Echoes in His Voice
London – Late Morning
Rhea stood in the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, Lex's phone buzzing on the counter. He was in the hallway talking to the concierge about security footage—he'd sensed something off lately, the feeling of being watched tightening around him like a noose.
The screen lit up.
New Voice Message – Unknown Contact
Rhea shouldn't have opened it.
But something in her gut twisted—the same instinct that had saved her once in Zurich, the same instinct that whispered Ezra was always closer than he seemed.
She tapped play.
At first, just silence.
Then Lex's voice. Soft. Familiar. Intimate.
> "Hey. I know you're scared. But it's me. You can trust me. You always did."
"Meet me at the mirror where we first kissed. You remember, don't you? Prague. The rooftop with the broken lantern. I'll wait."
Rhea's fingers went cold.
Lex hadn't said any of that. She knew it. The words were real, but not recent.
The voice… it was Lex, but not him now.
It was recorded.
Synthetic. Programmed. A deepfake—crafted with terrifying precision.
She played it again. This time, she caught it:
A distortion at the end. A whisper under the voice.
> "EchoNet alignment in progress. Subject: LEX."
She dropped the phone.
Lex stepped into the room, alert instantly. "What happened?"
Rhea turned to him, pale. "Lex… someone's mimicking you."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
She handed him the phone, voice shaking. "There's a message sent to me. From you. But it's not you."
Lex played it, his own voice echoing back at him like a ghost trying to convince someone of its humanity.
His hands tightened.
"That rooftop… Rhea, I've never told anyone about it. Not even Sky."
She looked at him. "Then how do they know?"
Lex's voice was grim. "Because they weren't just tracking you."
He looked up, eyes storm-dark now.
"They've been inside me, too."