The woman stepped into the room slowly, gun still trained on them. Her expression was unreadable, but her eyes flicked over Lara longer than they did over Kaven.
"Step away from the drawer," she repeated. "Now."
Kaven raised both hands and backed up. Lara followed, but her gaze stayed locked on the woman.
"You said Agent Catherine Hale," Lara said quietly. "That's my mother."
The woman nodded once. "I know."
"How?" Kaven asked sharply.
The woman lowered the gun slightly, just enough to make her words feel less like a threat. "Because I worked with her. Before she disappeared."
Lara's heart skipped. "Disappeared?"
"She didn't tell you?" the woman asked, voice softening slightly. "Of course not."
Kaven stepped forward a little. "Who are you?"
The woman glanced behind her, then finally holstered the gun. "My name is Juliette Voss. I was Hale's partner. Homeland Security, classified division."
"She never mentioned anyone named Juliette," Lara said.
"She wouldn't have. She wasn't supposed to." Juliette turned back to the filing cabinets, running a hand along the edge of one. "This house was her safe site. Not officially government-owned, but funded through a ghost account. Only she and a few others knew it existed."
Lara's breath caught. "So why is it in my dad's name?"
Juliette turned, and for the first time her tone shifted — sharper, edged. "Because your dad wasn't just some innocent bystander. He was involved in Project Resonance too."
Lara felt like the floor swayed beneath her.
"That's not possible," she said. "He was a—he fixed antique watches. He didn't even like tech."
Juliette looked her in the eye. "And your mother was a field agent with the highest level of clearance. Did either of them seem entirely what they claimed?"
Kaven stepped forward. "Why are we just hearing this now? Why show up here at all?"
Juliette exhaled. "Because you tripped an alert when you opened that drawer. Old fail-safe. I was the only one still watching it."
She moved to the window and peeked through the curtain.
"You have no idea what kind of storm you've wandered into," she added. "Project Resonance wasn't terminated. It was buried. And if someone's trying to dig it back up — that includes you two now — you're in danger. Real danger."
Lara clenched her fists. "Tell me what it is. What was Resonance?"
Juliette paused. Then she said, "It was a surveillance program… but not the kind you're imagining."
She turned toward them fully.
"It wasn't built to watch people. It was built to listen to them."
Kaven frowned. "You mean like bugs? Mics?"
Juliette shook her head. "I mean something deeper. Frequencies. Brainwave interception. Thought tracking. Patterns of speech tied to predictive behavior models. You could call it… mind-mapping, in real time."
Kaven stared at her, stunned.
Lara's eyes widened — and for a split second, she wasn't in the lake house anymore.
She was back in her apartment.
Dim lights. Cold tea on the side table.
And that strange, low hum they'd both heard — crackling through the old radio speaker even though it wasn't plugged in.
She turned toward Kaven.
"You remember that sound in my apartment?" she said.
"That hum—like static—but it felt… heavy?"
Kaven nodded slowly. "I thought it was just a signal bleed or something. But it stopped the second we moved closer to it."
Juliette's gaze sharpened. "You heard it?"
"Yes," Lara replied. "We both did."
Juliette looked serious now — more than before.
"That wasn't static," she said. "It was a pulsewave. Low-band frequency, embedded in analog equipment. If you were hearing it, it means something was active nearby."
"Something like what?" Kaven asked.
Juliette hesitated. "A receiver. Maybe even a projection device. The early Resonance tech could hijack nearby electronics. Radios, TVs, even microwaves. If a target was being monitored, the field would sometimes bleed into other systems. Most people wouldn't notice. But if it was loud… it means it was close."
"Are you saying someone was listening to us?" Lara asked.
Juliette didn't blink. "Not just listening. Mapping. Recording how your minds processed conversation. Your reactions. Your silences."
Kaven took a step back, stunned.
"But why?" he asked.
Juliette looked down at the folder in her hand, then back at them.
"That's what you're going to find out."
She handed it to Lara.
It was labeled:
SUBJECT ECHO — ACTIVE
---
End of Chapter 16