In the back alleys of post-war Europe, the Cold War is fought with more than spies and secrets. It's a war for reality itself, and Sineus—a physicist turned operative with the unique, innate power to sever and reshape memory—is a key soldier. He works in the shadows to keep the balance, a righteous man in a world of lies. But the balance is shattered when his friend and handler is targeted by the Echo Protocol, a nightmare weapon that doesn’t just erase a mind, but replaces it with the screaming ghosts of other men's deaths. The psychic signature left behind belongs to a man Sineus believed was long dead: his former partner. Now, the CIA has disavowed him, the KGB wants him dead, and both hunt him for a public assassination he didn't commit. Forced into the ruins of Berlin and beyond, Sineus discovers the Protocol's victims are immune to his power, puppets animated by a chorus of stolen trauma. His only hope is a fragile truce with Dr. Anja Petrova, the repentant Soviet scientist who designed the Protocol. She knows its secrets, including the terrible cost of its destruction: an explosion of pure Oblivion that will tear a hole in the world. Their goal lies in a secret laboratory deep in the Ural mountains. There, Sineus faces an impossible choice. He can use a rare artifact to absorb the blast himself, a heroic act that will cost him his life. Or he can entrust the device to Petrova, placing the future of history in the hands of an enemy agent. The air itself hums with psychic STATIC as the world stands on the brink. To prevent a global dictatorship of memory, he must decide who to trust and what to sacrifice. In a war fought with whispers and echoes, what happens when the only person you can save is the one you can't afford to lose? value_axis: "FROM CONTROL (of memory) -> TO CHAOS (of identity)"
36 chapters
In the back alleys of post-war Europe, the Cold War is fought with more than spies and secrets. It's a war for reality itself, and Sineus—a physicist turned operative with the unique, innate power to sever and reshape memory—is a key soldier. He works in the shadows to keep the balance, a righteous man in a world of lies. But the balance is shattered when his friend and handler is targeted by the Echo Protocol, a nightmare weapon that doesn’t just erase a mind, but replaces it with the screaming ghosts of other men's deaths. The psychic signature left behind belongs to a man Sineus believed was long dead: his former partner. Now, the CIA has disavowed him, the KGB wants him dead, and both hunt him for a public assassination he didn't commit. Forced into the ruins of Berlin and beyond, Sineus discovers the Protocol's victims are immune to his power, puppets animated by a chorus of stolen trauma. His only hope is a fragile truce with Dr. Anja Petrova, the repentant Soviet scientist who designed the Protocol. She knows its secrets, including the terrible cost of its destruction: an explosion of pure Oblivion that will tear a hole in the world. Their goal lies in a secret laboratory deep in the Ural mountains. There, Sineus faces an impossible choice. He can use a rare artifact to absorb the blast himself, a heroic act that will cost him his life. Or he can entrust the device to Petrova, placing the future of history in the hands of an enemy agent. The air itself hums with psychic STATIC as the world stands on the brink. To prevent a global dictatorship of memory, he must decide who to trust and what to sacrifice. In a war fought with whispers and echoes, what happens when the only person you can save is the one you can't afford to lose? value_axis: "FROM CONTROL (of memory) -> TO CHAOS (of identity)"
World
