Chapter 39 PROJECT PHOENIX

Chapter 39 PROJECT PHOENIX
CHAPTER 39 – PROJECT PHOENIX

02:13 AM.

Nobody should still be awake.

But Raven, Lucas, Niko, and Kade was still sitting around the main screen.

Among thousands of documents Alan Reeves turned over, the system flagged only one file.

PROJECT PHOENIX.

Not because of its size.

Not because of its security level.

But because that file had been deleted from every official database many years ago.

In theory.

It should not exist.

Niko opened the file.

An old interface appeared on the screen.

So old that Lucas frowned.

"This is from the early days."

Raven looked.

Yes.

This was a system even before Severance.

A more primitive version. Less sophisticated.

But also less hidden.

At the top of the file was written clearly:

PROJECT PHOENIX

PURPOSE: RESTORE LOST MEMORIES

Nobody said anything.

Niko read it again.

More slowly.

"Restore lost memories."

Kade looked up.

"Wait."

Lucas also looked up.

"That's the opposite."

Raven did not answer. Her eyes remained fixed on the screen.

Because it was true.

It was completely the opposite. While Severance built technology to blur memories.

Project Phoenix was created to bring memories back.

"Proposed by."

Niko scrolled down.

The name appeared.

EVELYN VOSS.

The room fell into silence.

Lucas cursed quietly.

"This is why."

Raven nodded.

Now she understood.

Back then her mother did not only oppose it.

She also tried to repair it.

Not only saying "no."

She tried finding another way.

Niko continued opening the next pages.

Notes appeared.

Memories do not disappear.

Memories are only buried.

Neural intervention does not destroy data.

It only prevent the data from being accessed.

If the correct emotional anchor point can be reached, memories have possibility to recover.

Lucas finished reading.

Sat still.

For a long time.

"My God."

Niko looked at him.

"What?"

Lucas turned the screen toward everyone.

"If this is true..."

He swallowed.

"...then thousands of people out there can remember again."

Nobody spoke.

Because everyone understood what that meant.

The entire investigation.

Every testimony.

Every missing piece.

Could change.

Not through evidence.

But through the people who lost their memories themselves.

Raven opened the last page.

An audio recording.

Created:

Fourteen years ago.

Recorded by:

Evelyn Voss.

Raven pressed play.

Static noise filled the room.

Then her mother's voice.

Younger.

Stronger.

Less tired than in the later recordings.

"If someone is hearing this recording..."

Raven unconsciously sat up straighter.

"That means the project has failed."

A pause.

«"Or I have failed."»

Evelyn's voice remained calm.

«"I do not know what the future will become."»

«"But I know one thing."»

«"No healthy society can depend on forgetting."»

Lucas looked down.

Kade clenched his hands.

«"They believe memory is the problem."»

«"I believe memory is the last defense mechanism."»

«"When people no longer remember what happened..."»

«"...they will repeat it."»

The room was completely silent.

«"If the project is cancelled."»

«"If the data is deleted."»

«"If I disappear."»

«"Please remember."»

«"The goal was never exposing guilt."»

Evelyn's voice slowed.

«"The goal is giving people back what belongs to them."»

Click.

The recording ended.

\---

Nobody spoke for almost a minute.

Finally.

Kade was the one who broke the silence.

"So..."

He looked at Raven.

"We just found something that can change everything."

Raven shook her head.

"No."

"We just found something that makes everything more dangerous."

\---

Lucas understood immediately.

"The remaining people."

Raven nodded.

"If this project existed..."

"It means somebody killed it."

Niko added.

"And that person was powerful enough to erase every trace."

Kade looked at the last line of the file.

RESTORED BY: \[DATA DELETED\]

"Someone brought it back."

"Then erased themselves."

Raven stared at that line.

A strange feeling appeared.

Not fear.

Not anger.

It was instinct.

A feeling that they had just touched the deepest layer of the story.

\---

03:47 AM.

The system suddenly emitted a signal.

Niko immediately turned around.

"Someone accessed it."

Lucas jumped to his feet.

"Who?"

"Don't know."

The screen flickered.

An old address had just attempted to access the Phoenix file.

Only for three seconds.

Then disappeared.

But it was too late.

Niko had recorded it.

He enlarged the data.

Then his expression changed.

"No way."

"What?"

Niko swallowed hard.

"This signal..."

"...it came from the suburbs."

Raven frowned.

"Which suburb?"

Niko looked at her.

His eyes was full of disbelief.

"The old property."

"Your mother's house."

Nobody said another word.

Outside the glass window.

The sky was beginning to brighten.

A new day was coming.

But for the first time in weeks.

Raven was not thinking about the Council.

Not thinking about Severance.

Not thinking about the investigation.

She was only thinking about one question.
One question only.

If someone had just accessed the file from a house that burned down years ago...

Then who was there?

04:02 AM.

A strange message appeared on the screen.

No sender address.

Only one sentence: "DO NOT GO TO THE SUBURBS ALONE."

Then.

A second line appeared.

Making the blood in Raven's body almost freeze.

"YOUR MOTHER DID NOT DIE IN THE FIRE."