Chapter 24 Ghost from the Past
LUNA'S POV
My laptop pinged with an incoming message at 3 AM, jolting me awake.
I grabbed it immediately, thinking it might be news about Kael. Instead, the screen showed an encrypted message from the same source as before—the one who'd wiped my servers.
My father.
Luna. I know you hate me. I deserve that. But please read this. Your friends are in danger and I'm the only one who can help them. Meet me at the old laboratory where I used to work. You remember it. Come alone. I'll explain everything. - Dad
I stared at the message, anger and confusion battling inside me.
My father had disappeared eight years ago. Left me and Mom without a word. Everyone said he died in a lab accident, but Mom never believed it. She spent years searching for answers that never came.
And now he was suddenly back? Asking to meet? Claiming he could help?
"Aria," I whispered, shaking her awake. We were hiding in an abandoned cabin, both of us running on zero sleep and pure fear. "Wake up. Something happened."
Aria bolted upright immediately. "Is it Kael? Did Cross—"
"No. It's my father." I showed her the message. "He wants to meet."
Aria read it twice. "Your father who's supposedly The Architect? The one running this whole nightmare?"
"That's what the evidence suggested." My hands trembled on the keyboard. "But what if I was wrong? What if Cross is lying about who's really in charge?"
"Or what if your father is lying now?" Aria's voice was gentle but firm. "Luna, this could be a trap. Cross could be using your father to lure you in."
"I know." I did know. Every logical part of my brain screamed trap. But another part—the part that was still that twelve-year-old girl who lost her dad—wanted desperately to believe he was innocent. "But what if he really can help us save Kael?"
Aria was quiet for a moment. Then: "Where does he want to meet?"
"The old Park Laboratories building. It's where he worked before he disappeared. The place has been abandoned for years."
"Perfect location for an ambush," Aria pointed out.
"Or the one place he'd feel safe meeting me." I looked at her. "What should I do?"
"I can't tell you that." Aria squeezed my hand. "He's your father. You have to decide if you trust him."
Did I trust him? I wasn't sure. But I needed information. Needed any advantage we could get against Cross. And if my father really was The Architect, maybe I could convince him to stop this madness.
"I'm going," I decided. "But I'll be careful. Take precautions."
"I'm coming with you," Aria said immediately.
"No." I shook my head. "Cross is hunting you. If this is a trap, I won't lead them right to you. You stay here with the evidence. If I don't come back in two hours, run. Get as far from here as possible."
"Luna—"
"Please." I grabbed my backpack, shoving my laptop and some equipment inside. "One of us needs to survive this. Make sure it's you."
Before Aria could argue more, I slipped out of the cabin into the predawn darkness.
The old laboratory was forty minutes away on foot. I took a winding path through the forest, checking constantly for followers. My heart pounded the entire way.
What would I say to him? What would he look like after eight years? Would I even recognize him?
The laboratory appeared through the trees—a concrete building covered in vines and graffiti. All the windows were broken. The door hung off its hinges.
I stepped inside carefully, flashlight in hand.
"Luna." A voice came from the shadows. "You came."
I spun toward it. A man stepped into my flashlight beam.
My father looked older than I remembered. Gray streaked his hair. Deep lines creased his face. But his eyes—they were the same dark brown eyes that used to read me bedtime stories and help with my math homework.
"Dad?" My voice cracked.
"Hello, sweetie." He smiled sadly. "You've grown so much."
Anger flooded through me. "You left us. You disappeared without a word. Mom died thinking you abandoned us. And now you just show up and expect—what? Forgiveness?"
"I expect nothing." He stepped closer slowly, hands raised like I was a scared animal. "I know what I did was unforgivable. But I didn't abandon you, Luna. I was protecting you."
"From what?"
"From them." He gestured vaguely. "From Cross. From the people who twisted my research into something evil. I discovered what they were planning—the Legacy Program, the experiments, the murders. When I tried to stop them, they threatened to kill you and your mother. So I made a deal. I'd disappear. Let them think I was dead. And in exchange, they'd leave my family alone."
I wanted to believe him. God, I wanted to so badly. But I'd been lied to too many times.
"Prove it," I said. "Prove you're telling the truth."
He pulled out a flash drive. "Everything is on here. My original research—the real purpose was curing genetic diseases, not creating super soldiers. Communications showing how Cross weaponized my work. Evidence that I've been sabotaging the program from the inside for eight years. It's all there."
