The Price of Resurrection

Chapter 5 – Echoes in the Static

The blast should have killed him. Instead, David woke to the slow drip of water and the hiss of cooling metal.

His ears rang. The tunnel had collapsed into a jagged cavern of stone and twisted rail. Every surface pulsed faintly blue, as if the explosion had burned color into the air.

He tried to move. Pain flared down his side; his left arm hung useless. “Rho?”

Only the echo answered. “Rho!”

Nothing, then a faint click through the comm still jammed in his ear. “vid—static—zone breached”

Her voice. Broken, distant. Then silence. “Hold on, I’m coming,” he muttered, dragging himself upright.

Something sparked near his boot, his sidearm, half-melted. He holstered it anyway. Above him, the ceiling groaned. Dust rained down. He stumbled toward the faint glow of an exit sign still flickering in the distance.

That’s when the static changed. “…not Genesis…repeat…not Genesis…”

He froze. The voice was crisp, deliberate, too calm for emergency chatter. “Identify yourself,” he said.

No reply. Then “Major Foreman, stay where you are.”

The voice was unfamiliar, female, low and commanding. “Genesis?” he asked.

“Negative.”

He tightened his grip on the ruined pistol. “Then who”

Light sliced through the smoke. A figure emerged, black armor, visor mirrored, insignia like a shrouded eye. Two more followed, moving with silent precision. “Hands visible,” the lead ordered.

“Yeah, not happening till I know who’s pointing guns at me.”

One of them raised a palm device. “Heartbeat confirmed. He’s clean.”

The leader stepped closer. “Major David Foreman, ex-Genesis asset. You’re coming with us.”

“Don’t think so.”

“Your choice,” she said, and gestured.

Something hissed. A dart bit into his shoulder. He ripped it out, but the world was already bending, colors bleeding together. “Sleep is just interference,” the voice murmured as he fell.

He came to on cold metal. The same voice spoke somewhere above him. “Vitals stable. Neural interference minimal.”

He blinked hard. The ceiling wasn’t glass and steel, it was concrete streaked with candle soot. Analog monitors lined the walls, their screens showing static.

A figure leaned into the light. The woman’s visor was gone; her eyes were sharp and unreadable. “Name’s Cipher,” she said. “Welcome to the Veil.”

David tried to sit up, but restraints snapped tight around his wrists. “Let me guess, another rescue that starts with handcuffs?”

Cipher smirked. “We found you before Genesis did. You’re breathing because of us.”

“Appreciate the hospitality.”

She ignored the sarcasm. “Your link with the Healer. How strong is it?”

“You mean Bruce?”

Her gaze flicked toward the static-filled screens. “We tracked the energy surge that knocked out half the district. It wasn’t random. It was directed, toward you.”

He frowned. “He warned me before the blast.”

“Then you’re his compass.”

David shook his head. “I’m his friend.”

“Same thing,” she said softly. “And that makes you valuable, to everyone.”

A low hum filled the room as one of her operatives approached. “Ma’am, Genesis patrols closing. ETA five minutes.”

Cipher turned back to him. “Looks like you’ll get your freedom sooner than planned, Major. But if you want to survive the next hour, you’ll walk out with us.”

David stared at the restraints, then at her unreadable face. “And if I don’t?”

She tilted her head. “Then Genesis will find what’s left of you. Decide quickly.”

The lights flickered again, and somewhere beneath the static, he thought he heard Bruce’s whisper: They’re not what they seem.

The restraints hissed open. Cipher tossed him a cup of water. “Drink. You’re no use to me dead.”

David sipped, eyes never leaving hers. “You’ve got my attention. Now tell me why you dragged me here.”

“You already know,” she said. “Genesis doesn’t lose assets unless someone steals them.”

“So that’s what I am, property.”

“To them, yes. To us, proof.” She stepped closer. “You and Miller are products of the same experiment, Project Eidolon. Genesis wasn’t creating soldiers. They were building conduits.”

“Conduits for what?”

“For the pulse that ripped this planet’s magnetic field six years ago. They wanted people who could survive contact with it.”

David shook his head. “You expect me to believe I’m some kind of antenna?”

Cipher shrugged. “Believe whatever helps you sleep. But when Miller’s power spikes, your vitals echo it in perfect sync. You’re linked, by design.”

He leaned forward. “Then help me find him.”

She smiled faintly. “Exactly what Genesis wants you to do. You’ll lead them right to him.”

“Then what do you want?”

“To burn the program down,” she said simply. “Expose it, end it. We can do that with your link. You channel his next surge, we trace it, not Genesis.”

David studied her. “And when you find him?”

“That depends on him.”

“Meaning?”

“If he’s still human, he walks free. If not…” She let the sentence hang.

David’s voice dropped. “You’d kill him.”

“I’d contain a catastrophe,” she corrected. “Same outcome, different motive.”

He stood, fists tightening. “I’m done being someone’s weapon.”

Cipher didn’t move. “Then be a witness. You saw what Genesis did to civilians. Help us show the world.”

A distant boom trembled through the floor, Genesis patrols closing. Cipher’s comm buzzed. “Extraction window in ninety seconds.”

She looked back at him. “Decide, Foreman. Run alone, or run with purpose.”

David opened his mouth to answer, then the static screamed. He staggered, clutching his head. The monitors around them flickered, snowing white noise that shaped itself into images: a corridor, floodlights, soldiers dragging someone across the floor. Rho.

Her face bloodied, eyes open but unfocused. Genesis insignia glinting on the restraints that bound her. “Rho!” he shouted.

Cipher snapped to the nearest screen. “What is that?”

He gasped, every muscle shaking. “They’ve got her. Genesis, she’s alive!”

The static pulsed harder, morphing into Bruce’s distorted silhouette. David… find the tower… before they erase her.

Then the vision shattered, sparks bursting from the monitors. The room plunged into darkness. Cipher’s voice cut through the smoke. “Well,” she said, “looks like you just chose your purpose.”

Sirens wailed above as Genesis assault teams breached the surface tunnels. David grabbed his gear, eyes still on the dying glow of the screens. “Then let’s move. We find Bruce, and we get her back.”