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June crouched beside the control panel, the glow of the holographic map painting her face blue. “The signal originated from here—old relay station forty-two. The same frequency Vivianne used before she vanished.”Finn’s jaw tightened. “Vanished or died?”She looked up at him, eyes cold. “You heard her. She’s still inside the network.”Finn exhaled. “Yeah, and that’s exactly what scares me.”They moved inside the ruined station. The air smelled of dust and ozone. Racks of dead servers stood like tombstones.June connected her tablet to the console. “I’m patching into the relay. If she’s trying to reach us again, this’ll catch the signal.”Finn scanned the shadows. “Feels like we shouldn’t be here.”“You say that every time we try to help someone,” she muttered.“This time it’s different.” He pointed at the faint blue flicker pulsing across the monitors. “That’s not a signal—it’s a heartbeat.”June froze. “Oh my God…”The pulse sharpened. A voice began to form through the static.“—nne…
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The courtroom felt like it was carved out of glass and silence. Every breath echoed. Every eye was fixed on Finn as he rose from his seat, the sound of his chair scraping the floor slicing through the tension.Across the room, Shawn adjusted his tie, leaning back with that familiar, careless smirk that made everyone hate him and envy him at the same time.Judge Harris’s voice broke the stillness. “Mr. Finn Crawford, you’re representing yourself?”“Yes, Your Honor,” Finn said, steady but sharp. “Because no one else knows the truth like I do.”A few murmurs rippled through the courtroom. Reporters scribbled faster. Vivianne sat two rows behind him, her hands trembling inside her sleeves. She didn’t dare look up.Shawn chuckled under his breath. “Always the hero, huh?”Finn turned. “You think this is a game?”“Everything’s a game,” Shawn said. “You just hate losing.”“Order,” the judge warned.But the fire was already spreading.Finn took a step forward. “You drugged me. You recorded me.
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The courtroom had become a nest of shouting voices, cameras, and flashing lights. Guards crowded Finn, hauling him to his feet. He fought like a man possessed, teeth bared, but two broad arms pinned him against the polished wood of the counsel’s bench.“Mr. Crawford, you will calm down!” the judge barked, pounding her gavel.“I will not calm down!” Finn spat. “She’s alive and you all sit there like you’re reading about some tragedy!”Shawn rose slowly, every eye on him. He folded his hands as if he were about to deliver a lecture, and the room leaned in. “We need order,” he said. His voice was honey-smooth. “This is not a forum for theatrics.”Vivianne pressed her palms together in front of her mouth. Her eyes were red-rimmed; she hadn’t spoken since the video.Finn strained against the guards. “You lied. You said she was gone. You said she wanted to be gone. You staged it.”Shawn’s smile didn’t waver. “I told you the truth twice: one, she left; two, she asked to disappear. What you s
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The sea was black glass under a bruised sky. Waves whispered against the rusted docks of Pier Twenty, carrying the faint hum of distant engines and the tang of salt and oil.Finn stood at the edge, collar up against the wind, the drive still in his pocket. He hadn’t slept—couldn’t. His eyes tracked every flicker of movement on the water. Every sound felt amplified, like the city was holding its breath with him.At 04:00 exactly, a small fishing boat emerged from the fog. Its navigation lights blinked twice—pause—then once. The same pattern Mara had mentioned in her message.She appeared from the deck, a dark silhouette framed by mist and the glow of a cigarette. “You’re on time,” she said, tossing him a rope. “That’s rare for men who chase ghosts.”“I stopped being late when people started dying,” Finn replied.Mara smirked faintly. “Then you’ll fit right in.”He climbed aboard. The deck creaked, old wood beneath his boots. Inside the cabin, monitors flickered with static, maps overla
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The rain had not stopped for two days. It came down in thin, needling sheets that blurred the lights of the city and turned every sound into a whisper.Inside the safehouse, the air was heavy with the scent of metal and ozone. The walls hummed faintly from the shielding panels Mara had installed—a crude attempt to block any frequency scans from Cipher.Helena lay on the cot, pale and still. Her skin occasionally shimmered with faint, silver light—like static trying to break free.Finn sat beside her, exhausted eyes fixed on her face. “She hasn’t moved for twelve hours,” he muttered.Mara was at the terminal, hands flying across the keyboard. “Her vitals are irregular but stable. Whatever’s inside her isn’t trying to kill her—it’s trying to stay alive.”Finn frowned. “Kieran?”“Or something else.” Mara looked over her shoulder. “You said she mentioned him, right? That he was inside?”Finn nodded slowly. “She said if she lost control again, I’d have to kill her.”Mara exhaled through he
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The night was carved in neon and rain. Finn stood at the edge of the derelict district, his coat soaked through, his breath fogging in the cold.Mara was crouched beside a junction box, rerouting power lines with her usual precision. Sparks danced on her gloves.“You’re sure this is the entry point?” Finn asked.Mara didn’t look up. “Positive. Cipher used this grid to anchor their underground vaults. The signal we tracked leads straight below.”Helena stood a few meters behind them, her face pale beneath the flickering lights. The faint silver glow in her veins pulsed in sync with the distant hum beneath their feet.“That sound,” she murmured. “It’s not power. It’s resonance.”Finn glanced at her. “Meaning?”“Meaning the Vault’s awake.”A moment later, the junction box clicked open. Mara inserted a key drive, and a holographic interface lit up, casting blue light across their faces. “Access granted. The tunnel should open—”A low rumble interrupted her. The street cracked open like a
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The static field stretched forever. It wasn’t sky, nor ground, nor air—just light, folding in on itself. Every breath Finn took sounded wrong, like he was inhaling through an electric current.Kieran stood a few meters ahead, his silhouette bending with the distortion. “You shouldn’t have come here.”Finn’s voice came out jagged, warped. “You dragged me in, remember?”Kieran smiled faintly. “I didn’t drag you. I just opened the door. You were the one desperate enough to step through.”Finn clenched his fists. Sparks flickered across his knuckles, wild and unstable. “I came to take her back.”“Helena?” Kieran tilted his head. “She’s safe—for now. But you don’t seem to understand, Finn. You’re not in the physical world anymore. You’re standing in the signal plane. Every thought here becomes real.”“Good,” Finn snapped. “Then I’ll think you out of existence.”He lunged. Electricity burst from his palms, tearing the air apart. But Kieran simply raised a hand. The surge froze midair, then
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The light went silent. Not dim, not gone—just muted, as if the universe had taken a breath and refused to exhale.Finn hovered in the middle of it, suspended between collapsing shards of code. Each fragment reflected a different version of him—angry, broken, guilty, human. He didn’t know which one was real anymore.Helena’s voice cracked through the stillness. “Finn, the system’s rebooting. You only have a few minutes before it locks both of you in.”He tried to answer, but his throat felt raw, his words glitching midair. “Tell me what to do.”“Choose a signal anchor,” she said. “Either purge his code or merge it with yours.”Kieran’s laughter echoed around them, scattered and dissonant. “She makes it sound simple, doesn’t she? But tell me, Finn—if you erase me, what happens to the half of you that is me?”“Then I’ll erase that too,” Finn growled.Kieran stepped closer, his outline fragmenting. “You can’t erase corruption without erasing the host. We’re the same current running throug