There was the look at Linda by Ethan, as if she knew more than she was going to tell. Sophia's smile was all fake and her eyes betrayed there was desperation.

"What do you want?" Ethan barked at Linda right away.

"I want to assist you," Linda said, frowning. "You are not safe, Ethan. You have no idea what is happening."

Sophia moved in and began to speak with a rise in pitch. "Don't listen to her, Ethan. She's upset."

Ethan hovered between the two women, not knowing whom to believe. But Linda's words made sense. Something was wrong.

"I need some answers," Ethan said firmly. "What do you know about me?"

Linda's face was serious. "Let's go elsewhere. Too dangerous here."

As she turned away, a kind of fear struck Sophia's face. Ethan followed Linda. He did not know what to do with her, maybe she was trustworthy or not.

While walking, Ethan sensed an eye that was hidden behind an unclear side. His intuition whispered to him something. "I think we're being watched," he softly told Linda.

Linda's expression became even tighter. "We have to leave here now.

Ethan stayed pace with Linda as she moved down the hospital corridors. They hit a corner, and Linda opened the door to a small office. "In here." She entered and closed the door behind her, standing in front of Ethan. "Sophia is not what she seems," she warned. "She's manipulating you for her own purpose."

Ethan's eyes tightened. "What do you know about her?"

She hesitated and then leaned against her bag, pulling out the folder. "This has information about the family of Sophia and how she is related to them." But please, Ethan, be careful. You are not safe here."

Ethan took the folder, flipping through the pages. The files reported that Sophia's family had ties to a vast business empire. He experienced a hundred things quickly-shock, anger and suspicion.

Suddenly Barbara made a dash for the door as she came up and Linda's eyes rested on the doorknob, furrowing her face. "Someone's coming."

Ethan's heart beat went into a very rapid rhythm. "Who?"

Linda panted nearly under a sigh, "I don't know, but we have to be quiet."

The steps led directly outside. Ethan held his breath, his muscles tight, waiting. There should be a corner any moment now. Quiet would be his death, though.

They vanished. Linda sighed, relieved. "Let's get out of here. We don't want to stay in one place for too long anymore."

Ethan nodded and his mind was fully loaded with questions.

The doorknob turned with a loud, hard sound. Ethan and Linda glanced at each other. He could see his own fear reflected in her eyes. The figure outside tried the knob again, harder. The lock kept the door closed.

A deep voice said something from the hallway. The words couldn't be heard. Then heavy steps walked away. The sound became softer and softer.

Linda breathed out, her body relaxing a little. "That was close," she breathed.

"Who was that?" Ethan breathed, his voice low. "Was it Sophia?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe it is someone who works for her." She pressed her ear against the door to hear. "We need to go. They will be back."

Ethan glared at the folder in his hand. It felt heavy with secrets. "I need to know. Now. What's in this folder? Why is Sophia's family so important?"

Linda pointed to the documents. "Look at the names. Her father, her uncles. They're a very powerful company. A business empire."

"I see the names," Ethan frowned. "But what is this all about me? Why am I at risk?"

"Because you know things, Ethan. Things you don't even recall knowing."

"What does that mean? What don't I remember?"

Linda spoke with a low, insistent tone. "Before you were in the accident, you were researching their company. You were asking questions. You discovered something they do not wish to be known."

"What accident?" Ethan interjected, his head starting to pound. "I do not remember any accident."

"That's the thing!" Linda said, her eyes wide with fear. "They did something to you, Ethan. They made you forget. Sophia is here to watch over you. To see that you never remember."

Ethan's head reeled. It was more than he could process. "That's crazy. How do you know all this?"

"Because you were my partner," Linda spoke softly. "We constructed this case together. When you 'accidented' yourself, I knew it was staged. I've been in seclusion, waiting for the right moment to speak with you."

Ethan's mind reeled. He tried to remember a recollection, any recollection, of working alongside Linda. There was nothing. A void. "I don't recall you," he snarled, his tone gruff.

"I know you don't. But you have to believe me. That guy who just stood at the door. if he is what I think he is, then he is very dangerous. His name is Marcus. He works for Sophia's dad. He handles their problems."

"And I'm a problem?" Ethan asked.

"Yes," Linda said bluntly.

