Bloodline Protocol

CHAPTER 5 — PHASE TWO

The storm hit Raventon hard that night. Lightning scraped the skyline while rain hammered the motel’s tin roof. Derrick sat by the window, eyes on the map that now shimmered faintly with moving light.

Maya checked the blinds. “Those dots are pulsing faster.”

“They’re not just locations,” Derrick said. “They’re countdowns.”

“Countdowns to what?”

He pointed at one that flashed red. “That one’s about to hit zero.”

A metallic hum filled the room. Then the motel lights flickered and died. “Derrick?”

He didn’t answer. He grabbed the black book, which now glowed faintly in the dark. Letters crawled across its pages like living code. PHASE TWO INITIATED. SURVIVE THE CLEANSE.

Maya cursed under her breath. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Outside, a black SUV pulled into the parking lot. Three men stepped out, all wearing identical suits, earpieces glinting. “Company,” Derrick said.

“Yours or mine?”

“Neither. Veil’s.”

They moved fast. Derrick flipped the mattress, crouched behind it, gun steady. Maya slid beside the window, whispering, “There’s three. One with a scanner, two with rifles.”

“Standard extraction team,” Derrick muttered. “They’re not here to talk.”

The door lock clicked. A voice outside shouted, “Derrick Haines! You’re in possession of stolen corporate property!”

Maya rolled her eyes. “They make it sound like you took a stapler.”

“Stay low,” Derrick said.

The door burst open. A stun grenade rolled in. “Down!”

White light erupted, then silence, ringing in Derrick’s skull. He fired through the smoke, heard a grunt, another shout. Bullets tore through the walls. “Back window!” Maya yelled.

They scrambled out into the rain, landing hard in the alley. Maya pulled Derrick toward the car, but another SUV blocked the exit. He spotted a fire escape ladder. “This way!”

They climbed as gunfire shredded the dumpster below. Derrick’s muscles burned; Maya’s hands slipped on wet metal. “Keep moving!” he barked.

They reached the roof, breathless. Rain whipped across the asphalt, the city lights smeared in mist. Below, the agents regrouped, flashlights cutting through the dark.

Maya wiped rain from her face. “So what now, genius?”

“We make them think we’re dead.”

“How”

Before she finished, Derrick kicked a vent loose, then tossed the black book inside. “What are you”

“Trust me.”

He grabbed her wrist and sprinted toward the edge. The next lightning flash showed a gap, another building five meters away. “Derrick, that’s suicide!”

“Not if we aim right.”

They leapt together. For one second, there was nothing but air and thunder. Then they hit the opposite rooftop, rolled hard. Maya groaned. “You’re insane.”

“Alive though.”

Below, the agents reached the roof they’d fled. One spotted the vent. “The book’s here!”

Derrick smiled grimly. “They took the bait.”

They lay low for an hour, watching the SUVs leave with the decoy book. Then Derrick pulled a second notebook from under his jacket, the real one. Maya smirked. “You cloned it.”

“Copied, not cloned. The one they took is blank after page three.”

“You’ve done this before.”

He didn’t answer. The wind howled across the rooftop, carrying the smell of oil and rain. Finally, she asked quietly, “Why didn’t you kill them?”

“Because someone’s watching to see what I’ll do. The Code isn’t just a map, it’s a test.” “Test of what?”

“My limits.”

Maya frowned. “You think Veil’s behind the Code?”

“I think Veil’s part of it. But the one running the show… that voice in the basement, it knew my mother’s name.”

Her face paled. “You’re saying she was involved?”

“I’m saying she might’ve created it.”

They sheltered under an old billboard until dawn. The storm broke, leaving the streets washed clean and eerily quiet.

Derrick flipped the book open again. New text shimmered on the page. PHASE TWO SUCCESSFUL. NEXT TRIAL: RETRIEVE FILE ‘AURORA.’ TRUST NO ONE.

Maya leaned closer. “Aurora?”

“Sounds like a codename.”

“Or a person.”

He studied the word, tracing it with his thumb. Beneath it, faint letters glowed in sequence, coordinates. “South Dock,” he said. “Warehouse district.”

Maya groaned. “Because all good ideas start in abandoned warehouses.”

Derrick grinned. “You’re learning.”

The docks reeked of diesel and salt. Old cranes loomed like skeletons over the black water. They moved between containers, flashlights off. Maya whispered, “You sure about this place?”

He nodded. “The signal’s strongest here.”

They found the warehouse, number 47, its doors half-collapsed. Inside, light flickered from a single monitor sitting on a table amid dust and cobwebs. “Déjà vu,” Maya muttered.

Derrick approached slowly. The screen blinked to life. WELCOME, HUNTER. AURORA AWAITS.

“Show yourself,” Derrick said.

The speakers crackled. A woman’s voice answered, calm, cold, familiar. “Took you long enough, Derrick.”

He froze. “Mom?”

Maya’s head snapped toward him. “What?”

The voice continued. “If you’re hearing this, it means Phase Two succeeded. They’ve taken the bait, and you’re ready for the truth.”

Derrick swallowed hard. “This can’t be real.”

“I built the Code to protect what’s left of us. Veil wasn’t the monster, he was the mask. The real enemy is the Consortium. They’ll come for you when they realize the book isn’t destroyed.”

Maya whispered, “Consortium?”

“Follow the signal, my son. Find Aurora. Trust the girl beside you, she knows more than she remembers.”

The screen flickered and went black. Silence fell. Derrick turned to Maya slowly. “You want to tell me what that means?”

Her expression was unreadable. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not!” she snapped, stepping back. “I’ve been with you since the hospital, remember?”

He stared at her. Then at the dead screen. His mother’s voice still echoed in his mind, trust the girl beside you. Finally he said, “If that message was planted, it means they predicted every move we’ve made.”

“Then we’re dancing to someone else’s rhythm.”

“Not anymore.”

He slammed the book shut. The pages glowed once, then dimmed. Outside, across the street, a black drone hovered silently, its lens tracking them through the broken window.

In a distant control room, Marcus Veil watched the feed with a glass of whiskey in his hand. “Phase Two complete,” said a voice behind him.

Veil nodded. “And the woman?”

“Still off-grid. Her voice patterns were reconstructed from archived files. The boy believes it’s her.”

Veil’s jaw tightened. “Good. Let him chase ghosts.”

“And if he finds Aurora?”

Veil turned toward the city lights, eyes hard. “Then he’ll find the truth I buried. And when he does, we end him.”

Hours later, as dawn lit the horizon, Derrick and Maya drove east along the coast highway.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

He looked at the coordinates glowing faintly in the book. “To find Aurora.”

“And after that?”

He smiled darkly. “Phase Three.”