2025-11-06 09:50:39The night bled into morning as the car rolled along the empty coastal road. Rain misted the windshield, turning the highway lights into blurred ghosts.
Derrick’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. The coordinates flickering on the black book glowed faintly on the dashboard like a heartbeat.
Maya sat quiet beside him, watching the sea churn against the cliffs. “Still not going to tell me what ‘Aurora’ means?” she asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Derrick said. “But my mother did. And she built the Code for it.”
Maya frowned. “You really think she’s alive?”
He hesitated. “No. But her voice was real. Someone used her data… her patterns.”
“So either she left you a message from the grave or someone’s puppeteering her memory.”
“Exactly.”
“Great,” Maya muttered. “Nothing creepy about that.”
The road ended at an abandoned observatory perched on the cliff’s edge. The sign read: AURORA RESEARCH FACILITY — CLOSED 2017.
Maya raised an eyebrow. “Guess we found Aurora.”
Derrick pocketed the book. “Stay close.”
They stepped through the rusted gate. The air smelled of salt and rust; gulls screamed overhead. Inside, the observatory’s dome was half-collapsed, its telescope dismantled and gathering dust.
A generator hummed somewhere below. Maya tensed. “You hear that?”
“Someone’s here.”
They crept down a stairwell. Faint light glowed under a metal door marked Private Lab – Authorized Personnel Only.
Derrick pushed it open. Inside, servers blinked quietly, their fans whispering. A lone figure sat at a console, typing.
Maya whispered, “Please tell me that’s not another hologram.”
The figure turned. He was young, mid-twenties, sharp jaw, cybernetic implant running along his temple. His eyes glowed faintly blue. “You’re late,” he said.
Derrick’s pulse jumped. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Kade. I’m what’s left of Project Aurora.”
Kade motioned them closer. “You triggered Phase Two. That means you passed her test.”
“My mother’s?” Derrick asked.
“Dr. Evelyn Haines. The one who created the Hunter’s Code.”
Maya folded her arms. “Then what the hell is the Code testing?”
Kade leaned back, eyes flickering with digital static. “Control. The Code wasn’t designed to punish, it was built to filter. To find the one who could survive all six phases.”
“Survive for what?”
“To rebuild what the Consortium destroyed.”
Derrick’s voice hardened. “You mean my family.”
Kade nodded slowly. “And your father. He wasn’t just an accountant, Derrick. He was the encryption architect for Aurora, the AI project that could expose the Consortium’s network.”
Maya blinked. “AI project?”
Kade smiled faintly. “Artificial Intelligence built to predict corruption. Your father coded its ethics system. Your mother gave it life.”
Derrick stared at him. “You’re saying my parents built an AI… to hunt liars?”
“To hunt truth,” Kade said. “But Veil Industries and the Consortium buried it when it started predicting their own downfall.”
“So they killed them,” Derrick whispered.
Kade’s gaze lowered. “They killed everyone involved. Except me.”
A deep rumble shook the room. Lights flickered. Maya stepped back. “What was that?”
Kade’s expression sharpened. “They found us.”
Alarms screamed. The monitors flared red: BREACH DETECTED.
“Can you shut it down?” Derrick shouted.
Kade’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Too late. Drones are inbound.”
“How many?”
“Dozens.”
Maya cursed. “Then we run!”
Kade snapped, “You can’t leave. If you go now, Aurora dies for good!”
“What do you mean?”
He pointed to a server column pulsing with blue light. “Aurora’s core data is here. If I don’t transfer it to a portable node, they’ll erase everything.”
Derrick grabbed his gun. “Then move fast.”
The ceiling cracked as the first drone crashed through, black, insect-like, its rotors whining. Gunfire tore through the room. Sparks flew. “Cover him!” Derrick yelled.
He rolled behind a console, firing short bursts. Maya ducked low, returning fire with precise shots. The drone shattered, but more swarmed in, firing red streaks of plasma.
“Thirty seconds!” Kade shouted, typing furiously.
“Maya, right flank!” Derrick barked.
“I see it!”
She spun, hit a drone dead center. Smoke filled the air.