Then another noise. A muffled beep, and the rough-sounding voice on a walkie-talkie down the hallway. ".check south offices. He's got to be around here somewhere."

Linda's body went cold. "That's security. Marcus must have summoned them. We are out of time."

"What do we do?" Ethan asked, his senses reeling.

"We go," said Linda. "There is a service elevator down the next hall. It will take us down to the loading dock. I have a car picked up and waiting nearby."

"And then?"

"Then I take you where it is safe. Where we can talk and I can show you that what I'm saying is true. But we have to leave now."

Ethan looked from Linda's entreating face to the folder in his hand. He did not know whether he could trust her. But he knew that he could no longer trust Sophia. The footsteps outside had decided for him.

"Okay," he announced, making a decision. "Let's go."

What else did Linda know?

Who was behind the footsteps?

After Linda led Ethan out of that office one way or another, Ethan was prepared to face whatever lay ahead.

"We can't stay here," Linda whispered. She looked down the empty hospital hallway.

Ethan leaned against the wall. His legs shook. "Who were those guys?"

"Syndicate enforcers. They know you're awake. They know I've got you."

"Why is my blood so important?"

"Not here." Linda tugged at his arm. She was holding on to him tight. "We have to get out. Now."

They hastened. Sterile overhead lights flashed. A door closed behind them. Ethan cringed. His heart thudded against his chest. He caught sight of a memory. A field of combat. Smoke. Same feeling of peril.

"This way," Linda urged her. She pushed open a door that read 'STAIRS.'

They descended. Their footsteps echoed in the concrete stairwell. "My clinic is safe," Linda huffed. "We can rendezvous there."

"Regroup for what? A war I don't recall?"

"Yes."

They went down to the lowest landing. Linda opened the door to the exit a small crack. She looked out into the parking garage. "Clear. Come on."

They proceeded quickly toward an ordinary black van. Lights blazed on. Two enormous SUVs blocked the exit ramp. Doors slammed open. Men in black tactical gear spilled out. They were armed.

Down!" Linda shoved Ethan behind a concrete pillar.

Gunfire rang out. Bullets ricocheted against the pillar.

"They caught up to us," Ethan said, his words strained.

"They were lying in wait," Linda replied. She pulled a tiny pistol from her coat. "You able to fight?"

Ethan looked at his hands. They were trembling. Then he looked at the men who were armed. A chill calm fell over him. "I think so.".

"Good." Linda handed him the pistol. "Cover me. I'll get the van."

"How?"

"Just do it!"

Ethan leaned out and fired two shots. The men ducked for cover. It was all the time Linda needed. She sprinted towards the van.

One of the guards saw her. He raised his rifle. Ethan did not think. He took a steady shot. The man shrieked and fell. Ethan's bullet was straight. A flash of memory. Gun drill. Drill after drill.

Linda reached the van. The motor roared to life. She jammed it into gear and sped towards him. "Get in!

Ethan dove into the passenger seat as she pulled up. Additional bullets clipped off the van's armored paneling. Linda accelerated. The van bulldozed ahead, knocking one of the SUVs out of the way. They took off into the night like a bullet going up the ramp.

Ethan was breathless. He looked at the gun in his hand. "I remembered something. How to use this."

Linda kept her eyes on the road. "It's starting. Your brain's waking up."

"Who were those men?"

"The Syndicate's clean-up crew. Their job is to wipe out issues. Like you."

"And what about you?"

"I'm an issue for them, too."

They rode in silence for a while. City lights whizzed by.

"Where are we going?" Ethan asked.

"To a safe house. Then to my main clinic. We must accelerate your training."

"Training for what?"

Ethan glared at her. The name 'Gad' sounded strange in his ears. It was not his name, yet something in him stirred when she used the name.

"To know how to fight?".

"It's your real name," Linda said, never looking away from the road. "Ethan is what they called you. To keep you hidden."

"Who am I?" he growled, his voice rising in desperation. The gun felt awkward in his lap.

"You are a leader. Or, at least, once you were. You were the leader of a group that rebelled against the Syndicate."

"The Syndicate... is that Sophia's family?"

"Yeah. And others. They're powerful. They control a lot of things in the background."

Ethan couldn't remember. He closed his eyes. He saw visions of faces, people looking at him, waiting for orders. But the memories were like mist. They disappeared every time he tried to hold on to them.

