Lara stared at the label on the folder:
"SUBJECT ECHO — ACTIVE."
She looked up at Juliette. "What is this?"
Juliette didn't answer immediately. "Just open it."
Lara slid the folder open. Inside — photographs, pages of dense symbols, notes written in shorthand she didn't recognize. One photograph made her pause: a top-down aerial view of a street — her street. Her apartment window marked with red ink.
She frowned. "They were watching me?"
"Not just watching," Juliette replied. "Tracking."
Kaven moved beside her, scanning the pages with a tight jaw. "And this started before she ever found the bug in the wall?"
Juliette nodded. "Weeks before. Maybe months."
Lara turned to a handwritten page. Two words were circled repeatedly in black ink:
"PATTERN LOOP"
"ECHO CYCLE"
"What does this mean?" she asked.
"It means you're part of a pattern," Juliette said. "One that's still running."
Lara's voice sharpened. "I'm not an agent, Juliette. I didn't sign up for any of this."
Juliette didn't argue. "That's why you're still alive."
Silence fell in the room. The ticking of the old clock on the wall suddenly felt loud.
Kaven spoke carefully. "You think Lara was placed into some kind of simulation?"
"Not placed," Juliette corrected. "Born into it."
Lara blinked. "What?"
"Your mother tried to shut down part of the early Resonance program. But not before some things were already set in motion."
Lara's voice dropped. "Like what?"
"Behavioral triggers. Memory sequences. Personality mapping." Juliette looked at her closely. "You ever feel like your life follows the same beats? Same arguments, same fears, same outcomes?"
Lara didn't answer.
Juliette gestured to the folder. "Subject Echo is not just surveillance. It's a loop. You're the control variable they keep testing."
Kaven muttered, "This is insane."
Juliette's expression remained calm. "Is it? Look where you are."
Lara flipped to the last page. There was a timestamp — today's date — and a line underneath:
"SUBJECT ECHO: STATUS — UNSTABLE"
Her fingers curled around the edge of the paper.
"What does unstable mean?" she asked.
Juliette's reply was quiet.
"It means they've lost control of you."
Lara stared at the folder in her lap. For the first time, she didn't feel watched.
She felt targeted.
---
End of Chapter 17