Hercules regained full mobility after three days in the facility. He was given clothes and allowed to move around his room. But he was not allowed to leave. Guards stood outside his door constantly.The monitoring device in his brain was always active. Hercules could feel it. He could feel it watching his thoughts, analyzing his emotions, reading his intentions.He spent his time trying to develop a plan. Trying to figure out a way to escape. Trying to figure out a way to stop his father from activating the machine.But every plan he came up with, every escape route he imagined, was immediately discovered by The Circle. As soon as he thought about something, the guards would react. They would move in and prevent him from acting.It was like his mind was no longer his own. His thoughts were not private. Every impulse was monitored and suppressed.After a week in the room, Margaret visited him."I am impressed with you, Hercules," Margaret said, sitting in a chair across from his bed. "

The meeting was arranged for the next evening. Hercules was taken to a secure location. It was an old mansion on the outskirts of the city. The mansion was surrounded by armed guards.General Thomas wanted to go with Hercules, but the representative of The Inner Circle insisted that Hercules come alone.As Hercules walked into the mansion, he was nervous. He was afraid. He was not sure what he would find inside.The inside of the mansion was elegant. It was decorated with expensive furniture and artwork. There were crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. There were marble floors and mahogany walls.In the center of a large room, sitting in a high-backed chair, was a woman.The woman had Hercules's mother's face. But she was younger. She looked like she was in her forties, not her sixties. She was smiling."Hello, my son," the woman said. "I am so glad you could make it."Hercules could not believe what he was seeing. This woman looked like his mother, but she was not his mother.

Hercules led his son to a private office and locked the door. He needed to know everything."What plan?" Hercules asked. "What could be more dangerous than consciousness transfer?""The Resurrection Protocol," his son said. "It is something that your mother discovered before she went digital. It is a way to resurrect dead people. A way to bring back people who have been dead for centuries. A way to pull consciousness from the past and upload it into new bodies.""That is impossible," Hercules said."It is not," his son said. "According to the research I found, consciousness is not created. Consciousness is not destroyed. Consciousness exists outside of time and space. It exists in a quantum field that we do not fully understand. If you can tap into that field, you can pull consciousness from anywhere in time. You can pull consciousness from the dead."Hercules felt his mind struggling to understand this. If this was true, then the implications were staggering."Why would your mother w

After the destruction of the resurrection facility, Hercules expected the world to return to normal. But it did not. If anything, the world became more chaotic.The revelation that ancient consciousnesses existed in the quantum field sent shockwaves through the scientific community. Scientists everywhere started working on their own versions of the Resurrection Protocol. Governments started demanding that consciousness transfer technology be weaponized.The Inner Circle, although damaged, used the chaos to rebuild itself. The copy of Hercules's mother that had escaped from Iceland began consolidating power. She began recruiting former members of The Circle. She began building new facilities in secret locations.Within six months, The Inner Circle was more powerful than it had been before.Hercules decided to take a different approach. Instead of trying to destroy The Inner Circle through military force, he decided to infiltrate it. He decided to create a spy network inside The Inner C

Three months passed after the destruction of the facility in Antarctica. Hercules spent those three months working with Eleanor and the ancient intelligences to establish a direct communication system.The communication system was unlike anything ever created before. It was a hybrid system that existed partially in the physical world and partially in the quantum field. It was built using consciousness transfer technology, but in a way that did not require downloading consciousness.Instead, the system allowed physical beings to temporarily enter the quantum field while maintaining their physical form. It allowed humans to speak directly with the ancient intelligences while remaining human.Hercules decided to be the first human to use the system.He sat in a medical chair surrounded by complex equipment. Eleanor monitored the equipment from her digital form. David stood nearby, ready to shut everything down if something went wrong."Are you ready?" Eleanor asked."Yes," Hercules said.