Chapter Fifty Eight: The Ghost Scientist
580 Words
Xavier’s POV
The storm had died by morning, but the chaos in Xavier’s mind hadn’t.
He hadn’t slept. The same words from that encrypted channel replayed in his head over and over:
> “Step away from the system.”
Someone knew he was digging.
And worse — they’d let him live. Which meant they weren’t done with him.
He sat in his car outside an old, weathered apartment complex in the industrial district, eyes scanning the faded names on the rusted mailboxes. One stood out.
Dr. A. Korrin.
Former lead analyst, Reed Biotech Division.
Terminated five years ago.
He checked his gun — loaded but hidden — and climbed the stairs, the metal creaking under his boots.
At the top floor, a door hung slightly ajar. Inside, the apartment smelled of dust, metal, and something faintly chemical. Monitors hummed softly, and stacks of old research files cluttered the table.
“Dr. Korrin?”
No answer.
He took one step forward — and froze.
A woman sat at the desk, motionless, facing a dozen glowing screens. Her gray hair was tied back, her fingers trembling slightly over a keyboard.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Xavier Reed,” she said without turning around.
He tensed. “You know who I am.”
“I helped make who you are,” she said quietly.
His blood ran cold. “What do you mean by that?”
Dr. Korrin turned, her eyes hollow and sharp.
“Your father’s company—Reed Biotech—wasn’t just funding Project Mnemosyne. It was built around it. The entire enterprise was designed to protect the experiment.”
“What experiment?” he demanded.
She tapped a key, and one of the monitors flickered to life, showing a file labeled M-07: Cognitive Clone Trial.
On the screen was Mila’s face.
Xavier felt the world tilt. “That’s not possible.”
“She’s not what you think, Xavier. The girl you know is—”
“Don’t.” His voice was a growl now. “Don’t finish that sentence.”
But she did anyway.
“She’s a reconstruction. A restored consciousness based on a neural pattern extracted three years ago. The real Mila Miller didn’t survive the prototype phase.”
The words hit him like a gunshot.
“No…”
Dr. Korrin stood, her tone softening. “You weren’t supposed to find out this way. Project Mnemosyne wasn’t just about preserving memory. It was about rebuilding the mind. And she—she was the most successful iteration we ever produced.”
He shook his head. “You’re lying. I’ve talked to her. She remembers things no machine could know.”
“That’s because she was Mila… once. Before the reset protocols fractured her neural timeline.”
A long silence.
Only the hum of old computers filled the air.
Finally, Xavier spoke, voice low and deadly.
“Where is she?”
Dr. Korrin hesitated. “You won’t like the answer.”
“I don’t care.”
Her hand trembled as she reached for another file. “Then you’ll have to go to the island. But be warned — if Mnemosyne wakes fully, she won’t remember you.”
“Then I’ll make her remember.”
Dr. Korrin’s lips parted, almost like a whisper of pity.
“Let’s hope you’re fast enough.”
Because outside, through the cracked window, a black drone hovered silently — its camera lens fixed on Xavier.
And back at Reed Biotech, his father was already watching.
- Writer
