Chapter 6: Project Eleven

  Victor didn’t sleep.

  Not because he couldn’t.

  Because sleep was for people who weren’t being hunted by ghosts in suits.

  Selene sat across from him in the safehouse, legs crossed, eyes locked on the screen as lines of encrypted data unraveled.

  The flash drive had teeth. Triple-layered encryption, military-grade barriers, and a self-wipe sequence triggered by incorrect access.

  But Victor didn’t guess.

  He knew.

  Thirty minutes in, the last barrier fell.

  The screen flickered—and then filled with files. Unmarked, untagged. Just timestamps and redacted labels.

  Selene leaned in. “Is this…?”

  “Project Eleven,” Victor said quietly.

  They clicked the first file.

  A video.

  > Subject 11: Initial Extraction

  Timestamp: 04:17 A.M.

  Location: UNKNOWN

  A sterile room. Bright lights. A girl—barely conscious—strapped to a table. Electrodes taped to her temples. Her face was younger, bruised. Her eyes fluttered, half-open, locked on the camera.

  A voice behind it:

  “She survived dosage three. Increase to four. Let’s see how deep this one goes.”

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  Screaming.

  Static.

  End.

  Selene looked away.

  Victor didn’t blink.

  “I don’t remember any of this,” Selene whispered.

  Victor tilted his head. “You said they tried to erase you.”

  She nodded. “They scrubbed everything. My name, my records, even my memory. I woke up three years ago in a hospital with someone else’s ID. I ran. I started digging. That’s when I found Elias.”

  “And now he’s gone.”

  She nodded again, this time slower. Guilt flickered in her expression. But beneath it—

  Rage.

  Victor understood that language.

  He clicked the next file. Text only.

  PROJECT XI – PRIMARY GOALS

  > Weaponization of trauma-exposed subjects.

  Isolation-induced loyalty conditioning.

  Implant testing (subconscious triggers / behavioral overrides).

  Cleaner Observation Units: “Track subjects via erased scenes.”

  Do not engage Victor. Subject designated as uncontrolled variable. Not a candidate. Too volatile.

  Recommend observe only.

  Selene stared. “They knew about you. And still watched you clean scenes.”

  Victor’s voice was ice. “Because I wasn’t one of theirs. But I got too close.”

  “You think they used me to test you?”

  “I think they used everyone.”

  He closed the file.

  Then clicked the last one.

  A list.

  Subjects:

  > 01 — Terminated

  02 — Terminated

  03 — Lost

  04 — Terminated

  05 — Deceased

  06 — Incarcerated

  07 — Terminated

  08 — Terminated

  09 — Escaped

  10 — Terminated

  11 — Unknown

  12 — V.

  Victor’s breath caught.

  Selene looked at him. “You?”

  But Victor shook his head.

  “No. I was never numbered.”

  He scrolled down.

  At the very bottom:

  > 12 — V.

  Result: Failure to convert.

  Status: Untraceable.

  Potential: Catastrophic.

  He leaned back.

  They tried to number him.

  Tried to convert him into one of their toys.

  But he broke the mold.

  And now, they’d marked him as the final threat.

  Selene whispered, “You were never one of them.”

  “No,” Victor said. “I was the one they couldn’t control.”

  He stood and pulled out his black notebook. Scribbled across a blank page:

  PROJECT XI — TERMINATION LIST

  He handed it to her.

  “Pick a name.”

  Selene took the pen.

  No hesitation.

  She wrote: Director Vale.

  Victor smiled.

  He’d heard the name in whispers.

  The architect of XI.

  The one who thought no one would ever come knocking.

  He leaned closer.

  “Then let’s knock.”

  ---

  Outside, the rain began again.

  But this time, it didn’t wash away the blood.

  It whispered war.