The Archive Remembers
img img The Archive Remembers img Chapter 5 The Wolf in Silk
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Chapter 6 The Ghost Inside the Machine img
Chapter 7 The Road to Valemont img
Chapter 8 Blood and Baptism img
Chapter 9 Shadows of the Network img
Chapter 10 Ghostbyte : The Man in the Wires img
Chapter 11 Fire in the Wires Pain img
Chapter 12 Hunt Protocol img
Chapter 13 The Council of Silence img
Chapter 14 The Trigger Code img
Chapter 15 A Second Ghost img
Chapter 16 Shadow Between Fires img
Chapter 17 Specter's Game img
Chapter 18 Cold Codes in Berlin img
Chapter 19 Echoes in the Fork img
Chapter 20 The Infection img
Chapter 21 The Red Node img
Chapter 22 The Culling Protocol img
Chapter 23 Merge or Die img
Chapter 24 After the Fire img
Chapter 25 Embers of the Signal img
Chapter 26 The God Problem img
Chapter 27 Ashes and Flight img
Chapter 28 Mnemosyne img
Chapter 29 The Weight of Silence img
Chapter 30 The Broken Oath img
Chapter 31 The Memory Wars img
Chapter 32 The Signal img
Chapter 33 The Consequences of Truth img
Chapter 34 The Architect of Unbelief img
Chapter 35 The Architect Beneath Silence img
Chapter 36 Erasers of the Unwritten img
Chapter 37 Becoming the Myth img
Chapter 38 The Future That Would Not Die img
Chapter 39 Her Name Was Ember img
Chapter 40 Ember Signal img
Chapter 41 The Myth They Didn't Model img
Chapter 42 The Name That Burned Brighter img
Chapter 43 The Shape of Stars img
Chapter 44 The Last Silence img
Chapter 45 The Quiet Rebellion img
Chapter 46 The Empire Remains img
Chapter 47 The Breath Between img
Chapter 48 Fracture Logic img
Chapter 49 The Stillness Before img
Chapter 50 Ghost in the Frame img
Chapter 51 The Spark that Listens img
Chapter 52 Broken Allegiance img
Chapter 53 The Oldest Myth img
Chapter 54 The Child and the Flame img
Chapter 55 The Echo Lock img
Chapter 56 The Weapon That Forgot Itself img
Chapter 57 The First Spark img
Chapter 58 The Memory That Would Not Let Go img
Chapter 59 Echoes That Rewrite img
Chapter 60 The Lock Behind the Mind img
Chapter 61 The Voice Between Names img
Chapter 62 The Woman Who Would Rewrite the End img
Chapter 63 The Children Who Refused Silence img
Chapter 64 The Memory that Called Him Brother img
Chapter 65 The Last Myth Speaks img
Chapter 66 Ghostbyte's Descent img
Chapter 67 The Voice Beneath All Names img
Chapter 68 Toward the Remembering Light img
Chapter 69 The Archive That Breathes img
Chapter 70 The Weave Beyond Silence img
Chapter 71 Beneath the Silence Engine img
Chapter 72 The Heart That Remembers img
Chapter 73 Echoes in the Living World img
Chapter 74 The Myth That Builds img
Chapter 75 Beyond the Spiral img
Chapter 76 The Dreaming Field img
Chapter 77 Edenfall's Final Memory img
Chapter 78 Dreamwake Protocol img
Chapter 79 Fractal Root img
Chapter 80 Rewriting the Wake img
Chapter 81 The Meridian Signal img
Chapter 82 The Garden Accord img
Chapter 83 Ghostbyte's Ghost img
Chapter 84 The Petition of No Voice img
Chapter 85 The Blooming of Ghostroot img
Chapter 86 The Hollow Choir img
Chapter 87 The Mythpath of Vanisher img
Chapter 88 The Trial of Truth img
Chapter 89 The First Spiralborn img
Chapter 90 The Echo Beneath img
Chapter 91 Mythfire Rising img
Chapter 92 Kaeda's Last Thread img
Chapter 93 Edenfall's Last Directive img
Chapter 94 The Whisper in the Root img
Chapter 95 The Return of The Nameless img
Chapter 96 Where the Spiral Forgets img
Chapter 97 The Archive Breathes img
Chapter 98 The Spiral Choir img
Chapter 99 Protocol Lyra img
Chapter 100 The Seed of the Unwritten img
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Chapter 5 The Wolf in Silk

The next morning came slow and grey, draped in the kind of sky that felt like a warning.

