Echoes Of Deception

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—

FLASH.

A white room. A man in a lab coat.

“Say it again,” the man said.

“I am nothing,” Nick replied in a flat voice.

“Who do you obey?”

“Veratech.”

“Who do you protect?”

“No one.”

FLASH.

Back in the present, Nick wrenched the headset off and fell to his knees, vomiting. Leah knelt beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.

“You were trained,” he gasped. “Rewired. I wasn’t just a subject—I was a weapon. I was… used.”

Remy pulled up the decrypted footage on his screen. “You were Unit 9. The prototype. They erased your identity and replaced it with programming.”

Nick clenched his fists. “But something broke the programming.”

Remy nodded. “You hesitated. That’s what the footage shows. You refused an order. That is why they tried to kill you. You are the only failure they couldn’t predict.”

Nick wiped his mouth. “Not a failure. I woke up.”

Leah leaned forward. “Then we make that count. We are going to expose them.”

But Remy looked uneasy. “It’s not that simple. You know. You have been off-grid too long. They have covered their tracks. They’ve erased every trace of Unit 9… and now they are erasing anyone connected to you. Including Leah.”

Leah’s eyes widened. “Then we need to move. What about your safehouse in Fairgrove?” She asked.

Remy hesitated. “I burned that months ago.”

Nick stood. “Then we go dark. Use cash. No tech. No trails. Just one target: whoever is at the top of this.”

Remy sighed and passed him a slip of paper. “There’s a name. Dr. Mallory Kern. She worked on the behavioral protocols. She went off the radar after the leak. Last known location—Redstone City.”

Nick took the paper. “Then that is where are heading to .”

Later that night, they parked into a motel on the outskirts of the highway, fitting in with the truckers and drifters. Leah sat on the bed, drying her hair after taking a lukewarm shower . Nick sat across the room, deep in concentration.

"Do you believe me now?" he asked.

Leah looked up. “I never stopped.”

He gave a smile. “I don’t even know who I was before all this. Was I a good man? A monster? What if I deserved what happened to me?”

Leah walked over and sat beside him. “You chose not to pull the trigger. You chose to run. That means something.”

He met her gaze. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You won’t,” she said softly. “Not anymore.” She assured him.

There was a knock on the door.

Nick was on his feet in a second, with his gun pulled.

Another knock. Three times. Then silence.

Nick motioned for Leah to stay back. He opened the door slowly, his gun behind his back.

A young woman stood outside, trembling and soaked from rain.

“Nick?” she whispered.

Nick’s heart stopped.

He knew that voice.

Leah stepped forward. “Who is she?”

"I've been looking for you," she continued, her eyes filled with tears. "I didn't know you were still alive."

The woman swallowed hard. “I’m Anna. I used to love him.”