I took the drive carefully. "Why give this to me now?"
"Because Cross is escalating. He's going to enhance your friend Kael and use him as bait for Aria. Then he'll enhance both of them. He's also planning to activate programs at five other academies simultaneously. If we don't stop him now, hundreds of students will die."
My stomach dropped. "Five other academies?"
"Silver Crest in Colorado. Midnight Academy in Maine. Three others across the country." Dad's face was grim. "The Legacy Program was never just about Royal Academy. It's a nationwide network. And Cross is the head of it all."
"But I thought you were The Architect—"
"I created the research," Dad interrupted. "But Cross is the one who built the empire. He calls himself The Architect of the New World. That's where the name came from. I'm just the scientist whose work he stole."
It made a horrible kind of sense. But I still wasn't sure I could trust him.
"How do I know this flash drive isn't a tracker?" I asked. "How do I know you're not working with Cross right now?"
"You don't." Dad looked me straight in the eye. "You have to choose to trust me, Luna. Just like I'm choosing to trust that you won't turn me in to the authorities before we stop Cross."
"Why would I protect you?"
"Because I'm the only one who knows how to reverse the enhancement process." His words hit me like electricity. "Every student Cross transformed—including your girlfriend Maya—can be saved. Their original personalities restored. But only if we stop Cross before he implements the final phase of his plan."
"What final phase?"
Dad's expression darkened. "In seventy-two hours, Cross is planning a nationwide activation. He'll trigger a signal that will put all enhanced subjects under his direct control. They'll become his army. Hundreds of enhanced soldiers, loyal only to him, ready to eliminate anyone who opposes the Legacy Program."
"That's insane," I breathed.
"That's genocide." Dad gripped my shoulders. "Luna, I know I don't deserve your trust. I know I failed you. But please, let me help you stop this. Let me use my knowledge to save these kids. Let me finally do something right."
I searched his face for any sign of deception. Saw only desperate sincerity and bone-deep regret.
"Okay," I said finally. "I'll trust you. For now. But if you betray me—"
"I won't." He pulled me into a hug. For a moment, I was twelve again, safe in my father's arms. "I promise, Luna. I'll make this right."
I wanted to believe him. Wanted to trust that my father was actually a hero instead of a monster.
But then I heard footsteps outside.
Many footsteps.
Dad's face went pale. "No. They followed you."
"I was careful!" I pulled away from him. "I checked for trackers—"
"Not on you." Dad pointed at my backpack. "On your laptop. Cross must have installed tracking software when he hacked your systems."
The door burst open.
Enhanced subjects poured in. Ten of them. Twenty. All moving with mechanical precision.
And behind them, Professor Cross stepped into the laboratory, smiling.
"Touching reunion," he said. "Dr. Park, I've been looking for you for eight years. Thank you, Luna, for leading me right to him."
"No," I whispered. "I didn't mean—"
"Of course you didn't." Cross nodded to his subjects. "Secure them both. Dr. Park, you're coming back to continue your research. Luna, you'll be our guest until your friends surrender."
Enhanced subjects grabbed us. Dad fought but they were too strong. I tried to run but someone caught my arm, yanking me backward.
"Let her go!" Dad shouted. "Take me, but leave Luna alone! That was our deal!"
Cross laughed. "Deal? Dr. Park, there was never any deal. I let you hide for eight years because your guilt kept you paralyzed. But now you've become useful again—as leverage."
He pulled out his phone, recording a video of me and my father restrained by his subjects.
"Aria," Cross said into the camera, "I have Luna and the man you've been calling The Architect. Surrender yourself and the evidence within twelve hours, or I'll enhance them both. Starting with Luna. I'll let you watch as she loses everything that makes her human."
He stopped recording and sent the video.
"Take them to the medical facility," Cross ordered. "Prepare two enhancement chambers. If Aria doesn't surrender by dawn, we proceed with both of them."
As enhanced subjects dragged us toward a waiting van, my father looked at me with tears in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I thought I could protect you. I thought I could fix everything. But all I did was make it worse."
"It's okay, Dad," I said, even though nothing was okay. "We'll figure this out."
But I didn't know how. Aria was already planning to trade herself for Kael. Now she'd have to choose between saving him or saving me and my father.
Three people Cross wanted versus one person with the evidence.
The math was brutal and simple.
Cross had won.
The van doors slammed shut, cutting off the dawn light.
And through the small window, I saw my father's laboratory—the place where this nightmare began—disappearing into the distance.