The Cipher Knight

Chapter 6: The Architects

Jay has already escaped the unknown location and came back to his apartment. But Jay didn’t sleep not after what happened in the lab and not after learning he might be a clone… or worse some kind of experiment. The following day the Neural Rebellion took him to a safehouse deep under the city. Hidden below a laundromat in Westpoint, it looked ordinary from above, but once inside, it was a fortress.

Steel doors, encrypted panels with cameras that blinked like blinking stars in a dark ceiling. Zia stood beside him as they entered the war room she was newly appointed by Neural Rebellion for helping Jay in a physical form. A wide table glowed with a digital map of the city. Every block, every satellite feed, every signal pulsed in real time. There were others around the table another team that is part of the Rebellion they were strangers to him he hadn't seen them.

“Sit,” said Prism.

Jay sat.

He hadn’t eaten in over a day, but adrenaline filled the emptiness.

One of the guys in the table leaned forward. “What you saw in the lab… that was just the shell. The face of Virexon. But behind them are something older. More dangerous. They call themselves the Architects.”

Jay frowned. “What are they?”

“They don’t build cities,” the guy added quietly. “They build control.”

Zia tapped the map. “The Architects are a global network of elites—government officials, software developers, biotech moguls. They’ve been planting tech, thoughts, even memories in people’s heads for decades. Virexon is just one of their tools.”

Jay leaned back, the truth making him dizzy. “And I’m one of their... what? Projects?”

“No,” Prism voice echoed in his ear. “You were a mistake.”

Zia explained, “They tried to create the perfect mind one that could be moved from body to body, adapted, uploaded, even duplicated. But your mind refused control it evolved and it didn’t just adapt it woke up.”

Jay looked at his hands, like they didn’t belong to him. “So what now? They’ll kill me?”

Zia nodded. “Worse. They’ll try to reclaim you. They’ll make you forget, erase your personality, copy your mind into other vessels.”

Jay stood. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

Just then, alarms blinked red on the table.

Zia moved fast. “We’re traced they found the safehouse!”

Everyone moved with weapons grabbed and data drives yanked. Jay turned toward the screen dozens of black SUVs were heading straight for them.

“We have ten minutes!” someone shouted.

Jay didn’t wait his power surged, telepathic senses expanding. He saw the enemy’s thoughts as clear as pages in a book: Secure Subject Chief. Terminate others.

“They’re coming for me,” Jay whispered. “Not just to kill me they want to take me.”

Zia grabbed his arm. “Come. This way.”

They ran through a back tunnel narrow, wet, hidden behind a wall of fake dryers. They made it halfway when the wall behind them exploded.

Flames roared, sreams echoed with Jay turning and saw one of the guys that was at the table fighting two masked soldiers, hid hands glowing with a strange blue energy he shouted, “Go! Now!”

Zia dragged Jay through the tunnel. “We have another base. Across the river. But we need to disappear.”

Once outside, they ran into a dark valley city that looked normal, the city was unaware of the chaos boiling beneath its streets.

Jay finally stopped. “Wait. If they’re tracking me what if they already have?”

Zia stared at him.

Jay took a breath. “I need to go to the source.”

Zia's eyes narrowed. “What source?”

“Virexon’s main server. Headquarters. They won’t expect me to go back.”

Zia shook her head. “That’s suicide.”

“I don’t care,” Jay said. “I need answers. I need to know if my life was ever mine.”

She sighed. “Then we do it together.”

Three hours later, Jay and Zia stood across the street from Virexon Tower.

Rain fell like thin needles with the guards looking normal but Jay could sense more. Thoughts inside their helmets and the mind control triggers buried in their earpieces.

“We’ll never make it past the gate,” Zia muttered.

Jay closed his eyes.

And then he pushed his thoughts like a weapon.

His mind expanded like smoke thoughts bent and guards froze. One by one, they stared blankly until Jay whispered into their heads: You see nothing we don’t exist. They stepped through the front door inside, everything was silent. The halls were colder now with lights brighter cameras buzzed like insects. They found the elevator.

Zia scanned her palm, hacked the firewall, and bypassed the locks in seconds. “Top floor. That’s where they keep the mind core.”

Jay said nothing, hands shaking. But inside, the storm was quiet.

They stepped off into a white hallway.

At the end stood a single black door.

It opened before they touched it.

Inside, the one of Architects waited.

He wore a pale gray suit eyes the color of snow with skin too smooth and he looked... perfect but empty.

“Jay Elric,” the man said. “Or should I say... Subject Chief.”

Jay stepped forward, heart pounding.

The Architect smiled. “You came home.”

“I’m not yours,” Jay said. “I never was.”

“Oh, but you were,” the man said. “Every thought. Every dream. Every fear. we planted them all. We let you believe you had control. That was the test.”

Jay’s voice cracked. “You’re lying.”

The Architect touched a screen.

Suddenly, memories flooded the air like ghosts made of light. Jay saw flashes of his childhood with a burning fever and screams. But then... a second version with alab, tubes with code uploading into his brain.

Zia gasped. “Jay... they copied your life. They wrote it.”

Jay dropped to his knees.

The Architect stepped closer. “But it’s not too late. Come with us. We can upgrade you. You’ll be more than human. You’ll be—”

Jay stood. His voice steady. “Free.”

He closed his eyes.

And let go.

His mind exploded outward, filling every wire, every screen, every tech drone circling the tower. Systems crashed, files erased with lights flickering.

The Architect screamed. “Stop!”

But Jay had become the virus.

His thoughts rewrote the code with every secret, every blackmail file, every project leaked. All across the world, people’s phones blinked with headlines bursting onto the news feeds.

VIREXON EXPOSED. ARCHITECTS FALL.

The tower shook.

Jay opened his eyes, glowing with psychic fire.

“Goodbye,” he whispered.

The Architect lunged—but Zia pulled Jay back just as the ceiling collapsed. They escaped through the service shaft, breathless, bleeding, alive.

Outside, the tower burned.

But it wasn’t over.

Jay turned to Zia. “They’ll come again, won’t they?”

Zia nodded. “Not all of them were here. The last Architect... is still in the shadows.”

Jay looked out over the city, lit by sirens and firelight.

“Then we find them.”