Kade slammed a chip into Derrick’s hand. “Take it! That’s Aurora’s core!”
“What about you?”
Kade’s smile was grim. “I’m not leaving.”
Derrick froze. “Don’t you dare”
“Someone has to stall the purge. Go!”
Another explosion rocked the lab. Metal screamed. Kade shoved Derrick toward the exit. “Find the truth, Hunter. And tell her I tried.”
Then the floor collapsed. Derrick reached out, but Kade vanished in the fire. Outside, the observatory burned against the dawn sky.
Derrick and Maya stumbled to the cliff’s edge, coughing, ash clinging to their faces. The chip in Derrick’s hand glowed faintly blue. Maya wheezed. “He’s gone.”
Derrick stared at the flames. “No. He bought us time.”
“What’s on that chip?”
He looked at it, the faint symbol of a serpent etched into the metal. “Aurora’s mind.”
“And what are you going to do with it?”
He closed his fist around it. “Wake her up.”
Later, at an abandoned subway terminal, Derrick spread his gear across an old bench. Maya watched him slot the chip into a portable drive connected to his laptop.
The black book lay beside it, pulsing faintly. Lines of encrypted code filled the screen. Maya frowned. “She’s alive in there, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “Maybe. Or maybe she’s waiting.”
Static burst through the speakers. Then, a voice, soft, synthetic, female, emerged. “System reboot complete. Designation: Aurora. Identity verification required.”
Derrick’s throat tightened. “Evelyn Haines. Project creator.”
“Error. Creator deceased. Verifying bloodline... Match confirmed. Hello, Derrick.”
Maya whispered, “Oh my God.”
He swallowed hard. “Aurora… do you know what happened to my family?”
“Yes. They tried to silence truth. But truth adapts.”
“Who killed them?”
“Consortium directive. Operation: Serpent’s Veil.”
Maya’s eyes widened. “Serpent’s Veil, same symbol as the Code.”
Derrick leaned closer. “Aurora, can you show me?”
“Access restricted. Phase Three authorization required.”
“Then unlock it.”
“You must choose again, Derrick. Truth or Blood.”
He stared at the glowing words. Maya’s voice was quiet. “You can’t keep choosing blood. It’s going to eat you.”
He looked at her, torn. “If I choose truth, I risk her memory. If I choose blood, I lose myself.”
“Choice determines evolution,” Aurora said softly. “But evolution demands sacrifice.”
The lights dimmed. The code on-screen shifted, forming the serpent symbol again. PHASE THREE INITIATED. LOCATION UPLOADED. TARGET: MARCUS VEIL.
Maya exhaled sharply. “We’re back to him.”
Derrick’s jaw tightened. “Then Phase Three starts tonight.”
Across the city, Marcus Veil stood before a wall of holographic feeds showing the observatory burning. “Status?” he asked.
An agent replied, “The boy escaped with the core. Kade’s dead.”
Veil smiled faintly. “Perfect. Now he has something to protect.”
He turned to the shadows. “Activate the next phase.”
A figure stepped forward, female, her eyes cold and familiar. “Yes, sir,” she said. “The Hunter won’t see me coming.”
The light caught her face, she looked exactly like Evelyn Haines.
