Erasure Protocol

Jessica sat on the edge of the desk, the flash drive resting between her fingers like a loaded round. Across the room, Olivia was hunched over her laptop, decrypting the files with quick, precise keystrokes. The only sound was the quiet hum of traffic outside, Washington’s late-night machinery still turning.

Leanna leaned against the window, arms crossed. “You think Kurtz gave us real intel, or just another dead end?”

Jessica exhaled. “He knew who I was. Knew Vanguard. And he knew Dominion. That makes him dangerous to someone.”

Olivia’s screen flashed. “Got something.”

Jessica straightened. Olivia scrolled through the contents, her expression tightening. “It’s a mess. Data fragments, erased records. Most of the files are incomplete.”

Jessica stepped closer. “Anything usable?”

Olivia nodded grimly. “One phrase keeps coming up.” She turned the screen.

"Subject Retention Failure."

Jessica’s pulse slowed. “What were they retaining?”

Leanna’s voice was sharp. “More like who.”

The thought sent an uncomfortable shiver down Jessica’s spine.

* * *

The unease settled over them like a slow-moving shadow.

Jessica moved toward the window, just enough to glance outside without being obvious. The street below was quiet, too quiet. Then she saw him. A man in an overcoat, standing too still, his head tilted slightly upward. Watching.

Jessica exhaled through her nose. “We have company.”

Olivia looked up. “How bad?”

Jessica’s jaw tightened. “Bad enough.”

Leanna checked her phone. “We need to move.”

Jessica stepped back from the window. “They’re not making a move yet. Which means they want us contained.”

Olivia’s fingers hovered over the laptop. “So we make them think we’re staying put.”

Leanna smirked. “A classic misdirection.”

* * *

They moved without hesitation. Olivia packed up, slipping into the role of an ordinary journalist heading out for the night. She walked straight out the front entrance, giving the lobby a cursory glance, her movements casual.

Jessica and Leanna took the service exit, blending with hotel staff, moving through the deliveries and storage areas.

No one stopped them. But Jessica could feel the weight of eyes tracking their absence.

By the time they reached the street, Olivia was already three blocks away, waiting by an unmarked sedan.

Jessica slid into the passenger seat, Leanna in the back. “Any tails?”

Olivia checked the mirrors. “Not yet. But they won’t just let us walk away.”

Jessica exhaled. “Then we make sure they can’t find us.”

* * *

They regrouped at an apartment on the outskirts of Georgetown. A contact of Jessica’s. Someone who owed her a favor. Someone who asked no questions.

The air inside was thick with dust and the lingering scent of old books and stale coffee. A crooked lamp in the corner buzzed faintly, casting light that flickered like an old film reel. It wasn’t a home. It was a memory someone hadn’t let go of.

Olivia set up her laptop again, resuming the decryption process. Minutes passed in silence. Then another file unlocked.

Jessica leaned over Olivia’s shoulder. “What is it?”

Olivia didn’t answer immediately. She scrolled through the list, her breath catching. It was a list of names.

Leanna frowned. “What am I looking at?”

Olivia’s voice was tight. “A list of people. Most of them are dead. Some of them are… well-known.”

Jessica’s stomach twisted. “Politicians?”

Olivia nodded. “And operatives. Intelligence officials. Military personnel.” She hesitated, then pointed at the screen. “And one name that shouldn’t be here.”

Jessica’s breath stilled. There in the middle of the screen, she read ‘Sanchez, Jessica’. Her breath caught. Not shock. Not even fear. Just that cold sensation, like a floor giving way under her, one she didn’t know she had been standing on. She hadn’t remembered this. But someone had. Someone had written her into it

Leanna’s expression darkened. “You were in Dominion.”

Jessica didn’t move. Didn’t react. She wasn’t sure how, but she was finding that there were many things about her past that she could not explain. Things she did not understand.

No one spoke. The screen still glowed in the dark, her name frozen in the center of it. Jessica’s hands were steady, but her pulse betrayed her, steady only because it hadn’t decided whether to spike or drop.

The silence was broken with the distinct buzz of her cell phone.

* * *

The sound cut through the room like a blade. None of them had touched the phone before now. It had been in the flash drive’s file, a number listed with no context.

Jessica picked it up. “Who is this?”

Silence. Then Kurtz’s voice. Low, urgent. “You need to stop.”

Jessica’s grip tightened. “Not happening.”

A heavy breath. “You don’t understand what you’re digging into.”

Jessica kept her tone even. “Then explain it to me.”

A long silence. Then, barely above a whisper: “They don’t just rewrite people. They erase them.”

The line went dead. Jessica stared at the phone, her pulse slow and steady. The war never ended. And now they were part of it.