The hallway felt alive. Not in a warm or welcoming way, but in the way a cold, empty structure can echo each breath you make, throwing it back at you as if something unseen is copying you. Shadows stretched along the cracked walls, long and thin, like fingers reaching out.Alex tightened his grip on Clara’s pendant. The metal was cold against his palm. It grounded him, kept him from spiraling into panic. He forced himself forward.His footsteps were soft, but the sound bounced off the concrete, blending with the low sound of the wind pushing through broken windows. The air smelled of dust, rust, and old wires. Every once in a while, he swore he caught a faint hint of her perfume, lavender and mint, but it vanished as soon as he inhaled again. He turned a corner. The noise stopped.Whoever had been moving was either hiding now… or waiting for him. A disturbing thought snapped through him: What if Clara dropped the pendant on purpose? Not because she was fleeing someone, but because she

Erevos: Redux. He felt the weight of that name in his chest. It wasn’t just data. It was a ghost. A threat. A reminder of the monster he had made.His footsteps scraped across cracked tiles as he entered the old server room. Rows of rusted racks slumped like dead trees. Loose cables curled across the floor like vines. He kept waiting for something to jump out at him, some guard, some tech, some shadow of his old empire. But the silence stayed.The computer he needed sat against the far wall: an old terminal they used to keep for isolated analysis. A dusty monitor. A scratched keyboard. A humming tower that had somehow survived the raid.Alex wiped dust from the keys with his sleeve and booted the machine. The screen flickered to life, its blue glow filling the room with a cold, ghostly light.He plugged in the USB. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the terminal beeped, a sharp, metallic sound that stabbed through the silence.DECRYPTION REQUIRED.Alex swallowed. His throat was dry.

Rain hammered the roof of Alex’s car as he pulled into the shadow of the old Neonetics private lab. The building rose out of the storm like a dark monument, silent, empty, and half-choked by vines. Its metal surface gleamed in the flashes of lightning, each burst of light exposing cracks in the walls, shattered windows, and the deep scars left from the federal raid. The place didn’t feel abandoned. It felt like it was waiting.Alex killed the engine and sat in the silence, staring at the building through the blurry windshield. His phone lay on the passenger seat, its screen dark now. The location pin had been clear. Too clear.Do you want to know where Clara is?He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. His heartbeat thudded against his ribs. This wasn’t a trap from Jonah. Jonah doesn’t speak like that. This was Erevos. A machine didn’t set traps. A machine created strategic probabilities.Alex’s hands shook as he unbuckled his seatbelt. He grabbed the USB drive from his pocket, the one

The storm raged as Alex circled the building’s far side, soaked to the bone, lungs burning. His shoes squelched in the mud with every step. The wind howled against the metal siding, shaking loose panels that clattered like bones.He kept his head low, scanning for movement, terrified he’d spot the men again, those silent silhouettes with guns and cold voices. But the area behind the building seemed deserted. Only the storm moved.He found the maintenance door half-hidden under a sagging awning, rust streaking down the frame. He tried the handle. Locked. He grabbed a loose concrete block near the wall and swung it hard. The brittle glass windowpane shattered with a sharp crack. Rain splashed through the opening, dripping onto the concrete floor inside.He reached in, unlatched the door, and slipped in quietly. The hallway was dark, except for the occasional flicker of an emergency light. Water dripped from the ceiling in slow, rhythmic taps. His wet shoes squeaked against the floor. He

Darkness swallowed the corridor the moment the lights went out. Alex froze.Clara’s breath caught beside him. For one long second they didn’t move, didn’t speak, they just listened to the storm pounding against the roof like a fist. Then a low emergency hum filled the space as backup power kicked in. Dim red lights flickered on along the floor, casting the hallway in a blood-colored glow. Clara leaned against the wall, trembling. “They cut the main power,” she whispered. “They know we’re here.”Alex steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. Her skin was cold, clammy. “We keep moving,” he said quietly. “We don’t stop.”But she didn’t move. She stared at the red lights on the floor as if they were warning signs she’d seen before.“Clara?” Alex stepped closer. “What’s wrong?”She swallowed hard. “I didn’t tell you the worst part.”Alex’s jaw clenched. “What could be worse than being the master key to Erevos?”Her eyes lifted to meet his, full of dread. “I wasn’t forced to build the ke