Echoes Of Deception

Into The Trap

The plan was simple on paper: get to Redstone City, locate Dr. Mallory Kern and uncover the kill code before Veratech used it or worse, activated the remaining units to erase Nick for good. But nothing in Nick’s life had ever been simple.

By 2 a.m., they were back on the road. Anna sat in the backseat of the rusted sedan Remy had rigged with stolen plates. Leah drove while Nick kept his eyes locked on the side mirror, scanning for headlights that stayed too long or moved too smooth.

Leah broke the silence. “We should have stayed and fought.”

“No,” Nick said, eyes still on the mirror. “They would’ve leveled the whole block. We need to make them come to us. On our terms.”

Anna leaned forward. “Redstone isn’t like here. Veratech has surveillance, drones, corrupt local forces. If we go in loud—”

“We won’t,” Nick cut in. “We go in quiet. We find Kern. We get the code. Then we wipe every trace of Project Echo.”

Leah gripped the wheel tighter. “And if we don’t?” She asked.

Nick looked at her. “Then I die on my terms.”

Redstone City was a twisted blend of glass skyscrapers and digital decay. Nick hadn’t been here in years or at least, he didn’t think he had. Memories came in static flashes now. A woman’s scream. A corridor of blinking lights. The smell of burnt wires.

Remy had sent coordinates before they left: an old biotech lab Veratech had shut down after a failed merger. It sat on the edge of the Industrial Ring, just past the trainyard. They parked a few blocks away and moved on foot through shadows.

Anna led them into the lab’s sub-basement using a keycard she had kept from her time at Veratech. The air was thick with dust and mold, and every creak of the floorboards echoed like thunder.

“This is it,” she whispered, holding a flashlight steady. “This is where they ran neural tests before moving the program overseas.”

Leah scanned the room. “Doesn’t look like much.”

Anna pointed to a wall. “Behind that panel. There’s a server room. Off-grid. Not on any map.”

Nick walked forward and made it open with the crowbar Remy had packed. The metal screeched and groaned, but the panel gave way.

A cold, narrow corridor stretched beyond.

“This feel like a trap to anyone else?” Leah muttered.

“It is,” Nick said, stepping through. “But it’s our trap now.”

The room at the end of the hall buzzed with dying lights and long-abandoned servers. And yet, one console blinked softly alive, waiting.

Anna sat down, fingers flying across the keys. “Encrypted archive. I need thirty seconds.”

Nick nodded. He stood guard, ears tuned to every sound. Leah checked the far side of the room, inspecting what looked like storage for old neural headsets and bioscanners.

Then—static crackled from a wall speaker.

“Unit 9,” a voice said, cool and calm.

Nick froze.

“I hoped you’d return home.”

Leah turned. “Who is that?”

Anna looked up, horror dawning on her face. “Kern. That’s Dr. Kern.”

The voice continued, “You’ve caused us quite the mess. But it’s not too late, Nick. Say the phrase and come back. You don’t belong out there. You never did.”

Nick’s jaw tightened. “You don’t control me anymore.” He said.

“Don’t I? Then why did you come here?” Kern’s voice was cold now. “You brought the key right to us.”

The console flickered and then locked.

“Too late,” Anna breathed.

The lights shut off. The door slammed shut behind them.

Gas hissed from vents in the ceiling.

“Move!” Nick shouted. He pulled Leah and Anna toward the far side of the room where a service hatch barely hung from its frame.

He kicked it in and forced them through, one by one. The gas stung his lungs as he followed, barely squeezing through before the chamber sealed.

They tumbled into a dark tunnel. Leah coughed violently. Anna was in tears.

“We were played,” Leah gasped. “She knew we’d come.”

Nick helped them up. “Then we stop playing by their rules.”

They made it out through an old maintenance grate, emerging in a deserted alley behind a collapsed warehouse.

Nick’s head pounded. His vision blurred—but not from the gas.

From the voice.

He heard it again, faint but unmistakable: “Unit 9, neutralize the threat. Obey.”

He slammed his fist against the wall.

Leah rushed to him. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I think… I think the command was activated.”

Anna paled. “But we didn’t hear the phrase.”

Nick looked at her, hollow. “No. But I think I did. In my head.”

They stood in silence, rain falling gently now.

Somewhere, in the distance, a siren wailed.