I cross‑referenced the codes with public patents and found a biotech firm, Helix Dynamics, listed as the owner.
Helix Dynamics was the company where my mother, Nadia, had worked before her death.
“Dad, you knew about this?” I whispered to the empty room, the words tasting like acid.
A hidden folder appeared, labeled lab_access. Inside, a list of facilities, each with a GPS coordinate.
I opened the first coordinate – a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of town, its security cameras offline.
My fingers trembled as I copied the access credentials to a USB drive.
“If this is true, they’ve been erasing memories… and using my dad as a conduit,” I muttered, the realization sinking like a stone.
One last log entry caught my eye: “Protocol activation – subject Elias K., date 2024‑03‑12.”
My breath hitched. The date matched the night my father’s latest date vanished.
I saved the files, shut down the terminal, and slipped the drive into my bag.
Time to confront whoever was pulling the strings.
Confronting Dr. Hargrove
The Helix Dynamics building loomed, its glass façade reflecting a sky bruised with twilight.
I marched through the security checkpoint, flashing the stolen badge I’d duplicated.
Inside, the lab smelled of antiseptic and ozone, fluorescent lights buzzing overhead.
Dr. Hargrove stood before a bank of monitors, her coat immaculate, eyes cold.
“Maya,” she said, not looking up. “I was expecting you.”
I thrust the USB drive into the console. “What did you do with my father?”
She finally turned, her lips twisting into a thin smile.
“Your father was never a perpetrator,” she began, voice measured. “He was a carrier.”
She tapped a screen, and a video flickered: my dad sitting across a dinner table, laughing, oblivious as a discreet device hummed under the table.
“We used him as a conduit for our memory‑erasing protocol,” Dr. Hargrove explained. “The Chronos project was designed to rewrite short‑term recall in subjects who consented, but we needed a catalyst – an emotional anchor.”
I felt nausea rise. “You used my mother’s research to… to erase people?”
She nodded. “Your mother’s work on epigenetic markers made it possible. We embedded a nanostructure in each date’s DNA sample. When the protocol activates, the neural pathways associated with the encounter are scrambled.”
“And my dad… he didn’t know?”
“He thought he was simply dating. The app you discovered sent the trigger automatically.”
Behind her, alarms began to wail, a shrill red light flashing across the ceiling.
“Security breach,” a metallic voice announced. “Lockdown in effect.”
Dr. Hargrove’s expression hardened. “You should leave now.”
Before I could move, the doors slammed shut with a hydraulic clang, sealing the lab.
A shadow slipped from the darkness, gliding toward the central control panel.
The lights flickered, then sputtered out, plunging the room into an oppressive blackness.
My pulse thundered in my ears as the figure’s breath brushed the back of my neck.
Section 5 – The Hidden Files
I slammed the laptop shut the moment the alarms faded, the fluorescent lights flickering like a dying heartbeat.
“Enough,” I whispered, breathing the stale air of the server room, feeling the cold metal of the case against my palm.