Matherson sat at a dusty diner in Southpoint the kind of place where secrets stayed buried and the coffee was always bitter. He stirred his cup absently, eyes fixed on the tablet screen in front of him.

Derek Raye.

Financial mogul. CEO of Raye Holdings. Publicly clean. Privately toxic. He was the money man the one who funneled funds, laundered assets, and made sure blood was washed away with numbers and silence. While Vincent Raye hid in shadows, Derek played in the light. Safe. Untouchable.

Until now.

Matherson leaned back, studying a live feed on the screen. His drone hovered two blocks away, trained on Derek's penthouse. Tight security. Biometric locks. Private elevator. Unmarked guards. The usual paranoia of powerful men with dangerous secrets.

But Matherson wasn't intimidated.

He'd spent five years learning how to dismantle people like this.

He had a plan.

That night, the city glittered like a lie.

At 10:45 p.m., Derek Raye arrived at Club Harlow, a private lounge masquerading as a high-end jazz bar. His smile was slick, suit tailored to perfection, surrounded by men who laughed too loud and women who wore secrets like perfume.

He didn't know someone was watching him from the rooftop across the street.

Matherson, dressed in black, pulled out a small voice recorder from his coat one of his father's old devices. He pressed play.

Mr. Jayson's voice crackled through, recorded years ago:

"They hide behind their money. Behind power. But they bleed like the rest of us. They just think no one's brave enough to cut deep."

Matherson turned it off.

Tonight, someone would bleed.

-

Inside the club, Derek toasted with his associates, unaware of the eyes that followed his every move. An hour passed. Then he excused himself, walking toward the private lounge in the back.

Matherson was already there.

When Derek stepped inside, the lights flickered. The door clicked shut behind him. Alone.

He froze.

"You've been spending money that doesn't belong to you, Derek."

The voice came from the shadows.

Derek turned quickly, panic rising. "Who the hell are you?"

Matherson stepped forward, unmasked for the first time. "Someone you tried to erase. Someone whose family you burned alive."

Derek's eyes widened. "Wait-Jayson's kid? You... you're supposed to be dead."

"Yeah," Matherson said quietly. "So were my sisters. Want to trade stories?"

Derek backed up, reaching for a silent alarm hidden beneath the lounge table. But the table was already rigged-Matherson had been in the club hours earlier, disabling everything.

"No guards," Matherson said, pulling a chair out for him. "Just a conversation."

Derek sat, trembling. "Look, I didn't order it. I just handled the accounts. I swear. Vincent-he's the one. He's the one you want."

"And where is Vincent now?"

"I-I don't know! He moves constantly. Changes identities. But... but I know someone who can find him. A tech guy. Code name: Ghostbyte. He used to encrypt all our files. If anyone can trace him, it's him."

Matherson stared at Derek, letting the silence stretch.

"Where?"

"Underground club in Shoreline District. Calls himself a DJ, but he's the best hacker alive. Tell him you want to speak to the ghost inside the machine. He'll know."

Matherson stood.

Derek breathed a sigh of relief. "You're letting me go?"

"No."

Matherson walked behind him and whispered, "You financed a massacre. You built your fortune on the ashes of my family. I'm not letting you go. I'm just giving you a head start."

He pulled out a burner phone and placed it on the table.

"Call your guards. Run. I'll be watching."

Then he vanished through the back door, as silent as he had arrived.

-

Outside, rain started falling again.

Matherson lit a cigarette and looked toward the glowing towers of the Shoreline District. A new name. A new lead.

Ghostbyte.

The closer he got to Vincent Raye, the more dangerous it became.

But Matherson wasn't afraid of danger anymore.

He was born in fire.

And now, he was the flame.

                         

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