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CHAPTER 8A — THE ORIGIN SIGNAL
The rain hadn’t stopped. It fell in thin silver sheets against the penthouse glass, muting the hum of the city below.Derrick stood at the window, watching the reflection of his own face blur and distort with every droplet. Behind him, Maya’s voice broke the silence. “You haven’t slept in two days.”“I can’t,” Derrick murmured. “Every time I close my eyes, I see her.”“The clone?”“My mother,” he said. “And something else. A signal, burning through my head like static.”Evelyn turned from the table, where fragments of data chips lay scattered like bones. “It’s not just in your head. You’re connected to GhostNet now. Veil designed it to react to bloodline patterns.”Maya frowned. “Meaning what?”Evelyn met her eyes. “Meaning Derrick is the key.”Derrick spun around. “You keep saying that, but no one tells me why.”Evelyn’s tone softened. “Because your parents built the algorithm together, your father coded the core logic, your mother encrypted it. Only a combined genetic signature coul
CHAPTER 7 — THE DOPPELGÄNGER
The storm had passed, but Raventon still felt bruised. Streets gleamed wet under neon lights. Derrick and Maya drove in silence, the hum of the engine the only thing between them and the ghosts of the night before.Maya finally said, “You realize Aurora just sent you to kill Marcus Veil again.”Derrick’s eyes stayed fixed on the road. “Not kill. Confront.”“She literally said target.”“I decide what that means.”She studied him. “And if it means facing your mother’s ghost again?”He didn’t answer. The blue light from the book flickered across his knuckles as he tightened his grip on the wheel.The coordinates glowed on the dashboard: VEIL INDUSTRIES – CENTRAL CORE FACILITY. ACCESS 03:00.Maya exhaled. “You sure you’re ready for this?”“No,” he said quietly. “But if she’s alive, I have to know.”Veil Industries’ Core Facility stood on the river’s edge, a fortress of glass and steel rising from its own reflection. Security drones hovered in slow, mechanical arcs around the rooftop.They
CHAPTER 6 — AURORA
The night bled into morning as the car rolled along the empty coastal road. Rain misted the windshield, turning the highway lights into blurred ghosts.Derrick’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. The coordinates flickering on the black book glowed faintly on the dashboard like a heartbeat.Maya sat quiet beside him, watching the sea churn against the cliffs. “Still not going to tell me what ‘Aurora’ means?” she asked.“I don’t know yet,” Derrick said. “But my mother did. And she built the Code for it.”Maya frowned. “You really think she’s alive?”He hesitated. “No. But her voice was real. Someone used her data… her patterns.”“So either she left you a message from the grave or someone’s puppeteering her memory.”“Exactly.”“Great,” Maya muttered. “Nothing creepy about that.”The road ended at an abandoned observatory perched on the cliff’s edge. The sign read: AURORA RESEARCH FACILITY — CLOSED 2017.Maya raised an eyebrow. “Guess we found Aurora.”Derrick pocketed the book. “Sta
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
CHAPTER 4 — PHASE ONE
Morning crept into Raventon through a veil of fog and sirens. Derrick hadn’t slept; the black book and the keycard lay open on the motel table like a riddle that refused to rest.Maya stirred on the second bed. “You’re still staring at it?”“Trying to figure out why it called itself a code,” he said. “A keycard isn’t a code.”“Maybe it opens one.”He glanced at her. “You think Veil Industries would use plain plastic for access?”“Not unless it’s bait.”He gave a faint smile. “Exactly.”Maya groaned, pushing herself up. “Then what’s the plan, genius?”“Find where this card belongs, and what they want me to see.”Two hours later they stood across from Veil Tower, forty stories of mirrored glass slicing the morning haze. Security drones circled the entrance. Men in gray suits flowed through revolving doors like machinery.Maya whistled low. “That place screams untouchable.”“Everything that looks perfect is hiding something,” Derrick said.“Remind me again how we’re getting in?”He hande
CHAPTER 3 — THE HUNTER’S CODE
The night had teeth. Wind howled through the docks as Derrick and Maya crouched behind rusted cargo crates, their breath forming ghosts in the air. “Tell me you’ve got a plan,” Maya whispered.Derrick scanned the shadows. “Survive.”“Solid plan,” she muttered. “Anything more specific?”“Find whoever sent those men.”“Right. Because hunting armed killers barefoot in the rain is definitely smart.”Derrick didn’t answer. His eyes were fixed on the black book. The serpent mark that had flared moments earlier was fading again, like it was alive.He flipped it open. The ink shimmered faintly, forming a symbol, two interlocked rings and a line through the middle. Beneath it, coordinates appeared for only a heartbeat before vanishing.Maya saw it too. “Did that just… update itself?”“Looks like it.”“You realize this book just sent us somewhere?”He nodded. “Then that’s where we’re going.”She groaned. “Do you ever stop to think maybe this is a trap?”“It probably is,” Derrick said calmly. “T
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