Time stopped behaving properly on Hollowgate.At first, Eli thought it was just fatigue—his body lagging behind his mind, the lingering adrenaline from first contact wearing off unevenly. But as he moved deeper into the island, passing from one corridor into another, the sense of hours slipping sideways became harder to ignore. There were no windows here. No natural markers. The lighting adjusted subtly as he passed, never dimming enough to suggest night, never brightening enough to feel like day.Just constant.Waiting.The NEURAL ARCHITECTURE wing curved downward, the floor sloping almost imperceptibly as if guiding him without ever forcing his direction. Eli followed it with a caution that came from long experience—never rushing, never assuming the silence meant safety. His boots echoed softly, sound swallowed almost as soon as it formed.“You’re very confident for something abandoned,” he said aloud.The hum beneath the walls shifted—not louder, but closer somehow, like pressure c

Eli didn’t feel himself fall or glide through anything in a distorted, stomach turning movement like he had expected.He arrived.There was no sense of movement at first—no tunnel, no vertigo, no violent rupture of awareness. Just a soft, disorienting shift, like stepping into a room you’d been standing in all along but had never noticed.Light resolved around him in layers.It wasn't white. Neither was he surrounded by darkness. It was something in between—diffuse, atmospheric, carrying weight without source. The kind of light memory had when it hadn’t decided what it wanted to be yet.Eli stood still, heart hammering too fast for a body that technically wasn’t here.So this is it, he thought. This is where you hid yourself.The ground beneath his feet felt real enough—solid, textured, faintly warm—but when he looked down, it wasn’t ground in any conventional sense. It was a surface generated by expectation more than matter.“Dad?” he called, and his voice carried farther than he tho

Eli woke up after passing so many loops he was certain he wasn't getting out.This time, he was sure it was real, he could feel it in his bones and how the chair had weight again. The air pressed into his lungs with familiar resistance. Pain returned in small, manageable places—neck stiffness, a dull ache behind his eyes, the lingering burn of overused nerves.Pain was comforting. Pain meant continuity.He opened his eyes slowly this time, forcing himself not to rush the process.Gray walls. Not white. That was already different.A medical bay, but not the one from before. This one was older. Analog overlays. Physical monitors humming instead of scrolling. A soft amber light instead of clinical white. He didn’t know this place, couldn’t recall any memory about it—still, he hoped.Hope was dangerous.But he let himself have a little of it anyway.He flexed his fingers.They responded immediately.Good sign.“Okay,” he murmured to himself. His voice sounded right. Hoarse, but right. “O

Eli didn’t sleep.He lay back against the cold metal edge of the chair, eyes open, breathing slow and deliberate, letting the hum of Hollowgate seep into him until it became background noise instead of threat. Nova moved around him without asking permission—adjusting dials, muttering to herself, chewing gum like it owed her money.Too comfortable.Too present.He watched her through half-lidded eyes, cataloguing movement, timing, posture. The way she never turned her back on Meridian’s core for long. The way she positioned herself where she could see both Eli and the dais at once.She’d been trained.Or worse—she’d trained herself.Minutes passed before he spoke again.“How did you find me?” Eli asked quietly.Nova didn’t look up. “Straight to the good questions. Love that about you.”“Answer it.”She sighed theatrically, rolled her stool closer, and leaned her elbows on her knees. “Okay. But fair warning—this is the part where you stop liking me.”“I don’t like you,” Eli said flatly.

The boat was smaller than Nova expected.That was her first observation as they stepped onto the dock where Carlos’s arrangement waited for them—a low-profile, matte-black speedboat bobbing quietly against the pier, its engine already humming in a restrained, patient way. Functional. Clean. Invisible.Nova looked at it. Then at Eli. Then back at the boat.She clicked her tongue.“That’s it?” she asked, folding her arms. “I mean—no offense—but considering who you are, I was expecting something a little more… dramatic.”Eli didn’t respond.He stepped in first, testing the weight, moving like someone who had done this more times than he cared to remember. Nova followed, boots hitting the deck with a dull thud. She looked around again, unimpressed in a way that was almost theatrical.“You’re the sole heir and owner of the biggest conglomerate in the world,” she continued lightly. “Secret islands. Ghost facilities. Shadow wars. And you escape in a boat that looks like it could be rented fo