**Chapter 5: Echoes of the Past**
**The Underground Bunker — 4:45 AM**
The holographic code of Project Echo pulsed like a neon heartbeat, casting jagged shadows across Clifford's face. Tania stared at him, the hum of servers filling the silence. *He funded their research. He knew my parents.* The truth lodged in her throat like glass.
"You never thought to tell me?" she said, her voice brittle.
Clifford's gaze didn't waver. "Crowe had eyes everywhere. The more you knew, the more danger you were in." He tapped the hologram, pulling up a file labeled **Subject Zero**. A teenage Tania smiled in the photo, electrodes snaking from her temples. "Your parents tested Echo on you first. To save you."
"Save me from *what*?"
"The car accident that killed your mother wasn't an accident." He zoomed in on a brain scan, glowing nodes clustered near her hippocampus. "You were diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at sixteen. Echo was their cure—and your lifeline."
Tania's knees buckled. She gripped the terminal. "I don't… remember any of this."
"Because Echo rewired your memories. Buried the trauma." His voice softened. "But it's still in you. The chip's neural network is synced to your bio-signature. That's why Crowe wants you alive."
**Midtown Rooftop — 5:30 AM**
Daniel pressed a bloodied hand to his ribs, crouched behind an HVAC unit. Eleanor's voice hissed through his earpiece: *"Find the bunker, or your niece's next ballet recital will be her last."*
He hurled the device off the roof, shaking. The decoy chip Clifford had tossed glittered in the alley below. A lie. Just like everything else.
**The Bunker — 6:00 AM**
Tania traced the hologram's light, fragments of suppressed memories surfacing—her mother's laugh, the scent of antiseptic, a needle in her arm. "If Echo's in me, why didn't Crowe just kidnap me?"
"Because it needs a kill switch only your father knows," Clifford said. "Crowe's been hunting him for years. The embezzlement charge? A ploy to flush him out." He pulled up a live feed: her father, shackled in a transport van. "Crowe's moving him to a black site. Once he breaks him, you're next."
Tania's fists clenched. "We have to intercept that van."
"No." Clifford gripped her wrist. "We decrypt Echo first. Find the kill switch before Crowe does."
She wrenched free. "He's my *father*!"
A proximity alarm blared. Red lights flooded the bunker.
**Tunnels Beneath Midtown — 6:17 AM**
They fled through rancid water, the clang of boots echoing behind them. Tania clutched the prototype chip, its edges biting her palm. Clifford dragged her into a service elevator, jamming the button.
"Crowe's men," he panted. "They're herding us toward the surface."
The doors opened to a derelict subway platform. Daniel stood in the shadows, pistol raised.
"Don't," Tania breathed.
"I'm not here for the chip," he said, tossing the gun. "Eleanor's tracking you. The van's route goes through the Financial District. Ten minutes."
Clifford eyed him. "Why switch sides now?"
Daniel looked at Tania. "Because I remember who you were before all this. The girl who fought for everyone but herself."
**Financial District — 6:48 AM**
The armored van careened around a corner, SWAT escorts in tow. Tania crouched on a fire escape, Echo's chip wired into her phone. "Ready?"
Clifford nodded, drone remote in hand. "On three."
The drone slammed into the lead escort, a fiery distraction. Tania leapt onto the van's roof, clawing at the hatch. Inside, her father mouthed her name.
A bullet grazed her shoulder. She fell, caught by Clifford. "Go!" he shouted, shoving her toward the open hatch.
**The Kill Switch — 7:00 AM**
Tania's fingers flew over the chip's interface, her father's whispers guiding her. "Echo's key is a memory," he rasped. "The day you chose to forget."
The van swerved. Clifford wrestled the wheel as Crowe's men closed in.
Tania closed her eyes—and remembered.
*Her mother's hands, steady despite the tremors. "This will hurt, but it's the only way." A surge of pain, then nothing.*
The chip beeped. **Kill Switch Engaged**.
**Crowe Technologies Tower — 7:07 AM**
Marshall Crowe's screens flatlined. "No," he snarled, as Project Echo's code dissolved into static.
**Rooftop Aftermath — 7:10 AM**
Tania stood over Crowe's limp body, his own pistol in her hand. Clifford's voice echoed behind her: "You don't have to do this."
"Yes," she said, cold as the wind. "I do."
The shot echoed.
**End of Chapter 5**