Read Shadow in Silk :: Chapter 11 -- Echoes of Deception

The wind was still biting when Ash, Reina, and Kade reached the temporary safe house—an abandoned ranger station at the edge of the mountain pass. It was the only shelter in a hundred miles, creaking under the weight of snow and time. Smoke curled from the chimney as Kade lit a fire, while Reina tended to a cut on her arm.

Ash sat by the window, his coat still dusted with frost. His fingers moved slowly over a cracked photograph he had pulled from the vault—an image from the past. It showed five children standing in front of a metal door, faces half-smiling, half-scared. One of them was him. The other was Solomon. And the rest? Names forgotten by time, maybe buried beneath it.

“You knew what we’d find there, didn’t you?” Reina said, breaking the silence.

Ash didn’t look up. “Not exactly. But I had an idea.”

Kade leaned against the table. “What was that kid? The one in the pod?”

Ash placed the photo down. “A prototype. Project Silkshadow was about creating emotionless agents—spies who didn’t need orders. They were designed to listen to frequencies, follow voices only they could hear. Controlled minds. Controlled hearts.”

Reina’s voice hardened. “And you were one of them?”

“No. I was the failure.”

A heavy silence settled over them. Outside, the storm intensified.

But inside, Ash was already thinking three steps ahead. Solomon had made a move, and that meant the next strike was inevitable.

They had to beat him to it.

By morning, they were already packed. Ash knew where Solomon would go next: a place only the oldest files even whispered about. Not a lab or a vault—but a person.

The Archivist.

The name alone was enough to make Ash’s blood chill. The Archivist was a myth among spies—a keeper of dead missions, lost protocols, and erased identities. Nobody knew what they looked like. Nobody even knew if they were real.

But Ash did.

He had met the Archivist once—during a night that had nearly killed him.

As their transport moved over the snowy terrain, Reina asked the question they’d all been avoiding.

“What happens if Solomon finds the Archivist first?”

Ash didn’t answer immediately.

“He won’t. Because I’m going to stop him.”

They arrived at the city of Narasen under new identities. Kade posed as a tech engineer, Reina as an ambassador’s aide. Ash became a ghost again, slipping between corners of the city like smoke.

Narasen was alive with markets, spiraling towers, and blinking surveillance drones. Beneath the surface, however, ran an invisible network of operatives—many of whom owed Ash favors. Old debts. Old secrets.

He met one of them near a burned-out cathedral—an ex-operative named Mira who now sold data on the black market. She wore a scar across her jaw and sunglasses at night.

“I should shoot you for showing your face,” she said.

“I’ll take that as a warm welcome,” Ash replied.

“You want information on the Archivist? That’s suicide.”

“Then I brought the right flowers.”

He handed her a sealed envelope. Mira opened it. Inside was a photo of a man she thought dead—a former agent, her brother.

“You found him?” she whispered.

“I found where he died. I thought you’d want closure.”

Mira’s lips tightened. “Come to the docks at midnight. Don’t bring anyone. And come armed.”

At midnight, Ash waited under the pier, coat soaked in saltwater. Mira arrived with two shadows behind her.

“They work for me now,” she said. “You’re lucky I’m sentimental.”

She passed him a metal data key.

“Coordinates. Last known location of the Archivist. And a warning—Solomon was here two nights ago. He asked the same question.”

Ash closed his fist around the key.

That meant Solomon was ahead.

The new location was deep in the Wraith Barrens—an ungoverned region known for rogue networks and failed experiments. Getting there meant abandoning safety. But Ash didn’t hesitate.

They flew out in a stolen cargo drone, low and silent. The Barrens appeared as a mess of rusted towers, fog, and forgotten labs. Everything stank of old betrayal.

Inside an underground ruin, they found it: a library built of steel and glass, completely intact.

The Archivist sat inside, surrounded by data cubes, their face hidden beneath a smooth silver mask.

“You’re late,” the Archivist said, without turning.

“I didn’t know we had an appointment,” Ash replied.

Reina and Kade stood by, weapons lowered but ready.

The Archivist stood, gloved hands folded. “Solomon has already asked his questions. Now it’s your turn.”

Ash stepped forward. “Tell me how to stop him.”

“There is no stopping him. Only delaying. He seeks the Seed Protocol.”

Ash’s breath caught. The Seed Protocol was a legend among legends—a system that could overwrite human memories and implant perfect obedience. It had been banned, buried, and broken.

Or so Ash thought.

“Where is it?” he asked.

The Archivist tapped a data cube. “Where it was always kept. The roots of the Silkshadow Project. Not in files. But in a mind.”

Ash frowned. “What do you mean?”

The Archivist slowly turned.

“In your mind, Ash. You were the final key.”

His heart stopped.

“What are you talking about?”

“Project Silkshadow didn’t fail. It worked. But only once. On you. You were programmed to forget. Until the protocol activated.”

Reina stepped back, stunned. Kade’s hand moved to his gun.

Ash felt cold. He stumbled, flashes of the past blinding him—metal walls, pain, voices, tests.

“Why don’t I remember?” he whispered.