Chapter 54

Chapter 54 (Nell’s POV)

I watched the forest get smaller in the rearview mirror.

The cabin, Langston’s silence, the files… it was all behind us now. But it didn’t feel like we were going forward. It felt like we were being pulled into something darker.

Rick drove.

Langston sat in the passenger seat, tapping something into a device on his lap.

I sat in the back, holding the small vial Langston had given me just before we left. It was cold in my hand. The label had no name. Just a date and three faded letters.

S.T.L.

Suppressor Time Limit.

“Take it if you feel… different,” Langston had said. “But only if it gets bad. It’ll buy you time, not a solution.”

What did different even mean anymore?

I tucked the vial into my coat pocket and glanced out the window. The trees thinned. The sky was heavy with clouds. We were getting closer to the edge of the city now—closer to wherever Alex was.

“Do you think he’s okay?” I asked.

Langston didn’t turn. “If he’s alone, he’s better off than if Reed got to him first.”

Rick shifted slightly. “We’d know if he’d been taken.”

Langston’s voice was low. “Would we?”

The silence after that was thick.

I leaned back in my seat. The car hummed steadily beneath us, but everything else felt uncertain.

I thought about the night I first saw Alex in the hospital. Just a flash. Just a moment. He hadn’t recognized me, but I had known.

Now that moment felt like a crack in the wall they’d built between us. Like something fragile had broken free.

\---

After about an hour on the road, Rick reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a small drive.

“I was saving this,” he said, keeping one hand on the wheel. “But you should hear it.”

Langston gave him a quick look. “You copied her files?”

“Some,” Rick said.

He plugged the drive into the car’s built-in system. A click. Then static. Then a voice I hadn’t heard in weeks.

Dr. Evelyn Cross.

Her voice was calm. Cold. Familiar in the worst way.

“If this recording is being played, it means the program has been breached.”

I leaned forward.

“Subject Carter—Alex—wasn’t meant to remember. His emotional responses in Phase Two were stronger than predicted. Attachment to Subject Hayes exceeded safe thresholds.”

Langston stiffened.

“He was stable… until the dreams started. Then his patterns changed. Erratic behavior. Withdrawn. He began drawing faces—hers—without realizing it.”

My breath caught.

“I warned Reed. I told them emotional ties could override the implant’s suppression.”

The recording clicked again.

“But no one listened. Not then. Not even when he said her name in his sleep.”

My hands clenched into fists. My name. He remembered.

Even in pieces.

Even in dreams.

\---

Rick turned off the recording.

Silence filled the car again.

Langston looked out the window. “If he’s remembering now… he may not be in control of it.”

I didn’t speak. I was still replaying her voice in my head.

“He said my name,” I whispered. “Before I even saw him again.”

Langston finally turned toward me. “That means the bond is still active.”

I nodded slowly.

And that meant we weren’t too late.

Not yet.

\---

As we passed a row of streetlights, Rick spoke again.

“There’s a safehouse up ahead. Five blocks out. That’s where he was last seen.”

I sat up straighter. My heart pounded louder.

“Are we sure it’s him?” I asked.

“No,” Langston said. “But someone used his ID to access the building. That’s the best lead we’ve had in weeks.”

The city was quiet now. Not quite night. Not quite day. That in-between time where everything felt still but dangerous.

Rick adjusted the GPS.

Then frowned.

“What?” I asked.

“The signal’s cutting,” he said. “No reception.”

Langston checked his device. “Mine too.”

The hairs on my arms stood up.

Rick slowed the car slightly.

Then Langston leaned forward.

“Don’t panic,” he said. “But there’s a black SUV two cars back. Been following us for the last two miles.”

I whipped around.

There it was.

Sleek. Dark windows. Too quiet.

I looked at Rick.

“What do we do?”

He didn’t answer. His grip tightened on the wheel.

Langston reached into his coat.

Pulled out a gun.

His voice was calm.

“We’re not alone.”