Chapter 14– “Ghost Protocols”
1256 Words
The room was silent except for the soft hum of my laptop.
Taehyung was sprawled on my bed, tossing a stress ball against the wall.
Jungkook sat cross-legged on the floor beside me, his eyes flicking between me and the encrypted data on the screen.
And me?
I was decoding a ghost file that could burn everything I knew to the ground.
“Ready?” I asked, fingers hovering over the enter key.
They both nodded.
The chip The Raven had given me was advanced—layered encryption, self-destruct protocols, and a quantum firewall. Whoever built it wanted to make sure only I could see it. The biometric scanner embedded in it lit up as I pressed my thumb to the surface.
It blinked green.
Access granted.
A hologram flickered into existence above the desk. It displayed a single word.
> PHASE OMEGA – ACTIVE.
Below that was a chart—photos, targets, and something that chilled me to my core.
Project Phoenix: Memory Extraction & Replication.
Underneath my profile were five codenames:
PHOENIX-01 (Original) – Status: ACTIVE
PHOENIX-02 (Clone A) – Status: FAILED
PHOENIX-03 (Clone B) – Status: TERMINATED
PHOENIX-04 (Clone C) – Status: STABLE
PHOENIX-05 (Clone D) – Status: UNDER SURVEILLANCE
Taehyung sat up. “There are… clones of you?”
Jungkook’s jaw clenched. “Stable? Under surveillance? They’re trying to replace you, Nora.”
I nodded. “It gets worse.”
I scrolled down to a section labeled Leverage Assets—photos of people tied to me.
Soobin. Sehun. Professor Leonhart.
And at the very end—
Taehyung and Jungkook.
Both tagged as “Potential Manipulation Vectors.”
“They were watching you too,” I whispered. “This whole time.”
Taehyung stood abruptly. “They’re using us to control you.”
“I’m not letting that happen,” Jungkook muttered, his fists clenched.
I turned to face them. “You both need to be careful from now on. No assumptions. No blind trust. And don’t go anywhere alone.”
“Nora,” Taehyung said softly, “don’t shut us out. We’re in this together now.”
I looked at them—my heart caught in my chest.
They weren’t just neighbors anymore.
They were part of my storm.
---
The next morning at university was eerily calm.
Too calm.
The usual chatter was replaced by whispers, eyes trailing me wherever I went. Something had shifted. It wasn’t the stares of curiosity anymore. It was the kind that weighed—watched—waited.
I didn’t like it.
In class, Soobin wasn’t there.
Instead, Professor Leonhart stood by the board, explaining cryptographic anomalies in digital warfare. But his eyes kept flickering toward me, as if asking silently, Have you seen it yet?
At the end of the class, he handed me a sealed envelope.
> Room 302. Midnight. Come alone.
—R
I palmed it without letting anyone else see.
---
At lunch, we gathered at our usual table, but I could feel the tension. Jungkook was unusually silent, poking at his sushi. Taehyung looked annoyed every time a girl walked by and waved at me.
“Why are they looking at you like that?” he finally muttered.
I took a sip of my mango smoothie. “Because word’s spreading.”
“About what?”
“That Phoenix might be on campus.”
Taehyung blinked. “Wait—they don’t know it’s you, right?”
“Not yet. But someone’s leaking breadcrumbs.”
Jungkook leaned in. “We need to find out who.”
I nodded. “Tonight, I’m meeting Raven. Room 302. You two stay back.”
“No way,” Taehyung said instantly. “It’s a trap.”
“I can handle it.”
“Still,” Jungkook said, his tone low, “let us stay nearby. If something happens, we’ll be ready.”
For once, I didn’t argue.
---
Midnight came fast.
I slipped into black cargo pants, a high-collar hoodie, and clipped a tracker on my ankle—transmitting to Jungkook’s device.
Room 302 was in the abandoned west wing of the university. The place hadn’t been used in years. Paint peeled off the walls. Floor tiles cracked under my feet. I pushed the door open.
Leonhart was already inside, sitting at a desk surrounded by old projector screens and books.
“Did anyone follow you?” he asked.
“No.”
He gestured for me to sit.
“I have answers,” he said. “But you won’t like them.”
“Try me.”
Leonhart slid a file across the table. I opened it—and my breath caught.
Inside were surveillance photos. My apartment. My car. The university cafeteria. Every movement of mine for the last two months.
“They’ve been tracking you since your transfer,” he said. “Astrid wasn’t the only plant. There’s someone else on this campus, still feeding them intel.”
“Who?”
“We’re still narrowing it down. But I have a theory.”
He pulled out another sheet.
It was a list of faculty names.
Highlighted among them—Soobin.
I froze. “No. He’s innocent. He has a little brother—he risked everything to protect Sehun.”
“Or used Sehun to earn your trust,” Leonhart said grimly. “You need to be ready for anything.”
A sharp sound cracked through the hallway—metal dragging on metal.
Leonhart stood, hand going to his sidearm.
“I triggered a silent perimeter,” he muttered. “We have company.”
Suddenly, the door burst open—three agents in black stormed in, guns raised.
“PHOENIX, STAND DOWN!”
“Run!” Leonhart barked, hurling a smoke pellet.
I dove for cover, rolled under a desk, and smashed the back window with my boot. Alarms rang out, flashing lights filled the air.
I jumped down onto the grass below and hit the ground hard—knees burning.
But then—
“Over here!”
Taehyung’s voice.
He was crouched near a pillar, waving at me. Jungkook had a motorbike ready, engine already revving.
I sprinted toward them, jumped onto the back, and we sped into the night.
---
Back at the apartment, my knees were bruised, my heart pounding, but we were safe.
Taehyung shut the door, breath ragged. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I said. “That was an ambush.”
“They were going to kill you,” Jungkook said, eyes stormy. “This isn’t about studying you anymore. They’re cleaning up evidence.”
“Which means,” I said slowly, “I’m officially off-mission.”
We all stared at each other.
It was no longer a covert operation. It was a war.
---
The next morning, the university was in lockdown. Students weren’t allowed to leave the campus, and armed guards patrolled every corner. The news claimed there was a “security drill.”
Lies.
I got a message on my secure line:
> You’re marked. They know. You have 3 days before they erase everything.
—R
I closed my laptop.
Three days.
That was all the time I had to destroy Phase Omega, protect the people I cared about… and disappear before they could erase me.
I looked out the window.
Jungkook was pacing the courtyard with a coffee in hand. Taehyung leaned on the gate, laughing at something a junior said—but his eyes never stopped scanning.
They were watching over me.
But soon, I’d have to make a choice.
---
End of Chapter 14
- Writer
