The briefing room was dark, lit only by a large screen showing a grainy surveillance photo. The subject was a man in his late twenties, with a haunted look in his eyes and a gaunt frame.
"This is Leo Sandoval," Mallory said, pointing a laser at the screen. "Former Vought lab technician. He was part of a Compound V synthesis team until he had a 'moral crisis.' He stole a significant quantity of an experimental, unstable V derivative and vanished. We believe he's attempting to create his own version of the formula."
Homelander, leaning against the back wall, chuckled. "A bootlegger. How quaint."
"This is not a joke," Edgar said from the head of the table, his voice cutting through the room. "The compound he stole is highly volatile. Uncontrolled replication could lead to a catastrophic event. He's holed up in an abandoned chemical plant on the outskirts of Newark. Your mission is to retrieve the compound and the research. The asset…" He glanced at me. "…is to be terminated. He's too great a liability."
Terminated. They said it so casually. Like ordering a pizza.
"This is your chance to prove your loyalty, Alex," Homelander added, his eyes gleaming. "A real mission. No more scared professors. Time to get your hands dirty."
This was the test. A clear, unambiguous order to kill. To cross a line there was no coming back from. Refusing would blow my cover instantly. Agreeing would make me a murderer in Vought's name.
"Understood," I said, my voice devoid of emotion. "I'll bring back the compound."
Mallory handed me a file. "All the intel we have. He's believed to be alone. The plant is isolated. Get in, get it done, get out."
An hour later, I was soaring over the industrial wasteland of Newark. The chemical plant loomed below, a skeletal structure of rusted metal and shattered windows. I could feel the unstable energy signature of the stolen compound from a mile away—a psychic itch, like a bad smell.
I landed silently on a catwalk inside the main building. The air was thick with the smell of chemicals and decay. I could hear the frantic scratching of rats and, from deeper inside, the hum of makeshift lab equipment.
I found Leo Sandoval in what had once been a control room. He'd turned it into a crude laboratory, with beakers and burners set up on grimy consoles. He was hunched over a notebook, muttering to himself, his hands shaking. He looked terrified. Not like a criminal mastermind, but like a man who was in way over his head.
He hadn't noticed me. I watched him for a moment. This wasn't a threat. This was a desperate, foolish man who'd seen something he shouldn't have and had made a terrible mistake.
I could kill him. It would be easy. A snap of his neck. I'd be a hero in Vought's eyes. My cover would be secure.
But Annie's face flashed in my mind. Don't forget who you are.
I dropped my invisibility. "Leo Sandoval."
He jumped, spinning around. When he saw me, his face crumpled in utter despair. "They sent you. Of course they sent you." He didn't even try to run. He just sank to his knees. "I just… I just wanted to expose them. The things they do… the side effects…"
"I know," I said quietly.
"You're going to kill me, aren't you?"
I looked at him, at his makeshift lab, at his pathetic attempt to fight a giant. He was a loose end. But he was also a person.
"No," I said. It was a decision made in an instant, a gamble with my life. "I'm not."
His eyes widened. "But… they'll know."
"Let me worry about that." I walked over to his equipment. The unstable compound was bubbling in a flask. It was dangerous. It needed to be contained. I focused my telekinesis, creating a perfect vacuum seal around it, neutralizing its volatility.
"I'm taking this," I said, sealing the flask. "And your notes. Vought can't have this."
"Then… what happens to me?"
"You disappear," I said. "You take the money you've probably stashed away, and you go somewhere Vought will never find you. You change your name. You forget any of this ever happened."
I reached out with my mind, not to harm him, but to reinforce the suggestion. To bury his memories of the formula, to give him a powerful urge to run and never look back.
He blinked, confusion clouding his features. "I… I need to go. I have to catch a bus…"
"Yes," I said. "You do."
He stumbled out of the room, a man with a suddenly urgent, forgotten appointment. I watched him go. He'd live. It was a small victory.
I took the neutralized compound and the notes. Then I used my pyrokinesis to create a controlled, hot fire. I burned the rest of the lab to the ground, making it look like an accident. A failed experiment.
When I returned to Vought Tower, I handed Mallory the sealed flask and the charred, mostly illegible remains of the notebook.
"Target eliminated," I reported. "The lab was compromised during the confrontation. There was an explosion. He didn't survive. I contained the sample."
Mallory took the flask, examining it. She looked from the flask to me, her expression unreadable. She knew. She had to know I was lying. The story was too clean.
But she just nodded. "Acceptable. Debrief at 0800."
As I walked away, I felt a cold dread. I hadn't killed an innocent man. I'd passed Homelander's test in my own way. But I'd also shown Mallory that I had a line I wouldn't cross. And in Vought, knowing someone's weakness was the most dangerous weapon of all.
The cage was still locked. But I'd just found a hidden key. The question was, who else had seen me find it?