"I don't remember ordering anyone," he said, frustrated.

"You will. The process has begun. Your mind and your body are coming awake."

"What process? What happened to me?"

Linda was quiet for a moment. "They kidnapped you six months ago. They operated on you. It was like a deep brainwashing. They implanted your abilities and your memories. They tried to turn you into a blank slate. They wanted to use you for their purposes."

"Use me for what?"

"Your blood is special, Gad. It holds the secret to the virus."

"Virus? What virus?

"The Syndicate created a disease. They call it the 'Silent Sleep.' It debilitates individuals and makes them easy to manipulate. They plan to release it into the large cities. You possess a natural resistance to it. You can't contract it. They want to study you. In order to find a way of modifying the disease so that even you can't stop it."

Ethan looked out the window at the dark city. All of it, it felt like a crazy dream. But the gunfire in the garage wasn't a dream. The men trying to kill them weren't a dream.

"So now what's the plan?" he asked.

"First, we go to the safe house. It is a flat that is old. It is clean and there is no connection with me. We can stay there for a few hours. Then we go to my main clinic. There, I have equipment. I can assist you in remembering faster.

"How?"

"I can show you things. Pictures, papers. I can use certain sounds and lights to help your brain break through the doors that they construct. It will hurt. It might even hurt bad."

"I don't care about pain," Ethan said. "I do care about being lied to."

Linda smiled. "Well, that's an improvement. You're starting to sound like the man I once knew."

They drove for another twenty minutes. Linda rode black, narrow alleys. She was careful, glancing in the mirrors to see if they were following them.

She stopped the van in front of a worn brick building. The windows were black.

"This is it," she said. "Get the bag from the back. In it is water and food."

Ethan obliged. He followed Linda into the building and up a narrow set of stairs. The apartment was on the third floor. It was modest and plain, with nothing in it but a couch, a table, and one bedroom.

Linda locked the door behind them and put a chain across it.

We are safe for the moment," she replied. "But we can't stay for long. They will be searching everywhere in the city for us."

Ethan put down the bag. "What's next?"

"We eat. We rest. Then, we begin." Linda opened the bag and took out a bottle of water. She gave it to him. "Drink. Your body has gone through a lot."

Ethan took the water. He looked at Linda. For the first time, he saw how tired she was. There was dirt on her face and a tiny cut on her cheek.

"Thank you," he said. "For saving me out of there."

Linda smiled faintly. "You would have done the same to me. You did, once. Now, remember that."

Linda stared at him. Her expression was serious. "For the war you started, Gad. And the one you're going to finish."

Kael's face cracked into a fierce grin. "Aye, sir! They've been anticipating this." He immediately produced a small, locked comms device and began tapping in a coded message.

Ethan faced Linda. "This Ares Project. Where is it?

"We don't know where," Linda admitted. "It's a mobile laboratory. It moves to be avoided. But we do know who runs it. A scientist named Dr. Aris."

"Yes, can we find him?"

"Yes, possibly," Kael said, looking up from his device. "We have some of our old contacts in their supply chain. We can apply pressure. Get them to spill.".

"Good," Ethan answered. His head was clear now, his mind focused on one thing. "We need a plan. We can't just rush in. "

"First, we get you to my main clinic," Linda insisted. "Your body is still recovering. The brainwashing they used is strong. Your memories can be unstable. Your body can turn against you at the wrong moment."

Ethan folded his hand in. He did experience deep tiredness in his bones. "How long will that take?"

"No more than two days. Maybe three. I have to run some tests. I need to know what they did to you."

Kael finished sending his message. "I've sent the message. The old team will start to assemble at the rally point. It's an abandoned warehouse close to the docks. We can meet with them there in three days."

"What about Sophia?" Ethan asked. The name tasted bitter on his lips.

"She will be looking for you," Linda said to him. "She knows you are with me now. She will use all of her family resources to find us."

"Let her look," Ethan said, his voice low. "She thinks I am a lost, confused man. She doesn't know that I am remembering."

We can have that," Kael said. "Let them think that they are still chasing a vulnerable target. It will make them complacent."

"Exactly," Ethan agreed. He looked at the two of them. "We've got three days. Linda, you get me ready. Kael, you deploy our men and gather everything you can on Dr. Aris and where the mobile lab is."

