Chapter Fifty Five: Data Ghost
552 Words
Xavier’s POV
The fire had died by morning, but the world still burned in Xavier’s head.
He hadn’t slept. Couldn’t.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the blue glow, the handprint, and Lang’s dying smile.
By sunrise, he was already back at his apartment, screens lit up like a control room. His laptop hummed softly, several encrypted drives plugged in—files he’d lifted from his father’s office the night before the explosion.
He typed fast, breaking into layers of hidden directories, searching for anything tagged Mnemosyne.
Most of the files were corrupted or redacted—just fragments of code and ghost data strings looping endlessly.
Then a message flashed across his terminal:
> Unknown Access Detected.
Trace in progress...
He froze.
Someone was watching him.
Before he could sever the connection, a chat window popped open.
> GhostLink: You’re not supposed to be in there, Reed.
Xavier: Who the hell are you?
GhostLink: Let’s just say I’m the one who helped your girlfriend escape.
His pulse spiked.
> Xavier: Mila? Where is she?
GhostLink: Not safe to say here. Meet me where it all started. 8 p.m. sharp. Don’t bring your phone.
Then the window blinked out.
“Where it all started…” Xavier muttered.
Manchester High.
*****
That night, the school was silent. Wind whispered through the courtyard as he slipped past the locked gate, hands stuffed into his jacket. The moon cast a pale glow over the empty halls.
He moved toward the old science block—the place where Mila had first faced him down months ago.
A faint sound drew him to the lab. The door creaked open, and a hooded figure stood by the window, laptop faintly glowing.
“Glad you came,” the figure said, voice distorted through a modulator.
“Who are you?”
The figure turned the screen toward him. Lines of data flickered—video footage from the underground facility. He saw Mila restrained, light running beneath her skin, her clone reaching for her as alarms blared.
“Project Mnemosyne wasn’t just cloning,” the voice said. “It was memory replication. They built two of her—but only one with a full consciousness.”
Xavier’s stomach turned. “So one’s… empty?”
“Not empty,” the figure corrected softly. “Incomplete. And she’s looking for what’s missing.”
The screen shifted—showing a grainy image of Mila on a deserted road, wild-eyed, hand glowing faintly blue.
“She doesn’t know who she is anymore,” the figure added. “But if she connects with the clone again, they’ll both die.”
Xavier’s breath caught. “Then tell me how to find her before that happens.”
The figure slid a flash drive across the desk. “Follow the signal. But be warned, Reed—what you’ll find might not be her anymore.”
Before he could respond, the figure vanished into the shadows, leaving only the faint hum of the laptop behind.
Xavier stared at the drive in his hand, his reflection flickering on its metallic surface.
“She’s still Mila,” he whispered. “She has to be.”
And as he pocketed the drive, thunder rolled in the distance—her signal pulsing faintly on his laptop screen like a heartbeat calling him forward.
- Writer
