The Lazarus Protocol

Chapter 3 — Shadows of the Past

Ethan sat against the cold concrete wall inside the Resistance safehouse, his body aching in every fiber. The haze of pain dulled his senses but sharpened his resolve. The fragments of memory teased at the edges of his mind like ghosts refusing to be silenced.

Across the room, Ayla tapped furiously at her tablet, her sharp eyes scanning streams of data flowing like a digital river. Detective Reese lit another cigarette, the smoke curling upward, adding to the room’s thick atmosphere of tension and determination.

Ethan finally broke the silence. “If I’m the ghost they fear, why me? Why didn’t they kill me back there?”

Ayla glanced at him, eyes unreadable. “Because you’re not just any ghost. You’re the prototype—the original Lazarus. They want you alive, broken enough to control but strong enough to be weaponized.”

Reese exhaled slowly. “Rayburn sees you as the key to everything he’s built. And Marcus? He’s the perfect assassin designed to hunt you down.”

Ayla projected a holographic image of the city, with pulsing red dots marking the Lazarus nodes—high-security data centers holding encrypted fragments of Ethan’s past.

“We need to hack into these nodes to piece your memories back together,” she explained. “Each node has a different piece of the puzzle. The catch? They’re guarded by state-of-the-art security and Rayburn’s men.”

Ethan clenched his jaw. “How do we get in?”

Reese smirked. “The old-fashioned way. Guns, grit, and guts. I know people who owe me favors. We’re going in with a plan.”

That night, Ethan’s sleep was plagued by nightmares—a blur of faces and places.

He saw a woman with eyes like storm clouds, calling his name softly. A child reaching out, their small hand trembling. The sterile white walls of a laboratory. A chair with straps and blinking monitors.

He awoke gasping, heart pounding.

Ayla was watching him, expression softened. “Your mind’s trying to tell you something.”

“I don’t even know if any of it’s real,” Ethan muttered.

“It is. But some memories are buried deeper than others. We’ll find them.”

The next day, the team prepared for their first strike on a Lazarus node located beneath an abandoned hospital on the city’s edge.

Reese handed Ethan a small earpiece. “Stay close. And trust no one.”

The hospital loomed like a ghost ship—windows shattered, walls crumbling, the silence deafening.

Inside, they navigated twisted corridors, their footsteps echoing against stained walls.

Suddenly, the hum of machinery echoed ahead—security systems still active.

Ayla tapped her tablet. “I’ll handle the overrides. Ethan, cover me.”

Heart pounding, Ethan watched as Ayla’s fingers danced over the interface, bypassing layers of encryption.

Suddenly, alarms blared.

“Compromised,” Ayla hissed. “They’re onto us.”

Gunfire erupted as security drones descended. Ethan ducked behind a metal cart, firing into the shadows.

The firefight was brutal but brief. They disabled the drones and reached the server room.

Ayla plugged in her device, pulling encrypted files onto her drive.

Ethan’s eyes caught a flicker on a screen—a blurred image of a young boy, laughing.

“Is that… me?” he whispered.

Ayla nodded. “That’s the piece we were after.”

Suddenly, a voice crackled through their earpieces—Marcus.

“Impressive, brother. But this game’s just begun.”

The message cut off, leaving an icy chill.

Ethan clenched his fists. The war was far from over.

The echo of Marcus’s voice still reverberated in Ethan’s ears long after the connection cut. “Impressive, brother. But this game’s just begun.” The words were less a taunt and more a challenge—an ominous promise.

Ethan wiped the sweat from his brow, his body trembling—not just from the adrenaline of the firefight, but from the weight of the revelation. Marcus knew him. Knew him. The word sent a cold shiver down Ethan’s spine. The existence of a twin he never remembered was a puzzle piece too jagged to fit into his shattered memory.

The Resistance’s safehouse felt suffocating now, as if the walls themselves pressed in with questions Ethan couldn’t answer.

Detective Reese lit a cigarette and exhaled slowly. “Your twin brother’s a ghost too, Caleb.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “I’m not Caleb. I’m Ethan.”

Reese shrugged. “Names change when you live in the shadows.”

Ayla leaned over her tablet, scrolling through files stolen from the Lazarus node. “Marcus is more than a brother. He’s the ultimate weapon designed to control you—and the city.”

Ethan’s thoughts tumbled in a spiral. If Marcus was Rayburn’s perfected assassin, what did that make him? A prototype? A failure?

The tension between them was thick when Ayla spoke again, her voice quieter. “There’s more. Rayburn has agents inside the Resistance.”

Ethan’s eyes flicked toward Reese. “Who?”

Reese met his gaze steadily. “We don’t know yet. But someone’s feeding information.”

Paranoia crept in like a poison. Ethan realized the fight wasn’t just external; it was inside their own ranks.

Before Ethan could ask more, the door hissed open. A young woman stepped inside—sharp-eyed, confident.

“Sorry to drop in unannounced,” she said, pulling back her hood to reveal a cascade of silver hair. “Name’s Lila. I’ve been sent to help.”

Ethan studied her warily. “By who?”

“By someone who wants Rayburn’s reign to end as much as you do,” Lila replied, eyes glinting.

Ayla nodded slowly. “We could use the backup.”

The four of them plotted a daring plan: to infiltrate Rayburn’s main lab hidden beneath the city’s financial district.

Ethan felt the weight of every step he took deeper into the shadows. Each move pulled him further from who he was—and closer to who he might become.

But this time, he was ready to fight.