"Weapons?" Kael asked.

"Get the basics. Guns, rifles, armor. Nothing too bulky to begin with. We have to move fast and quietly to start with."

Kael nodded. "As you've commanded, General."

"Don't call me that," Ethan said. "Not yet. To all of them, even your team, I am only 'Ethan.' The less they know, the better. The Syndicate has ears on the street."

A good idea," Linda said. She looked at him, a glint of new respect in her eyes. "The man you used to be is definitely coming back."

""

"He has to," Ethan said. "Or we'll all be dead."

""

Kael's device beeped softly all of a sudden. He read the new message, his face darkening.

""

"Bad news?" Ethan asked.

"The Syndicate is moving faster than we thought," Kael said. "They have guards on all main roads out of the city. They're stopping and questioning cars. They are looking for you two."

AI huhAI Explain:

"Then we won't use the roads," Ethan said matter-of-factly. "Is the old sewer pipe out of the Black Zone still clear?"

Kael was surprised. "You remember the sewers?"

"Yes. It's coming back piecemeal. Is it clear?"

"It should be. We used it for smuggling people out. It comes up near the old river, by your clinic, Linda."

"Perfecto," Linda said. "It's dangerous, but safer than the roads."

"Then it's done," Ethan said. "We take four hours here. Then we exit out the sewers. Kael, you exit separately. Take the rooflines. Get to the rear door of the clinic at dawn."

Kael stood and saluted again, this time with a sharp nod. "It shall be so." He moved soundlessly to the door, looked down the corridor, and was gone.

The room was quiet once more. Ethan eased back into the couch once more. Simply the act of planning, of issuing commands, was as much a part of him as respiration.

"I am different," Linda stated. "The confusion is gone.".

Four hours had elapsed, and the gentle knock on the door signaled that it was time. Ethan was on his feet already. The short rest had not dissipated the weariness from his body, but it had sharpened his mind.

The fog was lifting.

Linda handed him a black jacket and a scratched backpack. "Stuff. Food, water, small med-kit."

He put it on without comment. He checked the pistol Linda had given him initially, ensuring that it had a bullet in the chamber before he tucked it into his waistband.

"It's ready?" Linda said, having strapped on her pack.

"Ready."

They left the safe house, not through the front entrance, but through a hidden panel inside the closet of the bedroom that led into a thin service corridor. The air was filled with dust. They moved silently, their feet light on the concrete floor.

It was a ten-minute walk after that. They reached a heavy metal door. Linda jammed a key into a rusted lock. It groaned open deafeningly. Beyond was a flight of stairs descending into darkness and the damp smell of rot and wet earth.

"The sewers," Linda whispered, producing a small flashlight from her pocket. "Come close. The path is not straight."

The tunnel was big, with a narrow track down the side of a sluggish stream of water. The air was cold and damp. All they could hear were their footsteps, the dripping of water, and the distant squeak of rats.

As they went, other fragments of memory flooded back to Ethan. He remembered leading troops over trenches that smelled exactly like this. He remembered carrying command, the burden of every decision.

"Ethan told me I was a War God," Ethan said, far-off in his tone. "Was that true?"

Linda shone her light down the road before them. "It was what your soldiers referred to you as. They believed you unbeatable. You never lost a fight until. Kalgar Pass."

"And what about you? What did you believe?"

Linda was quiet for a moment. "I believed in the man, not the myth. I saw the cost. The burden you bore. You were an excellent commander, Aethelgard, but you were nevertheless only a man."

Her words sounded true. The memories, as they returned, were not so much of victory. They were of loss and hard choices.

Suddenly Linda stopped dead and put up a hand. She played her light across the water. Something floated by. A small, hollow syringe.

"This is not city maintenance stuff," she breathed, her eyes squeezed into a narrow line. "This is medical grade. The Syndicate uses these."

Ethan's hand fell onto his gun. "Are they down here?"

"Maybe. Or one of their spies. We have to move faster."

They hurried, their gentle tread now a desperate trot through the glistening shadows. Every shadow seemed to move. Every echo was like a step. The safe house was a world removed.

The purpose is clear now," Ethan said. "They took my past. They tried to use me. Now, I will use everything I am to take them down." He checked his hands, no longer trembling. "Let's get some rest. We have a long night to go."