All Chapters of Legacy Protocol: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
77 chapters
Motel Lights
The motel smelled of damp carpet and cheap disinfectant. Neon from the sign outside leaked through the thin curtains, staining the walls pink and blue. The room had one bed, one flickering lamp, and a coffee machine that hadn’t worked in years.Arin sat at the small table by the window, the data drive between his fingers. It was no bigger than his thumb, yet it felt like it weighed everything they’d risked. Maris sat on the edge of the bed, towel-drying her hair, watching him with a stillness that meant she was thinking too much.“You’ve been staring at that thing for twenty minutes,” she said finally. “You planning to open it with your mind?”“Maybe,” he murmured. “The Protocol keeps feeding me access codes. I think it knows what’s inside.”“And?”“It’s waiting for me to give permission.”Maris tilted her head. “Permission to what? To remember more?”He met her eyes, the neon catching faint glints of gold in his pupils. “To finish what I started.”She set the towel aside and
No Safe Havens
“Tell me you didn’t just use your phone,” Maris said.Arin looked up from where he was sitting, the blue light from the screen still fading off his face. “Evelyn texted. I had to know if she’s alive.”“You had to know,” she repeated, pacing near the window. “You just handed them our location, Arin.”He frowned. “Lucan doesn’t track personal lines. His control’s all corporate-level. I wiped the identifier days ago.”Maris shook her head, pulling the curtain back enough to look outside. “He doesn’t need to track your phone. He built what’s inside you. You think the Protocol isn’t a beacon?”Her words hit harder than he wanted to admit. The faint hum in his skull—the one he’d learned to live with—suddenly felt louder.“I can shut it down,” he said.“Can you?” she asked softly.Before he could answer, headlights flashed across the room’s thin curtains. A car door slammed. Then another.Maris moved fast. “Too late.”Arin was already reaching for his gun, the motion sharp and sure
The War Room
“Tell them to stop wasting ammunition,” Lucan said, voice calm but sharp enough to slice through the noise in the room. “I wanted him brought back, not buried.”The estate’s security chamber buzzed with movement. Screens glowed along the walls, each one tracking something different—the wreckage of the motel, the last-known coordinates, the dead silence from two of his men. Every light in the room seemed too bright.Corvin stood by the main monitor, his suit wrinkled, his expression tired. “They lost him outside the highway perimeter. The tracker went cold.”Lucan didn’t look up from the screen. “He’s not cold. He’s adapting. The Protocol learns faster than they do.”He finally turned, pinning Corvin with that slow, quiet stare that made even loyal men sweat. “What did I tell you when we started this project?”Corvin hesitated. “That loyalty could be engineered.”Lucan’s lips twitched in something like amusement. “And what have we learned?”“That engineered loyalty still bleeds.
The Voice Inside
“Maris, don’t move.”Her hand froze halfway to the coffee cup. Arin’s tone wasn’t sharp—it was distant, the kind of calm that made the air around him feel dangerous. He stood by the window, head tilted slightly, as if listening to something she couldn’t hear.“Arin?” she asked carefully.He didn’t answer. His eyes had gone glassy, fixed on something that wasn’t there. A low, mechanical hum filled the silence, faint but steady—coming from him.“Talk to me,” Maris said, rising from the bed.Then she heard it. Faint, distorted, bleeding through the static like a voice carried on bad radio.“Arin. I warned you about chasing ghosts.”Arin’s jaw clenched. “Lucan.”Maris went still. “He’s—he’s in your head?”The voice chuckled softly, close enough to make her skin crawl. “Always was. You’re running in circles, son. You think you’re free, but you’re still mine. That system in your skull? It only knows one master.”“Get out,” Arin said.“You can’t remove me.”“Watch me.”Maris stepp
The House of Echoes
“Cut the lights,” Arin whispered.Maris obeyed, flicking the small switch on the dash. The car went dark, the mansion ahead of them glowing faintly beneath the storm. The Voss estate looked different now—less like a home, more like a fortress. Guards moved in twos along the drive. Floodlights swept across the gardens where once there had been calm.Arin’s eyes adjusted quickly. The Protocol was quiet in his head, like a predator crouched low, waiting.“Are you sure about this?” Maris asked. Her voice was a low tremor in the dark.“No,” he said, opening the door. “But I’m out of options.”She grabbed his wrist before he could step out. “If you walk in there, there’s no walking back out.”He looked at her hand, then at her face. “That’s the point.”Before she could argue, he was gone—melting into the night.The back entrance of the estate had changed. New locks, new surveillance, but Arin remembered the rhythm of Lucan’s security systems—how they pulsed every six seconds before reset
