Chapter 16 - THE OTHERS WHO WOKE UP
For three seconds, nobody spoke.
Victor Kane’s face remained frozen on the screen.
Not confident.
Not calm.
Afraid.
That was the first thing that told me something had changed.
Victor Kane did not fear anyone.
Not police.
Not governments.
Not consequences.
But whoever he was talking about…
He feared them.
I stepped closer to the screen.
“Who are the others?”
Victor looked directly at me.
“James, listen carefully.”
The urgency in his voice felt wrong.
Almost impossible.
“Leave the building.”
I almost laughed.
“Now you care if I survive?”
His expression hardened.
“You still don’t understand.”
A pause.
“The first experiments were never the dangerous ones.”
The screen flickered.
Then another video appeared.
A list.
Hundreds of names.
Subjects.
Locations.
Dates.
My eyes moved across the screen.
Doctors.
Police officers.
Judges.
Military officials.
People in positions of power.
People who had been carefully placed into society.
Not criminals.
Not monsters.
Something worse.
Hidden weapons.
Captain Hayes stood beside me.
His face was pale.
“How many?”
Victor answered:
“Enough to change the world.”
The screen went black.
The interrogation room door suddenly opened.
An officer rushed inside.
“Captain, we have a situation.”
Hayes turned.
“What happened?”
The officer looked nervous.
“Three precincts lost communication.”
“Every camera went offline.”
“Every system was locked.”
My stomach tightened.
Someone had taken control.
Not hacked.
Controlled.
Because this wasn’t about computers.
It was about people.
I looked at Hayes.
“The others.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
For years, Victor Kane created monsters.
But monsters could be hunted.
These people were different.
They looked normal.
They acted normal.
They had families.
Jobs.
Respect.
Nobody would suspect them.
My phone vibrated.
One message.
Unknown number.
“You spent your whole life finding killers.”
Another appeared.
“Now find the ones who never killed.”
I stared at the screen.
Then a third message appeared.
A photograph.
A man standing outside my childhood home.
My father.
The date was yesterday.
Impossible.
Because my father had been with me.
I looked up.
“He’s not the only one.”
Hayes looked confused.
“What?”
I showed him the picture.
His face changed.
Because he recognized the person standing beside my father.
A man who should have been dead.
A man from the original Project Mirror files.
Subject Two.
The first successful experiment.
Hayes whispered:
“Oh God.”
I looked at him.
“Who is he?”
Hayes swallowed.
“Someone who was never supposed to wake up.”
The lights went out.
The entire station went dark.
Then every phone in the building received the same message.
May you like
One sentence.
“THE HUNT HAS CHANGED.”
