2025-05-10 14:48:16
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Before Alexander could explain, the lights came back on. Every monitor in the facility activated simultaneously. One screen. Then another. Then dozens. A single image appeared across all of them. A woman. Ethan’s mother. But this time, she wasn’t younger. She looked older. Tired. And she was sitting in what appeared to be a cell. Ethan stepped closer. “Mom…” The image wasn’t a recording. Her eyes moved. She was alive. She looked directly into the camera. “Ethan.” Ethan’s heart nearly stopped. “Mom?” Alexander stared at the screen. “No…” His mother’s expression changed when she saw him. For a moment, something like relief crossed her face. Then fear. “Ethan, listen to me carefully.” Ethan moved toward the screen. “Where are you?” “Don’t come looking for me.” “Mom—” “Don’t.” Her voice became urgent. “The moment you activated the Key, they knew.” Daniel looked at Adrian. “Who?” The woman glanced toward something outside the frame. “They’re already her
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“Then who?” Static interrupted the message. For several seconds, nothing could be heard. Then her voice returned. “Ethan…” Her voice trembled. “If you’re with Alexander, leave immediately.” Alexander stepped toward the speaker. “No.” His voice broke. “No, no…” Ethan stared at him. “Why?” Alexander looked at his son. “Because she knows what’s coming.” The lights suddenly went out. A violent metallic sound echoed from somewhere beneath them. Then another. And another. Something was moving through the facility. Fast. Adrian immediately activated his energy field. “Everyone get behind me.” Ethan didn’t move. He was staring at the speaker. His mother’s voice came through one final time. “Ethan, whatever happens next…” A pause. “Do not let them wake the Thirteenth Key.” The recording ended. For several seconds, nobody moved. Then the entire facility shook. A deep pulse of energy erupted beneath their feet. Ethan staggered. His vision blurred. Something ins
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Alexander lowered his eyes.“I know.”Ethan stood silently for a moment.Then Adrian spoke.“There’s something else.”Everyone turned toward him.Adrian was still staring at the terminal.“The archive isn’t finished.”Ethan frowned.“What do you mean?”Adrian moved closer to the screen and began scrolling through the corrupted files.“There are multiple encrypted sections. Most of them are locked behind Order clearance levels.”Daniel leaned over his shoulder.“Can you open them?”“I can try.”Ethan looked back at Alexander.“You knew about these files?”Alexander’s expression changed.“No.”Adrian glanced at him.“He’s telling the truth.”Ethan looked at Adrian.“How do you know?”“Because this encryption predates the current Order system. Whoever created it wanted these files hidden even from senior members.”Alexander stared at the screen.Then his face went pale.“There’s only one person who used that encryption.”Ethan’s heart skipped.“My mother?”Alexander nodded slowly.“Yes.”
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Alexander stood completely still beneath the cold fluorescent light, staring at Ethan as though he were seeing his son for the first time.The recording had left no room for another explanation. Ethan had finally heard the truth in Alexander’s own voice, and there was nowhere left for either of them to hide behind half-truths.“Tell me everything,” Ethan said.His voice was quiet, but there was an unmistakable edge beneath it.Alexander swallowed.“I will.”Ethan shook his head.“Not the version you’ve been giving me. Not the version where you had no choice. I want everything.”Alexander looked down at the floor for several seconds before finally speaking.“The Order discovered your energy readings when you were still a baby. At first, they didn’t understand what they were seeing. Your body was rejecting energy differently from every other subject they’d studied. They thought you were defective. Then they realized you weren’t rejecting it.”Ethan’s expression tightened.“I was adaptin
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The first showed his mother standing inside the facility years earlier. She looked younger, but Ethan recognized her immediately. She was wearing a white laboratory coat and smiling at someone outside the frame. Ethan moved to the next image. His breath caught. Alexander was standing beside her. They weren’t arguing. They weren’t being held captive. They were smiling. Another photograph showed them sitting together at a laboratory table, studying documents. Another showed Alexander speaking with several Order researchers while Ethan’s mother stood beside him. Another showed them walking through the facility together. Ethan’s eyes remained fixed on the screen. “They worked together,” he whispered. Claire stepped closer. “It looks like it.” Adrian studied the photographs carefully. “I never knew Alexander was involved at this level.” Ethan turned toward his father. “You told me you had nothing to do with them.” Alexander’s face was pale. “I sa
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The location Adrian had received led them far beyond the eastern district, into an industrial zone that had been abandoned for more than a decade. Rusted factories lined both sides of the road, their broken windows reflecting the pale light of the moon. Weeds had swallowed the old railway tracks, and several buildings had already collapsed beneath years of neglect. Daniel drove the stolen vehicle while Claire monitored the surroundings, and Ethan sat in the passenger seat with Adrian beside him. Alexander had insisted on coming despite Ethan’s objections, claiming that he knew the Order’s older facilities better than anyone else. Ethan hadn’t argued. In truth, he wanted Alexander there. If his father knew something about this place, Ethan intended to find out exactly what it was. After nearly forty minutes, Adrian finally pointed toward a massive concrete structure hidden behind an overgrown fence. “That’s it.” Daniel slowed the vehicle. The building looked aband
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