Between Blood and Fire
“Put that gun down, Evelyn.”Lucan’s voice came from across the smoke-filled hallway, steady even as the house shook from the chaos below. Evelyn didn’t lower the weapon. Her arm trembled, not from fear but from everything she’d been holding back for years.“Where is he?” she demanded.Lucan took a step closer, his white shirt streaked with ash and blood. “Arin? He’s alive. For now.”She aimed higher, right at his chest. “Don’t make me ask again.”Lucan studied her like she was a chess piece that had moved without permission. “You shouldn’t be here. You have no idea what he’s become.”“I know exactly what he’s become,” she said. “I’ve seen what you turned him into.”His smile was small and tired. “Then you understand why he can’t be allowed to leave.”“Can’t be allowed,” she repeated, shaking her head. “You’re talking about him like he’s a failed project, not a person.”Lucan’s eyes hardened. “He’s both.”Before he could step closer, a fresh burst of gunfire rattled through
Ash and Dawn
“Keep moving, Maris,” Arin said as smoke rolled over them and sparks fell from the ceiling that had begun to cave. The hallway stretched like a tunnel of fire behind them and the air burned in his lungs, yet he didn’t stop because every instinct he had left screamed that slowing down meant dying here.Maris coughed hard, pressing a sleeve over her mouth while the firelight painted her face gold and red. “I can’t see a damn thing,” she rasped, stumbling as a beam crashed beside them and sent embers scattering across the floor.“Stay close to me,” he said, catching her arm before she could fall. “There’s a side exit through the servants’ corridor—it connects to the greenhouse.”They ran together through smoke so thick it felt alive, their boots sliding on wet marble where pipes had burst and poured water that turned the fire into clouds of steam. Arin’s mind buzzed, not with fear but with that familiar hum of the Protocol trying to regain control, whispering fragmented commands he refuse
The Edge of Things
“Slow down,” Maris said, her fingers gripping the dashboard as the old jeep rattled over the cracked road that wound through the woods. The morning had bled into a pale gray afternoon, the kind that made everything look washed out and tired, yet Arin didn’t ease up because every mile between them and the ruins felt borrowed.He glanced at her, the faintest smile tugging at his mouth. “If we slow down, we give them time to catch up.”“And if we don’t, we lose what’s left of the axle,” she muttered, but she didn’t argue again. The rain had stopped hours ago, leaving the air damp and cold. Mist clung to the trees, curling like smoke around the tires.They’d been driving for nearly five hours with no sign of pursuit. Arin’s eyes were darker now, rimmed with the fading blue that used to glow when the Protocol stirred. The hum in his head had quieted to a faint, rhythmic pulse—one that he wasn’t sure came from the system or from his own heartbeat.“How much farther?” Maris asked after a whil
The Trap Beneath
“Keep your heads low,” Kade whispered as they moved through the tunnel that smelled of damp earth and rust. The air was thick, and the walls were close enough that Maris brushed her shoulder against cold stone with every step. Water dripped somewhere ahead, echoing in slow, deliberate beats that felt like a clock counting down.Arin followed a few steps behind Kade, one hand on the pistol and the other pressed against his temple as if steadying his thoughts. The Protocol kept flickering—brief bursts of static in his mind, whispers too quick to catch, and flashes of light like old memories trying to claw their way back.Maris noticed his uneven breathing. “How bad is it?” she asked quietly.He gave her a small shake of his head. “It’s holding, for now.”“For now doesn’t sound good,” she muttered.Kade glanced back, the beam from his handheld light catching the edge of Arin’s face. “He’s running out of time. The signal collapse inside him isn’t just shutting down the machine—it’s r
The River’s Teeth
“Keep your head down!” Arin shouted, his voice rough against the wind and the water that slapped hard at his face.Maris gasped as a bullet ripped through the surface beside her, spraying cold river water against her cheek. “You think I’m trying to get hit?” she yelled back, teeth chattering. Her coat dragged at her shoulders, soaked and heavy, pulling her lower every time she kicked.“Stay to the left!” Kade’s voice came from behind them, strained and breathless. “There’s less current near the rocks!”Arin could barely hear him. The gunfire echoed off the banks, sharp and rhythmic, cutting through the roar of the current. Each shot came closer, the sound changing as rounds struck the water or ricocheted off stone. He ducked, dragging Maris with him until both of them disappeared beneath the surface.The river was freezing. It stole the air straight from his chest, turning each breath into pain. When they broke the surface again, Maris coughed violently and clung to his arm.“The