Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Pain exploded through Luca the second his hand connected fully with the neural core.

Not physical pain alone.

Memory.

Raw.

Violent.

Unfiltered.

The chamber vanished around him.

The alarms disappeared.

The collapsing facility dissolved into white light and static.

And suddenly

He was twelve years old again.

Rain hammered against black cars lined along a narrow Milan street.

The sky flashed silver with distant lightning while young Luca sat silently in the backseat beside Hale.

Too small for the tailored suit forced onto his body.

Hands shaking in his lap.

“Focus.”

Hale’s voice was calm.

Cold.

Young Luca immediately straightened.

Conditioning responding faster than thought.

“Yes, sir.”

Outside, headlights cut through heavy rain.

Another vehicle approaching.

Luca’s pulse started pounding.

Because he already knew this memory.

Or at least

He thought he did.

This was the assassination.

The mission.

The night Damon’s mother died.

Only now

The details felt wrong.

Young Luca looked terrified.

Not detached.

Not emotionless.

Terrified.

The memory sharpened violently.

“You will eliminate the target before extraction,” Hale instructed without looking at him.

Young Luca swallowed hard.

“…there’s a child in the car.”

Silence.

The sentence cracked through Luca like lightning.

Because he remembered now.

He knew Damon was there.

Hale’s expression never changed.

“The child is irrelevant.”

Young Luca’s breathing became uneven.

“But”

“Do not hesitate.”

That tone.

That dangerous warning hidden beneath calmness.

Young Luca immediately went silent.

Because disobedience had consequences.

Terrible ones.

But still

He looked toward the approaching vehicle again.

And Luca realized something devastating.

Young Luca didn’t want to do this.

The realization shattered years of self-hatred instantly.

Because all this time

Luca remembered himself as a monster.

A willing killer.

But the child inside this memory was scared.

Rain streaked across the window while the approaching car finally stopped beneath a streetlight.

Damon’s mother stepped out first.

Umbrella raised against the storm.

Beautiful.

Warm-eyed.

Alive.

And then

Young Damon climbed out after her.

Laughing about something.

Luca physically staggered inside the memory.

Because Damon looked so small.

Too young to survive what came next.

Young Luca whispered shakily:

“…please don’t make me.”

The memory froze.

Present-day Luca stopped breathing.

Because he remembered saying those words.

He begged.

Hale finally looked toward him then.

And for the first time

Young Luca looked truly afraid.

“You are emotional tonight,” Hale observed calmly.

Young Luca’s hands trembled harder.

“She’s innocent.”

Hale’s voice remained perfectly level.

“Innocence is irrelevant.”

The words sliced through Luca like a blade.

Because he’d heard them his entire life.

Repeated during training.

During punishment.

During missions.

Innocence is irrelevant.

That was the philosophy they built monsters from.

Young Luca looked toward Damon’s mother again.

And quietly

Almost desperately

He asked:

“…what if I miss?”

Hale answered immediately.

“You won’t.”

But Luca realized something horrifying.

Hale misunderstood the question.

Young Luca wasn’t afraid of failure.

He was asking for permission.

A way out.

Another flash of lightning split the sky.

Rain pouring harder now.

And suddenly

Everything accelerated.

A black SUV appeared from the opposite street corner.

Too fast.

Too unexpected.

Hale’s expression sharpened instantly.

Another assassin team.

Not part of the original operation.

Young Luca saw it too.

The memory fractured into chaos.

Gunfire exploded across the street.

Damon’s mother shoved Damon downward immediately.

Screaming.

Young Luca moved before thinking.

Not toward her.

Toward Damon.

Because the child in the memory recognized something before the trained operative did:

Damon was going to die.

Luca remembered now.

He fired.

But not at Damon’s mother.

At the second assassin.

The bullet hit.

But too late.

Another shot rang through the rain.

Damon’s mother jerked violently.

Blood blooming across her chest.

Young Damon screamed.

And young Luca

Young Luca froze completely.

No.

No no no.

The memory became jagged with panic.

Damon crying in the rain.

His mother collapsing.

Gunfire everywhere.

And Hale

Watching silently from the car.

Young Luca stumbled forward instinctively.

Horrified.

“I didn’t”

Another gunshot cracked nearby.

Young Luca grabbed Damon without thinking and shoved him behind a parked car as bullets tore through the street.

Present-day Luca physically recoiled inside the neural connection.

Because he remembered now.

Everything.

He didn’t kill Damon’s mother.

He tried to save them.

The truth detonated through him violently.

Years of guilt suddenly collapsing under the weight of reality.

But the memory wasn’t finished.

Young Damon looked up at Luca through tears and rain.

Terrified.

Confused.

And young Luca

Bleeding from a bullet wound in his shoulder

Whispered shakily:

“Stay down.”

The exact same words.

The same instinct.

Even then.

Another assassin rushed toward them.

Young Luca fired twice instantly.

Protective.

Desperate.

Not a weapon.

A child trying to stop other children from dying.

Present-day Luca broke completely.

Because for years

Years

He believed he murdered Damon’s mother intentionally.

Believed he deserved Damon’s hatred.

Believed loving Damon made him monstrous.

But the truth was worse.

Hale let him believe it.

The memory snapped violently forward.

Young Luca standing beside Hale afterward.

Shaking uncontrollably.

Rainwater and blood soaked into his clothes.

“She wasn’t supposed to die,” Luca whispered.

Hale looked at him silently.

Calculating.

Then softly

Dangerously

He said:

“You hesitated.”

Young Luca froze.

“The mission failed because you became emotional.”

“No,” young Luca whispered shakily.

“The other shooters”

“You failed.”

The words landed like chains locking into place.

Because Luca was already traumatized.

Already conditioned to blame himself.

And Hale used it.

Present-day Luca felt rage explode through him so violently the neural core itself flickered.

The bastard knew.

He always knew.

Hale allowed him to carry the guilt because guilt made operatives obedient.

Broken people were easier to control.

The memory continued unraveling.

Young Luca sitting alone afterward in a medical room.

Hands covered in dried blood.

Silently crying where no one could see him.

And Vale entering calmly with a clipboard.

“Emotional attachment compromised operational performance,” she observed clinically.

Young Luca physically flinched.

“I tried to save them.”

Vale’s expression never changed.

“No,” she corrected softly.

“You failed to suppress empathy.”

The memory shattered violently.

Present-day Luca gasped hard as reality slammed back into him.

The chamber returned all at once.

Alarms.

Light.

Pain.

He nearly collapsed beside the neural core.

“Luca!”

Damon caught him instantly.

Luca stared at him with wide, shattered eyes.

And Damon froze.

Because something had changed.

“What happened?”

Luca couldn’t breathe properly.

Years of guilt.

Years of self-hatred.

Years of believing he destroyed Damon’s life intentionally

Gone.

Replaced by something infinitely darker.

Manipulation.

Hale stepped toward him carefully.

Watching.

And Luca looked at him with real hatred for the first time.

Not fear.

Not confusion.

Hatred.

“You knew.”

His voice shook violently.

Hale said nothing.

Which was answer enough.

Damon frowned sharply between them.

“What is he talking about?”

Luca looked at Damon.

Eyes burning with tears and fury.

And quietly

Brokenly

He whispered:

“I didn’t kill her.”