Chapter 40 THEY ARE ALREADY HERE

Chapter 40 THEY ARE ALREADY HERE
CHAPTER 41 – THEY ARE ALREADY HERE

The sound of engines grew louder.

Not one and two.

Too many to be coincidence.

Lucas was already moving before anyone else reacted. He grabbed Raven’s wrist and pulled her back from the projector room.

“We are leaving. Right now.”

But Raven didn’t move fast enough. Her eyes were still fixed on the dark screen, like she expected it to turn back on again.

Like she was waiting for her mother to finish the sentence she never got to say.

Kade appeared at the doorway.

“Front road is blocked,” he said. His voice was sharp, controlled, but there was urgency underneath it.

“Two vehicles. Maybe more coming from the side streets.”

Niko was already checking his device, fingers moving fast.

“Signal interference just spiked. Someone is jamming local networks. This is coordinated.”
Lucas cursed under his breath.

“So it wasn’t an invitation,” he muttered. “It was containment.”

Raven finally blinked.

Containment.

That word pulled her back a little.she turned her head slowly.

“You mean… they waited for us to come here.”

Niko didn’t answer directly.

But his silence was enough,Outside, the engines stopped.

That was worse. Because it meant they were already in position.

Kade moved toward the front window and peeked through the blinds. His expression changed immediately.

“Black vans,” he said. “No markings.”

Lucas tightened his jaw.

“Government?”

“Worse,” Kade replied. “No identification at all.”
A moment of silence passed, heavy and suffocating.

Then...a loud metallic sound.

Something hit the gate outside.

Not an accident.A breach test.

Lucas looked at Raven.

“This house is compromised. We need to go out the back.”

Raven didn’t move, instead, she spoke quietly.

“She was here.”

Lucas turned sharply.

“What?”

Raven stepped closer to the center of the room, as if the chaos outside had become irrelevant for a second.

“My mother,” she said. “She was here after the fire.”

Niko frowned.

“That’s not possible. If she survived, she would have been...”

“I remember something,” Raven interrupted.

Her voice was low. Strained. Like she was pulling something out of a place that didn’t want to give it back.

“I remember waking up in a different room… not hospital… not home…”

Her fingers pressed against her temple.

“There was a voice. Telling me to forget the fire.”
Lucas stared at her.

“You never told anyone this.”

“I didn’t remember it until now,” she whispered.
The house creaked.

Somewhere outside, a second impact hit the gate.

Harder this time.

“They’re forcing entry.”

Niko’s eyes widened slightly.

“Wait…”

He looked at his screen again.

“There’s something else.”

Lucas snapped. “Now is not the time, Niko!”

But Niko didn’t stop.

“Inside this house… there’s a hidden system still active.”

Raven turned toward him immediately.

“What kind of system?”

“Memory sync node.”

The room went still. Even Lucas stopped moving.

“That doesn’t exist,” Lucas said slowly.

“It shouldn’t,” Niko replied. “But it does.”
Another loud bang from outside.

Wood cracking somewhere in the structure.
Kade looked at them.

“We have less than a minute.”

“Where is it?”

“Below us.”

Lucas shook his head immediately.

“No. Absolutely not. We are not going deeper into a trap.”

But Raven was already moving. She walked straight to the floor near the projector room.
And then she knelt down.

Her fingers pressed against the wooden surface.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then. A soft click.

Lucas stared.

“No way…”

A seam in the floor shifted andhidden panel slowly unlocked.

Kade’s voice dropped.

“That was biometric.”

Raven didn’t respond.she just stared at the opening as if she had expected it all along.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.

Cold air rose from below.

Like something still running.

“This is exactly what they want.”

Raven looked at him.

“And what if this is what she left for me?”

That hesitation cost him control of the moment.
Because Raven stepped forward and began descending.

The basement was not a basement.
It was a facility.

Clean walls. Soft white lighting that flickered slightly, like it had been waiting too long to be used again.

Every step Raven took felt louder than it should have.

Behind her, Lucas followed reluctantly, then Kade, then Niko last, still scanning everything like his mind refused to accept what his eyes were seeing.

“This is impossible,” Niko muttered. “There are no construction records, no energy usage logs, nothing.”

Lucas exhaled sharply.

“Welcome to the part of the system that doesn’t exist on paper.”

They reached a long corridor.

Doors lined both sides.

Each one labeled with codes instead of names.
PHX-01 PHX-02 PHX-03 Raven stopped in front of one.

Her hand hovered
.
Lucas noticed.

“Don’t touch anything.”

But she already did.

The door unlocked instantly.

Too easily.

Inside was a single chair, And a neural interface device.

Straps still intact.

Recently used.

Kade stepped in carefully.

“This wasn’t abandoned,” he said quietly. “This was… paused.”

Niko moved closer to the interface.
Then froze.

“There’s a log,” he whispered.

“Read it.”

Niko swallowed.

“Last active session…”

He paused.

His eyes narrowed.

“Timestamp… 03:58 AM.”

“That’s… today.”

“No,” she said softly. “That’s not possible.”

But Niko continued.

“User ID…”

“What is it?” Lucas asked sharply.

“It’s locked to Raven Voss.”

Silence.

A deep, heavy silence that felt like the room itself had stopped breathing.

Lucas turned toward Raven.

“No,” he said immediately. “You were asleep. You were with us the entire time.”

Raven stared at the machine.

Her voice came out barely audible.
“…Was I?”

The lights flickered.

Once.

Twice. And then every screen in the room turned on at the same time.

A single message appeared across all displays.
WELCOME BACK, RAVEN VOSS
Then another line followed immediately.

MEMORY SYNCHRONIZATION IN PROGRESS
Lucas stepped back.

“No… no no no...”

Kade reached for the exit.

But the door behind them had already locked.
Niko tried overriding the system.

“It’s overriding me back!”

The room began to hum.

Low frequency.like something waking up.
Raven stood completely still, and for the first time, she whispered something that no one expected.

“I think I’ve been here before.”

The lights went out. And in the darkness
A voice echoed through the system.

Not Evelyn’s.

Close.

“Good.”

“You finally found yourself.”