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Chapter Twenty Two: Not Yours To Keep

Author: Lulu Moon
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-18 04:16:30

The plane landed on an abandoned airstrip near the northern Estonian coast, the wind ripping sideways through the pines. It was nearly midnight. The cold was relentless, and the trees whispered like they were holding secrets.

Ava stepped onto the tarmac with Luca behind her, Subject 03 flanking the opposite side. No one spoke.

The coordinates pulsed faintly from her tablet close. Within half a kilometer. Moving.

Whoever the girl was, she wasn’t hiding in place.

She was running.

And not from them.

The drive inland was short. A rough, tree-lined road that ended near a collapsed observation tower and what looked like the burned-out remains of a research trailer. Subject 03 scanned the perimeter before Ava even opened the door.

“She passed through here,” 03 said.

“Alone?”

“No,” she added. “But she left alone.”

Ava stepped into the half-ruined structure, flashlight cutting through the dust and silence.

That’s when she saw it scratched into the concrete wall near what used to be a comms rac
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