Revenant Protocol

Chapter Three

Heart of the Storm

The hold was quiet as death except for the roar of the C‑130's engines. Caden Voss and Sophia stood with their backs against walls on opposite sides, guns aimed at the Revenant standing frozen between them. His cybernetic eye burned red, bathing the hold with an eerie red light. Caden's whole body tensed tight, this was it.

“Subject 001,” the Revenant intoned, voice flat and mechanical. “You cannot win.”

Sophia’s hand shook on her rifle. “He’s just a man,” she hissed, eyes flicking to Caden. “And we’ve beaten men before.”

Caden nodded sharply. Then, in practiced synchrony, they acted. Sophia launched a flash‑bang into the Revenant's toes; the hold burst into a blinding white flash and ear‑shattering report. The Revenant lurched, the wiring in his spine sparking. Caden rolled forward, firing two shots into the metal plate on his shoulder. Sparks flew. The Revenant unleashed a sound more beast than machine and charged.

Caden rolled aside, tumbling onto Sophia. Both of them scrunched into heaps of crates as the Revenant's fist smashed into the empty area. He destroyed wood and metal, shattering them like shrapnel. Sophia fired once more, and this time aimed at his knee joint; the shot shattered hydraulics, and the Revenant crumpled with a groan of twisted metal.

"Now!" Caden yelled. He produced a stun‑rod from his belt and thrust it into the exposed cabling at the Revenant's base of the neck. Electricity arced, and the Revenant's lights went out. With a final convulsion, he slumped onto the deck, dead.

Sophia let out a breath, voice shaking. "Is he… down?"

Caden hunched beside the wrecked machine, binding his arms with heavy cable ties. "For now," he growled, voice harsh. He looked up at Sophia, saw the relief and terror in her eyes, and felt something stir in him something he'd kept locked down for months.

They ascended together, their hearts still racing. Caden withdrew the thumb drive and plugged it into the locked box on the cockpit control panel. Lights blazed as navigation systems powered up again. The C‑130 lurched, its wings tilting to port.

"Autopilot's back in our hands," Sophia announced, voice steadier now. "Set course for Prague, low altitude to avoid radar."

Caden exhaled, stress draining from his shoulders. "Good. We upload the information to Ethan's server when we get there. He brings the world to witness Elara and the Protocol."

Sophia moved to the console next to him. They labored in silence for a while, the only sound the steady hum of reactivated avionics. Then Caden touched out, brushing a lock of sand‑coated hair away from her forehead.

"You twice saved my life," he breathed. "I… I don't know how to repay you."

Sophia turned, her eyes shining. "You don't have to. We do this together."

He gazed at her face—strong, determined, beautiful despite the dirt and exhaustion. He saw all the nights she'd spent infiltrating secure networks, the danger she'd put herself in to help him. He swallowed. "I" He paused, voice constricted. "I don't want to lose you."

She placed her hand across his. "You won't." She leaned forward, and their lips passed in a brief, angry kiss an affirmation of hope in the middle of the chaos of bullets and betrayal. For a moment, the universe narrowed to that: two hearts holding on to each other against the darkness.

Taking a raged, deep breath, Sophia stepped back. "There's something you should know," she said to him, voice low. Caden's heart leapt. "I wasn't an informant."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

She looked away, her eyes on the ground. "Elara… she didn't just create Revenant 001 and 002. There were others—test subjects. I was one of them."

Caden's chest tightened. "You… you were part of the Protocol?"

Sophia nodded, agony dancing in her eyes. "Subject 003. They took my past, my identity from me. I was trained to infiltrate, to manipulate. But I" She trailed off, voice breaking. "I escaped with Ethan's assistance. I thought I'd left all of that behind. Then I found you."

Caden's reality careened. All memory of their existence together, her skill, her compliance spun through his mind. "You lied to me.".

"I lied to myself," she panted. "I didn't want to be a weapon. I wanted to assist you in killing what I'd become."

He stared at her, pain and resolve etched on her face. Shallow gasps were his only breathing. "Why tell me now?"

"Because I couldn't watch you die at the hands of the Protocol's guns," she said. "And because… I love you."

Silence wrapped itself around them. And then Caden reached out, cupping her cheek. "I love you too," he whispered, his voice ragged. "We'll get through this."

She leaned into his caress, and for a moment, they were whole: two broken people looking for comfort in each other. The C‑130's engines rumbled steadily beneath them, carrying them toward a city built on centuries of secrets.

Two hours on, the plane descended out of the storm-tumbled clouds into Prague's hidden airfield. Below, the Vltava River curved through the ancient city, its bridges dark silhouettes in the rain. Caden and Sophia watched through the windshield of the cockpit as the runway lights came into view. He landed the plane, his heart pounding with relief.

Suddenly, the console was screaming. "Missile lock!" Sophia screamed, gesturing toward the radar screen. Red triangles by the hundreds were homing in on their position.

Caden's blood ran cold. "Countermeasures!"

He switched levers; flares exploded off the fuselage in a fury of fire, dissipating two head-on missiles. But four others flew straight up, their jets cutting through the air. One slammed into the port wing in a ringing impact. The plane bucked horribly, warning systems screaming. Fuel lines exploded; the cockpit filled with suffocating smoke.

"Brace!" Caden yelled. He wrestled with the yoke as the transport bucked like a hurt beast. The landing gear folded under the impact; they skidded off the runway into a mud and wreckage marsh.

The C‑130 jerked to a halt in a shallow riverbed, its tail end submerged. Water rushed into the cargo compartment. Sophia coughed, pulling the USB from the console. "We have to get out!"

Caden unbuckled his restraint and crawled to her. The deck was at an angle; he clung to a crate. Flames licked at the rear as fuel ignited. The hold was becoming smoky and water-filled.

He caught up with Sophia and put his arms around her. "This way!"

They battled through to the ramp, flinging it open against the current. Cold water rushed in, foaming around their ankles. Caden supported Sophia onto the ramp and retreated himself out. They collapsed on the muddy beach, hacking, gasping.

Behind them, the C‑130 groaned and burst apart. Flames roared through the fuselage as the plane disintegrated into the water with a final, thunderous crash.

Caden pulled Sophia's hand and pulled her into the darkness beyond the runway lights. They were pummeled by rain as they sprinted to the outskirts of the city, avoiding reeds and wreckage.

A faint light on the horizon marked the site of Prague's old town. But as they drew near, figures coalesced out of the rain silhouettes in black tactical suits, moving with lethal efficiency. Dozens of Revenants, all facsimiles of Caden's own face, stood in a ring around the wreckage of the plane.

At its center stood a single tall, thin figure, hands behind her back. Elara Myles, green eyes glinting with cold triumph.

She swept her hand out in welcome. "Welcome home, Caden."

Caden's heart thundered. Sophia squeezed his hand, her own eyes wide with terror.

Elara's smile was like the edge of a knife. "It seems you've brought everything I need."

Lightning flashed, casting an otherworldly glow on the circle of clones poised to strike.

Caden swallowed. "What do you want?"

Elara's smile grew. "Only to complete the Protocol. And you" she nodded at Caden, then Sophia, "will be the final variables."

The Revenants advanced in a choreographed motion.

Caden gripped Sophia's hand tighter, bracing himself for the fight to come.