High above the city, where the wind was free, Naiv stood at the summit of the stone tower, gazing down at the slumbering city. Smoke still drifted from the warehouse that burned, and the shout of guards echoed off alleyways.
To himself, he thought, "People can't abide emptiness. So we provide them with fear. so they don't hear the silence."
Behind him, Meir hesitated footsteps, her hands grasping a brown folder. She handed it to him without words—she knew it was the one he had requested.
Naiv sat on the stone bench, opened the folder, and pulled out a photograph… of a child, no older than ten. Pale-skinned, with a worn-out coat. His eyes had something in them that was akin to broken innocence.
"This is the target to come," he told them, eyes on his hands.
There was no sound.
Elsa broke the silence at last, her voice tight, "A child?"
Naiv replied, "Sometimes. the seeds of the Observer germinate in hearts that no one watches."
Zoreem entered and stood beside him.
"The reports verify it—two Resistance cells connected by him. No one suspects him, not even the guards. He is the ideal bait."
Naiv said, "Let him pass through tonight. and plant this in his bag."
He produced a small device from his pocket. It was the shape of a charm, gently glowing. It carried a trace of Naiv's own signature.
Far in the city, in a run-down basement, the Observer sat cross-legged, knees clasped, eyes half-shut. Before him stood a man in his late twenties, emaciated, with terror-filled eyes.
"Ready?" the Observer asked softly.
The man nodded.
He handed him the broken pendant. "When they find your body, make them find this. Let them think that they are closing in."
The man didn't understand, but he didn't ask questions.
"The truth," replied the Observer, "is not what you hide—but what you let them think they've found."
That evening, the boy shifted under the guards' gaze, gliding into shadowed alleys as if he bore nothing. His small pack contained the device.
But what Naiv was unaware of was that the boy had been substituted. He looked almost the same. But those eyes. were not his.
One of the guards spoke, "He's moving toward the northern market. Regular speed."
Naiv ordered, "Don't stop him. Let him meet them. We'll move after the signal."
Two hours.
An empty warehouse. Three men waiting around the decoy boy. One of them inquired:
"He has it?"
"Yes… in the bag," replied the boy.
They unfolded the bag and removed the charm——and at that very moment, the signal was flashed in Naiv's command center.
He shouted, "Move in. Now."
The strike force swept in fast.They stormed the warehouse.But discovered nothing.No men.No boy.
But. a ragdoll head, and on the wall, written:
"You followed the trail—not the origin. We draw the path you follow."
One of the soldiers cursed.
Zoreem said, "They tricked us."
Naiv, cool as molten steel, said, "No. They taught us to think twice."
On the map in the planning room, colored threads now blanketed it.
Zoreem pointed to a spot on the boundary. "This is the one spot untouched from the beginning. Maybe it's. irrelevant?"
Naiv replied, "No. It's too central for them to risk using."
Then instructed, "We'll play a double move. Declare a state of emergency in the west sector. Spread rumors that the Observer is with us. Let the populace hunt him, and we'll send an undercover squad to that location."
Meir complained, "What if it's a trap?"
He said, "Only the points without traps lead nowhere."
Near the city wall, in an old trench, a mask was found. Black fabric, with the same mark discovered previously in the sewers.
A child meanwhile discovered a note in a worn shoe:
"When light delays… it blinds the eyes."
The crowds began to guess.
It was no longer fear alone.
In the middle of one alley, two men were conversing.
One of them uttered, "Honestly, I do not understand it anymore. Already the world ended, and yet this tension these days is even more intense than on that day."
The other man replied, "What I still cannot understand is what that competitor group will gain by spreading rumors that the Viners are behind the disappearance."
Then added, "Everyone in this city knows that if Zoreem and Ashura ever hatched a public slaughter—it wouldn't be hard for them."
Silence grew denser in the strategy room.
Elsa said, "The Observer does not operate. He digs into us."
Zoreem said, "He knows we're stronger… but he's betting we're too conceited to know it."
Naiv said, "It's time to play the last card."
By dawn, commanders sat with Naiv.
A new offer was tabled:A conditional amnesty for some Resistance cells—if they would give up certain information.
