Ethan sat still, staring at the name flashing on the screen. His own. Not Caleb. Not an alias. Ethan Carter. But according to the records, he shouldn't exist. His identity had been erased, wiped from every database that mattered. And yet, someone had placed his name here, buried inside the Time Loop Bank's deepest archives, waiting to be found.
Lyra was already typing, her fingers moving with practiced precision. "This isn't just a deleted file. Someone went out of their way to hide this, encrypt it under thousands of layers of junk data. If we hadn't been digging for Malik, we never would've seen it."
Ethan exhaled slowly. "Someone knew I'd come looking."
Lyra glanced at him. "You think this is a trap?"
He wasn't sure. If someone had wanted him dead, they wouldn't have left a breadcrumb trail—they would've wiped him clean, no trace, no memory, no evidence. But this? This felt intentional. A message left behind, waiting for the right moment.
The file was locked, but Lyra was already breaking through the layers, bypassing security with quiet efficiency. The screen flickered, loading piece by piece. A series of old communication logs, timestamped over a decade ago. Ethan's eyes narrowed as he scanned the first few lines.
Subject: Project Requiem.
His pulse slowed. The messages weren't about him. They were about something much bigger.
Lyra frowned. "Requiem… I've seen that before." She pulled up another file, cross-referencing the data. More encrypted logs, scattered across different sectors of the system. "This isn't just one project. It's a classified branch of the Time Loop Bank's internal research division."
Ethan leaned in, scanning the details. "What the hell were they researching?"
Lyra's expression darkened. "Time anomalies."
A cold weight settled in Ethan's chest. "Define anomalies."
Lyra exhaled. "People who don't belong. Timelines that shouldn't exist. Events that keep happening even after they've been erased."
Ethan's hands clenched into fists. He knew what she was about to say before she said it.
"This project wasn't just about monitoring time loops," Lyra continued. "It was about identifying things that couldn't be erased."
Ethan stared at the screen, his thoughts racing.
This wasn't about the syndicate. This wasn't about Malik.
This was about him.
The Time Loop Bank hadn't failed to erase him. They had tried. And for some reason, he had survived.