Chapter 22: The Citadel Files
The wind outside the Citadel screamed like a warning, but Sierra didn't hesitate. The steel doors groaned as Knox forced them open, revealing a corridor bathed in cold blue light. Everything about this place felt clinical—sterile floors, silent walls, the hum of unseen machines.
But Sierra felt the tension behind it. The stillness wasn't peace—it was a trap holding its breath.
Knox checked the scanner on his wrist. "Main archive room is three levels down. Whatever's left of the Protocol's brain... it'll be there."
Sierra nodded, her pulse steady. "Then let's cut off the head."
They moved fast, their boots echoing down the corridor. Security cameras tracked them, but none moved to stop them. No alarms. No drones.
That was the first red flag.
"They're letting us in," Knox muttered. "Which means either they're cocky... or waiting for something."
Sierra's voice was calm. "Then let them wait."
They descended into the heart of the Citadel. The deeper they went, the more surreal it became. Glass walls lined the halls—behind them, rows of cryo-pods filled with sleeping test subjects. Men and women. Some children. All wired, monitored.
Like her.
Sierra froze at one of the pods. A young woman inside—same age, same build. Her hair was buzzed. Electrodes on her temple. And on her wrist, the same scar Sierra had.
Knox joined her. "They cloned the neural blueprint."
She looked at him. "They were trying to replicate me."
"No," he said quietly. "They were trying to perfect you."
Sierra clenched her fists and moved on.
The archive room was at the core—a vault with a biometric lock. Knox stepped forward, scanning his eye. The door slid open with a hiss.
Inside, the room glowed with a wall of servers, cables coiling like veins through the floor. At the center sat a sleek control panel with a single monitor.
Sierra stepped up.
On the screen, a prompt appeared:
> WELCOME BACK, SIERRA
Her breath caught.
A soft voice came from the speaker—calm, female, mechanical.
"Subject Starlight. Integration at 73%. Memory stabilization holding. Emotional resistance: elevated. Shall we continue conditioning?"
Sierra stared at the screen. "No. We're done."
The voice paused. "Override denied. Protocol cannot be terminated by primary host."
Knox cursed and yanked open the terminal panel, typing furiously.
Sierra stepped back, breathing hard. They had planned for this. Locked her out of herself.
But the screen changed.
A new file appeared. Labeled:
[AUTHORIZATION: ORION_01]
Knox froze. "This isn't just data. It's a signature."
Sierra moved closer. "Whose?"
He pulled up the file.
A name appeared.
One Sierra recognized instantly.
Her mentor.
Her handler.
The one person she'd trusted when her mind was in pieces.
Dr. Elena Ward.
Knox looked at her. "She's the one who greenlit your build. The one who signed off on your code name."
Sierra's voice cracked. "She said she saved me."
Knox's jaw tightened. "She programmed you."
The screen flickered.
Then it changed again—to a live feed.
A woman's face appeared. Sharp eyes. Pale skin. And the kind of calm that made the world feel like it was breaking quietly.
"Hello, Sierra," Elena said, smiling.