Chapter 75: The Brother Who Didn't Remember

"Victor's down!"

Arthur's voice exploded through the earpiece.

For one terrifying second, nobody moved.

"Arthur!" I shouted.

"Is he alive?"

Only gunfire answered.

The connection dissolved into static before Arthur's voice returned.

"He's breathing!"

"But Elias shot him!"

My heart stopped.

"No..." Victor's father whispered weakly from the transport chamber.

"He... didn't..."

"What?" Damien asked.

The old man's trembling hand grabbed Damien's sleeve.

"Watch... carefully..."

"He never... misses..."

Damien froze.

Professional shooters rarely wounded.

If Elias had fired...

...then Victor should have been dead.

"He shot to miss," Damien whispered.

"Exactly," the old man breathed.

"He still... remembers..."

Arthur's voice returned.

"I need help!"

"They're surrounding us!"

Damien looked at me.

"Stay with him."

"I'm going."

"No," I answered.

"We go together."

"If they capture either of us, we've already lost."

Damien nodded.

Together we pushed the transport chamber behind a stack of freight containers.

Victor's father remained hidden from view.

"Don't leave... the journal..." he whispered again.

"Which journal?" I asked.

"The... black... ledger..."

"Hidden... inside... the locomotive..."

His eyes closed once more.

"He's unconscious again," Damien said.

"We'll come back."

We sprinted toward Platform Seven.

The sound of automatic weapons echoed through the abandoned station.

Arthur crouched behind a concrete pillar, firing controlled shots.

Victor lay several metres away.

Blood stained his shoulder.

Not his chest.

Alive.

Elias stood on the opposite side of the tracks.

A rifle rested calmly in his hands.

Half a dozen Raven operatives surrounded him.

Yet something felt wrong.

He wasn't aiming at us.

He was aiming at his own people.

"Lower your weapons," one operative shouted.

"Asset Ash-Twelve, that's an order!"

Elias never moved.

"Lower your weapons," the man repeated.

"Negative," Elias answered quietly.

The single word stunned everyone.

Arthur looked at me.

"Did he just refuse an order?"

Before anyone reacted, another Raven operative fired.

Elias turned with impossible speed.

One shot.

The attacker collapsed instantly.

Chaos erupted.

"He's gone rogue!" someone screamed.

"Terminate him!"

Bullets tore across the platform.

Elias dove behind a signal post.

Instead of firing at us...

...he fired only at Raven.

"Nathaniel was right," Damien whispered.

"Part of him survived."

Victor slowly pushed himself upright despite the pain.

"Ash..." he called.

The name echoed across the station.

Everything stopped.

Elias remained perfectly still.

His rifle slowly lowered.

He turned his head.

His eyes searched the darkness.

"Ash," Victor repeated.

"It's me."

"Vic."

For several long seconds nothing happened.

Then Elias whispered one word.

"...Vic?"

Victor smiled through the pain.

"Yeah."

"I'm still here."

A flicker crossed Elias' face.

Confusion.

Recognition.

Pain.

He pressed one hand against his temple.

"No..." he muttered.

"Stop..."

"They're lying..."

"You're my brother," Victor said softly.

"Come home."

Elias staggered backwards.

"I don't... have..."

"A home..."

Suddenly every floodlight surrounding Blackridge switched on.

The station became as bright as daylight.

A calm voice echoed through hidden loudspeakers.

"Touching."

"Truly touching."

Everyone instinctively looked around.

The voice continued.

"Twenty-six years of conditioning..."

"Undone by a childhood nickname."

"Nathaniel Carter was even more dangerous than I expected."

Victor's expression darkened.

"Founder," he whispered.

"No," the voice replied.

"Not yet."

"Think of me as... his teacher."

A hidden elevator opened beneath the station master's office.

An elderly man stepped into the light.

Perfectly tailored black suit.

Silver hair.

Walking cane.

He looked more like a university professor than the architect of a criminal empire.

He smiled warmly at Victor.

"We've never met properly."

"My name is Professor Adrian Falk."

"I taught Nathaniel."

"I recruited Richard Ashford."

"And..."

His eyes settled on Elias.

"I created Raven."