For several seconds after the call ended, I couldn't move.
Kabir's final words echoed in my head.
"They want what's inside your head."
The wind blew across the lake, carrying the smell of rain and wet earth, but I barely noticed it.
My attention was fixed on one terrifying possibility.
What if the memory procedure hadn't worked completely?
What if something had survived?
Not in a notebook.
Not on a flash drive.
But inside me.
Hidden somewhere deep enough that even I couldn't find it.
"Arjun."
Meera's voice sounded distant.
"Look at me."
I forced myself to focus.
She was kneeling beside me now, concern written all over her face.
"What did you remember?"
I swallowed.
"The laboratory."
Her expression immediately changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
"What laboratory?"
I looked at the flash drive in my hand.
Then at her.
Then back at the water.
"I don't know where it was."
I closed my eyes briefly.
Trying to hold onto the memory before it disappeared again.
"There were white walls."
"Aisha was crying."
"You were arguing with someone."
"Dr. Malhotra was there."
Meera's face turned pale.
"And?"
Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
I hesitated.
Because somehow the final sentence felt important.
Dangerously important.
"I said something."
"What?"
I looked directly at her.
'If they discover the backup exists, we're all dead.'
The color drained from her face completely.
For a moment, she looked like she might collapse.
And that reaction terrified me more than the memory itself.
"You know what it means."
Again, not a question.
This time, she couldn't deny it.
Slowly, Meera nodded.
"Part of it."
The answer frustrated me.
Not because she was hiding things.
Because I could tell she was genuinely scared.
"Then tell me."
She looked away.
Toward the lake.
Toward the past.
"The backup wasn't a file."
My heartbeat quickened.
"What?"
"Aisha never trusted technology."
Meera's voice trembled.
"Not after she discovered what Project Echo was capable of."
The name again.
Project Echo.
Every clue seemed to lead back to it.
"What was it?" I asked.
For several seconds, Meera remained silent.
Then she finally answered.
"It started as a memory research program."
A cold feeling settled in my chest.
"Memory research?"
She nodded.
"The official goal was helping trauma patients."
"Restoring damaged memories."
"Treating neurological disorders."
That sounded harmless.
Helpful, even.
"But that's not what they were really doing."
Of course it wasn't.
Nothing about this story was simple anymore.
"They discovered something unexpected."
The wind picked up around us.
Dark clouds gathered overhead once again.
"What?"
Meera took a deep breath.
"They discovered memories could be transferred."
Everything inside me stopped.
"What?"
"They found a way to copy fragments of memory."
The world suddenly felt unreal.
Impossible.
"That's insane."
"I know."
"No."
I stood abruptly.
"That's science fiction."
"That's what we thought too."
For a brief moment, neither of us spoke.
Because if what she was saying was true...
Then everything changed.
The memory procedure.
Project Echo.
The backup.
All of it suddenly made horrifying sense.
"Aisha discovered proof."
Meera continued quietly.
"They weren't just studying memory."
"They were storing it."
"Manipulating it."
"Testing it."
A strange nausea twisted inside my stomach.
"And the backup?"
Meera looked at me.
"Aisha copied everything she found."
I froze.
"Everything?"
She nodded.
"Research data."
"Experiment records."
"Names."
"Evidence."
The scale of it was overwhelming.
"But if it wasn't on the flash drive..."
That's when Meera said the sentence that changed everything.
"It was copied into you."
Silence.
The lake.
The wind.
The distant traffic.
Everything disappeared.
Only her words remained.
It was copied into you.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because my brain refused to process it.
"You're saying..."
Her eyes filled with sadness.
"Aisha used Project Echo against itself."
The realization hit slowly.
Like a rising tide.
The backup wasn't hidden somewhere.
I was the hiding place.
Three years ago...
Aisha had hidden the evidence inside my memories.
And then someone erased those memories.
Not to protect me.
To find it.
Suddenly, another flash exploded behind my eyes.
A laboratory.
Bright lights.
Machines.
Aisha standing beside me.
Terrified.
"You're the only person they won't suspect."
Her voice echoed clearly.
"If anything happens to me..."
She placed something in my hand.
"Don't let them find it."
Then the memory shattered.
I staggered backward.
"Arjun!"
Meera caught me before I fell.
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.
Because this memory had felt different.
Clearer.
Stronger.
Almost complete.
And for the first time...
I remembered Aisha's face perfectly.
Not from a photograph.
Not from someone else's description.
From my own memory.
"She knew she was going to die."
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Meera stared at me.
"What?"
"Aisha."
My voice shook.
"She knew."
The realization was devastating.
Aisha hadn't been surprised.
She had been preparing.
Planning.
Leaving pieces behind.
Trying to protect something.
Trying to protect us.
Before Meera could respond, my phone vibrated again.
This time it wasn't an unknown number.
It was Kabir.
One message.
Only three words.
DON'T GO HOME.
A second message arrived immediately.
THEY'RE WITH HIM.
My pulse exploded.
Him.
Only one person fit.
Dr. Raghav Malhotra.
Then a third message appeared.
And this one made my blood run cold.
Your father lied about the accident.
For several seconds, I couldn't even blink.
Because suddenly another possibility emerged.
A possibility I had never considered.
What if the people who erased my memories weren't strangers?
What if someone in my own family had helped them?
The thunder cracked overhead.
Dark rain clouds swallowed the afternoon sky.
And somewhere far away...
A truth buried for three years was beginning to surface.
A truth connected not only to Meera.
Not only to Aisha.
Not only to Project Echo.
But to my father.