Liam Carter stared at his laptop screen, his face illuminated by its cold blue glow. Three days had passed since Ethan posted his essay on Reddit, and what had begun as a desperate plea for feedback had morphed into something far more dangerous.
"Seventeen thousand upvotes," Liam whispered, his voice unnaturally steady despite the chaos unfolding before him. "Four thousand comments."
His dorm room—a meticulously organized space where every object had its designated position—felt suddenly foreign. The mathematics textbooks arranged by complexity rather than size, the whiteboard filled with equations too advanced for most graduate students, the perfectly made bed that rarely showed signs of restful sleep—none of it provided the comfort of order he usually relied on.
The post had gone viral. Not because his writing was particularly moving, but because of a single paragraph—sixteen sentences he'd included as a calculated risk, a way to make himself "interesting" to admissions officers. A fragment of information about an experimental cognitive enhancement program he'd been part of years ago, before Aldridge. Before the rankings. Before he became a machine built for academic perfection.
"I am surprised you remembered!" read the top comment, posted by a user named u/NyxTheory.
"You were actually Subject 27B in the Mnemosyne Project. They weren't supposed to let any of you remember."
Liam ran his fingers through his dark hair, which stood up in perpetual spikes despite his attempts to tame it. Unlike his organized environment, his hair had always defied his control—a small rebellion his body maintained against his disciplined mind.
A notification chimed. The private chat for the top twenty students was buzzing with activity. Liam hesitated before opening it, his index finger tapping exactly three times against the trackpad—a ritual that had become more pronounced as his anxiety increased.
The group chat window expanded, revealing a flurry of messages. Most were about the upcoming week's quantum physics exam, but a separate thread had formed, discussing "the Reddit situation." Jasper Voss, Rank 9, had dropped a link to the post.
"Carter's gunning for Harvard with supposedly state secrets now," Jasper had written. "Bold strategy."
Jasper Voss, with his wire-rimmed glasses and immaculate blazers, had always reminded Liam of a young politician—calculating, charismatic, and completely untrustworthy. His family owned a tech conglomerate, and rumors circulated that his father had donated an entire science wing to secure his admission to Aldridge. Yet despite his advantages, Jasper had earned his rank through a particularly ruthless form of intelligence and an uncanny ability to predict test questions.
Liam closed the chat without responding. He needed to talk to Ethan.
Ethan Reyes was exactly where Liam expected to find him at this hour—in the music room, hunched over a piano, his fingers dancing across the keys in defiance of the school's STEM-centered culture. The melody was hauntingly complex, something original that seemed to weave mathematics and emotion together in a way Liam could analyze but never quite feel.
Ethan didn't look up when Liam entered, but his playing shifted subtly, incorporating a motif he always used when Liam was present—a musical signature he'd assigned to his friend.
"The post hit the front page," Liam announced, his voice cutting through the music.
Ethan's hands froze mid-phrase. Unlike Liam's controlled pallor, Ethan's face was expressive, his olive complexion flushing slightly as he processed the implications. Despite being Rank 356 and dropping, Ethan possessed a different kind of brilliance—one that understood people, emotions, and the nuances of human interaction that Liam struggled to grasp.
"How bad?" Ethan asked, pushing back a lock of curly hair that had fallen across his forehead. His uniform was characteristically rumpled, the school's mandatory navy blazer discarded on a nearby chair.
"People are actually talking the Mnemosyne Project. They're saying it actually happened and it is real."
Ethan turned fully on the piano bench, his dark eyes widening. "The memory thing? The stuff you put in about forgotten experiments?"
"I didn't think it was real, Ethan." Liam's voice remained steady, but he began rearranging the sheet music on the piano stand, aligning the edges with mathematical precision. "I thought I was creating a compelling narrative. I accessed some classified research documents from the school's advanced database—something about cognitive enhancement in adolescents. I wove it into my own background to make myself seem like more than just a—"
"A perfect algorithm," Ethan finished, quoting Yale's rejection letter.
Liam nodded, his jaw clenched. "But now people are reacting like it's true. Like I accidentally spilled something I shouldn't know."
"And Jasper somehow figured out it's my personal statement." Liam added.
"I made sure to anonymize it!" Ethan protested.
Liam raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, well, your username was kind of a dead giveaway. Pretty sure u/EthanDefinitelyNotReyes isn't exactly subtle."
Ethan froze, then stood up abruptly, closing the piano lid with deliberate care. "We need to delete the post. Now."
"Already tried. But it's been screenshotted, shared, reposted. It's everywhere." Liam checked his watch—a mechanical timepiece he preferred over digital alternatives, valuing its precise physical movements. "And someone's coming for me."
"What the hell do you mean, dude?" Ethan's voice dropped to a whisper.
"I've been monitoring unusual network activity around my devices since the post went viral. Three separate entities are attempting to access my data. One appears to be using government-grade intrusion techniques."
Ethan began to pace, a habit that had always irritated Liam with its inefficiency of movement. "This is insane, man. It was supposed to be feedback on your essay, not... whatever this is turning into."
The door to the music room swung open, revealing Alina Novak, Rank 12. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail that accentuated her sharp Slavic features. Unlike most students, Alina wore no makeup, preferring to let her natural intensity speak for itself.
"Carter," she said coolly, her Russian accent subtle but present. "Your little internet adventure is causing quite a stir."
"Why is everyone assuming the essay is Liam's when I am the one that uploaded it?" Ethan said, doing his best to shield Liam.
He shrugged, trying to sound casual. "And come on, you can't take everything on Reddit seriously. For all we know, it could just be some bored teenager typing away in their basement, letting their imagination run wild."
Alina raised an eyebrow, her tone cool and confident. "Please. We all know those stats and that style of writing scream 'Liam.' Plus, the sheer level of arrogance? It's practically a signature."
She gave Ethan a pointed look. "You're free to think it's made up, but sometimes, when something's advanced enough, it gets hard to tell where fiction ends and reality begins."
Alina was known for three things: her brilliant work in biochemistry, her unofficial role as the school's supplier of cognitive enhancement pills, and her unflinching honesty. She had transferred to Aldridge two years ago from a prestigious academy in Moscow and had climbed the ranks with remarkable efficiency.
"What do you want, Novak?" Liam asked, automatically calculating the variables of this unexpected interaction.
"To help you, oddly enough." She stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. "The Mnemosyne Project isn't just some classified research. It's a collaborative initiative between government agencies and private corporations to enhance cognitive capabilities in genetically suitable candidates."
Liam and Ethan exchanged glances.
"How do you know this?" Liam demanded.
Alina's mouth curved into a rare smile. "Because I was Subject 42A. Different cohort, same program." She pulled a small pill bottle from her blazer pocket—not the usual study aids she distributed, but something different. "And unlike you, I remember everything."