The USB Secret

The dorm room buzzed with the hum of Elena's laptop, its screen casting a ghostly blue glow over stacks of coffee cups and half eaten takeout. Noah sat cross legged on the floor, wires and gadgets sprawled around him like a tech graveyard. Elena paced, clutching the USB drive like it was a live grenade.

"You sure this isn't another decoy?" she asked, eyeing the drive.

Noah plugged it into a black box studded with blinking LEDs. "Military grade encryptor. If there's a trap, it'll fry the drive, not us."

"Comforting." Elena said

The decryptor whirred. Elena chewed her thumbnail, imagining a thousand worst case scenarios: blueprints for her murder, footage of her clone, Serena's laugh echoing through corrupted files.

Noah's screen lit up. ACCESS GRANTED.

"Got it," he said, voice tight.

Elena leaned over his shoulder. Folders labeled SUBJECT 34-C, CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER, and OPERATION ECHO filled the screen. She clicked on a video log dated two weeks earlier.

Video Log #127:

A sterile lab filled the screen. Richard Hart stood beside a glass pod, his reflection warped in the curved surface. Inside floated a girl, Elena's mirror image, eyes closed, chest rising in artificial rhythm.

"Phase Three is ahead of schedule," Richard said, adjusting his tie. "Once the consciousness transfer is complete, Subject 34-C will replace Elena. She will be more compliant and more... manageable."

A voice off camera, Adrian's father snarled, "And if she resists?"

Richard's smile chilled Elena's blood. "We terminate the original."

The screen went black.

Noah gripped Elena's chair. "They are not just cloning you. They are erasing you."

Elena's hands trembled. She opened another file: emails between Richard and Adrian's father debating "liquidation protocols" and "public cover stories." One line glared back:

Richard Hart: Ensure the clone's activation coincides with the event. Elena's disappearance must look accidental.

"The gala... That's in three days," she whispered.

Noah stood abruptly, kicking a pizza box. "We are blowing this wide open. Now."

"And get shot for trespassing? Again?" Elena pulled up a map of Voss Biotech. "We need proof, something undeniable."

Her phone buzzed. A text from Adrian:

Adrian Voss: Heard you are digging graves. Need a shovel?

She showed Noah. "Think he is serious?"

"Think he is ever serious?"

They worked through the night, parsing spreadsheets and medical reports. At dawn, Elena found a folder named WHISTLEBLOWER. Inside, a single audio file:

CLARA HART: "Richard, stop this! She's our daughter, not an experiment!"

RICHARD HART: "You're sentimental. Project Echo will save her."

CLARA: "By killing her soul? I won't let you"

A crash. A scream. Static.

Elena played it again. And again.

"He knew," she said hollowly. "He knew Mom tried to stop him."

Noah placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll make him pay."

Serena struck at noon.

Elena returned from the cafeteria to find her laptop screen cracked, the decryptor smashed. Noah laid on the floor, clutching his bleeding forehead.

"Noah!" She knelt, shaking him.

"Ambushed... two guys..." He winced. "They took the USB."

"But the files.."

"Cloud backup," he mumbled. "Your mom's old server... password 'songbird'..."

Elena logged in frantically. The files were intact. Relief flooded her until a new email popped up:

From: Serena Cole

Subject: Nice Try

Attached was a selfie of Serena smirking in front of Elena's vandalized dorm.

Message: Cute security system. Your puppy needs a leash.

Adrian arrived uninvited, leaning in the doorway with a smirk. "Heard you are collecting enemies like Pokémon."

Elena blocked his path. "You are not helping."

He tossed her a new USB. "Decryption key. Father's birthday."

She eyed it suspiciously. "Why?"

"Let's call it... inherited guilt." His smirk faded. "And because watching you die once was enough."

Noah staggered up, glaring. "Get out."

Adrian raised his hands. "Message delivered. But ask yourself, Hart who's the bigger threat? The clone, or the puppeteers?"

He left, the question hanging like smoke.

By midnight, they had cracked the final files. Elena's clone was housed in a Voss Biotech sublab beneath the city. Activation required a DNA trigger, her DNA.

"They need you to finalize the transfer," Noah realized.

Elena grinned, sharp and dangerous. "Then let's give them a show."