CHAPTER 2 :
791 Words
Ethan Voss didn’t believe in coincidences. A dead man with a faked memory, a terrified suspect, and a break-in at his own apartment, all in the same night? Someone was tying up loose ends. And right now, Sera Nix was the loosest thread of all.
He led her out of the interrogation room, his grip firm on her arm but not rough. She wasn’t resisting—she was too shocked, too lost to even question where he was taking her.
“Are you—are you arresting me?” she asked, voice hoarse.
“I’m keeping you alive,” Ethan said without looking at her.
They moved through the precinct’s back hallway, avoiding the main floor. He didn’t trust the other cops—not with this. Someone with enough power to rewrite a man’s dying memory had already tampered with the system. If Sera stayed in custody, she’d end up dead in her cell by morning.
As they neared the exit, his partner, Detective Joel Raines, stepped into their path.
Raines was a solid cop—older, steady, the kind of man who followed rules but knew when to bend them. His sharp blue eyes flickered between Ethan and Sera, then landed on Ethan’s grip around her wrist.
“What the hell are you doing, Voss?” Raines’ voice was low but firm. “She’s our prime suspect.”
“She’s a setup,” Ethan said.
Raines frowned. “Come again?”
Ethan checked the hallway behind him, making sure no one was listening. Then he stepped closer. “The memory doesn’t match the crime scene. Grayson’s place showed signs of a fight—broken glass, forced entry. But his last recording? Clean as a damn hospital room.”
Raines hesitated. He wasn’t a fool. He knew memory evidence was supposed to be perfect, but Ethan could see the doubt creeping in.
“Something’s wrong, Raines,” Ethan pushed. “And if I leave her here, she won’t make it through the night.”
Raines exhaled, rubbing his jaw. “You got a plan?”
“Yeah. Get her somewhere safe. Then I find out who’s behind this.”
Raines studied him for a long moment, then glanced at Sera. Whatever he saw in her face made his shoulders tense. Finally, he stepped aside.
“Go,” he said. “Before someone asks questions I can’t answer.”
Ethan nodded once, then pulled Sera toward the exit.
Fifteen Minutes Later – Ethan’s Apartment
Ethan pushed open the door to his apartment, gun drawn. The place was dark, but he didn’t need light to know someone had been here before him.
He stepped inside, motioning for Sera to stay behind him. The air smelled off—like burnt circuits and ozone. The scent of erased data.
He flipped on the lights. The place wasn’t trashed, but the damage was surgical. His desk drawers were open, his holo-screens flickered with static. His case files? Gone.
Not just deleted. Wiped clean.
Sera hovered near the door, hugging her arms. “What is this place?”
“My apartment.”
She gave him a wary glance. “You live like this?”
Ethan ignored her, moving to his desk. He tried pulling up his private case logs, but the system was corrupted.
Whoever did this didn’t just want information. They wanted to erase it.
Sera took a shaky step forward. “This is because of me, isn’t it?”
Ethan didn’t sugarcoat things. “Yeah. Probably.”
She exhaled sharply and sat down on his couch, looking like she was barely keeping herself together.
Ethan pulled out his backup drive—a personal, offline storage chip. He plugged it in, hoping to salvage something.
The screen flickered. Then a single file popped up.
One he hadn’t put there.
Ethan clicked it open. A video file.
It was grainy, distorted. A security camera feed from a dimly lit hallway. He adjusted the settings, clearing up the static.
And then he saw it.
Sera Nix.
Walking down a corridor. The night of the murder.
His gut clenched. “No…”
Sera leaned forward. “What? What is it?”
Ethan replayed the footage. The timestamp matched the time of Tyler Grayson’s death. But Sera wasn’t alone.
Someone was walking beside her.
A man in a dark coat. Face obscured. But his build, his posture—Ethan recognized him.
“Son of a bitch.”
Sera’s voice shook. “You know him?”
Ethan clenched his jaw. “Yeah.”
Because the man in the footage wasn’t just anyone.
He was Cole Bennett.
An ex-MindCorp engineer. A man who once told Ethan that memories could be faked.
And the last person who should be anywhere near this case.
- Writer