But the amnesty did not exist.
It was a trap.
And the Echo… had already begun to take hold in places that could not be seen.
Following the news, three almost instantaneously appeared around the next day. Three nervous civilians signed up, their faces ashen. One didn't say a word—he just pointed at something on the map. They were questioned in the basement under the direct orders of Ashura and Zoreem.
Naiv was absent.
He was well beyond a distance only familiar to him—or at least, so he believed. Standing before him, a tall, half-shattered mirror. Strange scarring adorned its edges. One of the old baubles from the "Fracture" occurrence, once the property of one of the members of the group known as The Man. Said to show more than appearance.
He scowled into his distorted reflection and said:
"The Observer does not hide. he copies in weak minds."
He raised his right hand. On his finger was a steel ring bearing the mark of an eye. With his fingertip pressed on the surface of the mirror, the light glowed—as if the glass caught breath.
He said softly:
— "You'll find no asylum. Not even among men's faces."
All over the city, in a seedy room below an out-of-business tailor's shop, stood the Observer, in front of a trembling young girl. She had tried to take advantage of the phony amnesty—giving up everything she knew. She thought she had escaped.
But she was in front of him now.
He spoke quietly:
— "You didn't betray anyone.You just missed your target."
She pleaded:
— "Please… I didn't know it was a trap. I only wanted to survive."
He spoke:
— "Survival? Survival is the lie we love most.
But lies… only breed rot."
He gestured to one of his soldiers.
The slow shutting of a door creaked afterward.
Her screams were never heard again after that.
At Command, the map was updated every few hours.Meir noticed Naiv had grown more subdued—but every word he spoke felt as heavy as a wall.
One day, she told him:
— "I feel like you're changing."
He answered, not even looking at her:
— "I'm not turning into someone else. I'm changing… By the way, I've seen that you've begun to think realistically. Just a few days ago, you were the voice of what is left of humanity.What made you change so profoundly?"
She answered softly:
— "I think you already know the answer.'They were right.'At least… it took root."
He looked at her, curiosity in his eyes.
—"You're saying their hypothesis is correct. That would make a big difference in the future… I'll be asking you for facts later after we deal with that pest infesting others with his rot. Hopefully, Elsa will have defected by then, too."
Zoreem summoned one of the new holding facilities, where an arrestee had been taken into custody—clearly distributing the Observer's pamphlets.
When he entered the cell, the young man remained seated. He was not afraid. He looked like he was expecting an appointment.
Zoreem a few steps away asked:
— "Who gave you the leaflets?"
The man answered quietly:
— "I received them at my doorstep."
— "And why did you distribute them?"
— "Because they said something I never heard from any of you."
Zoreem took a slow step closer——and activated his Echo.
The boy collapsed to the shattered floor, trembling, eyes on the verge of bursting from their sockets.A scream tore from his throat—inhuman.A scream that sliced through the air and shook the bones:
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Everything shattered—his voice, his breathing, his mind.The Echo pulsed about him like the shriek of a broken thing, not begging for mercy—but contemptuous of it with every twist.
Zoreem sat on the floor.
— "Talk fast, better, if you want a painless ending."
The man trembled with terror, his body shivering with fright and chills.
— "The messages… they are always from a man who wears a dusty coat.No one notices he arrives.No one knows where.He leaves them. and disappears."
Zoreem stepped backward.
It was not new…But it confirmed what they feared.
Night. Naiv kept watch on the watchtower, gazing at two distant lights moving along the night.
The guard beside him uttered:
— "Just travelers."
But Naiv muttered:
— "Travelers don't use that road."
Directed hurriedly to seal off the eastern sector—no in, no out.Then summoned the special squad.
Behind the market in an alley, a new doll was found.
But this time, it had a face—a photo of an orphan from the middle shelter.
Under it, a message:
"When dolls look like you…who holds the thread?"
Elsa, having examined the photo, said:
— "He's trying to make us suspect ourselves… our own systems."
Naiv replied:
— "Not suspicion. Destruction.He doesn't want us to just doubt.He wants us to grow tired of doubting."