The drive to the secure facility felt wrong from the moment the doors of the black SUV shut. Too quiet. Too insulated. The windows dimmed automatically, cutting off the outside world until the city was nothing but muffled shapes behind tinted glass. Alex sat stiffly beside Kayden, fingers curled around the seatbelt like it was a lifeline. Phineas watched everything—not suspiciously, but analytically—mapping routes, time, and the number of right turns.
Kayden didn't speak.His pulse wasn't fast, but it wasn't steady either.
That warning from last night—the one whispered by the anomaly—kept looping in his skull:
"Don't trust the hand that offers keys."
He wished he didn't believe it.He wished it didn't make so much sense.
The car finally stopped at a squat, steel-gray building by the river. Not a government tower. Not a laboratory. More like a forgotten warehouse someone tried very hard to erase from public memory.
Agent Hale stepped out of the shadows near the entrance.
"Welcome," he said, voice flat, unreadable.
Kayden felt Alex tense beside him. Phineas slid his phone into airplane mode, then into his jacket. Kayden just nodded.
Inside, the corridors were narrow and cold, lit by low-frequency LEDs that hummed faintly—almost too faintly. No signs on the walls. No labels. Just doors.
Too many doors.
APEX flickered inside Kayden's mind."Commander. Warning. Room layout inconsistent with municipal blueprints."
Kayden blinked slowly.So the facility was off-record.
No surprise.
Hale led them to a circular chamber deep in the building—a briefing room with a curved screen and a long table. Three other officials sat waiting, all in the same charcoal coats, all wearing the same expression: neutral, watchful, calculating.
Kayden hated how their eyes lingered on him just a fraction longer than on anyone else.
Hale gestured toward the table."Sit. The briefing will begin."
Phineas sat rigid and alert. Alex sat nervous but determined. Kayden sat last.
The lights dimmed.
The screen flickered.
Static.Black.Then—grainy footage.
A road warped in a loop.Pedestrians collapsing.A lamppost bending sideways like melted metal.And in the center—
Kayden's spine went ice-cold.
A figure in a long coat, standing exactly where the distortion split the street.The camera shook violently; the footage jittered; the image blurred—
But Kayden recognized the posture.The stance.The tilt of the head.
It looked like him.It moved like him.
A chill crawled up his arms.
Alex whispered under his breath, "It's… it's literally you."
Hale corrected softly,"It's from 1972."
Kayden's breath froze.Phineas swore quietly.
APEX pulsed inside his mind, frantic."Commander. Genetic match probability: 47%. Temporal match probability: unknown. Identity fragment detected."
Kayden swallowed. His throat felt raw."Why are you showing me this?"
Hale didn't answer immediately.He pressed a button.
The footage zoomed.The blurred face sharpened slightly—enough to reveal pale hair blowing in the wind, eyes reflecting static, a faint mark on the neck—
And a locket.
The same locket that now hung around Kayden's neck.
Alex's chair scraped the floor. "Kayden—"
Hale raised a hand."Analysis will come later. For now, there is more."
Another clip.A hospital room in chaos.Sheets thrown aside.Doctors shouting.A patient gurney that had been burned from the inside by something not thermal, not electrical.
And on the wall—
A symbol.Drawn in soot or ash.A vertical line splitting a circle.
The Arclight insignia.
The room felt suddenly too small. Too close.
One of the officials leaned forward.Her voice was smooth, but her eyes were razor blades.
"Kayden. Does any of this feel familiar to you?"
He snapped his gaze up at her. "No."
The lie tasted thin.
APEX vibrated anxiously."Commander, maintain emotional restraint. They are probing for psychological markers."
The official wrote something on a tablet.
Hale spoke next."The individual from 1972 disappeared during containment."
Kayden stiffened.
Alex clenched his fists. "Containment? That's what you did to him?"
Phineas shot Alex a warning look, but it was too late—Hale's jaw tightened.
"That was the protocol at the time."
Phineas whispered, too quietly for anyone else but Kayden to hear:"Protocol. Not mistake. Not tragedy. Protocol."
The word fell heavy.
Kayden felt his pulse spike.
"So if I'm a 'key' like you said," he asked, voice low,"what's your protocol for me?"
Hale paused.
And in that pause—too long, too careful, too calculated—Kayden heard everything he needed to.
Before Hale could form an answer, one of the other officials interrupted sharply:
"Our goal is to ensure containment of escalating anomalies."
Kayden's chest tightened.
"And if containment requires isolating the source—"
Kayden shot up from his chair so fast Alex flinched.
"I'm not a source."
The woman didn't blink."You reacted to the anomaly. It reacted to you. You have inherited signatures from the previous incident. By definition—"
"I. Am not. A containment object."
His voice was shaking now—not with fear, but something dangerously close to anger.
Agent Hale finally stood, lifting a hand.
"Everyone calm down. This is not 1972. We are not repeating that mistake."
Kayden laughed—a thin, humorless sound.
"Funny. That's exactly what someone would say before repeating it."
Hale didn't argue.
Which somehow made it worse.
APEX spoke in Kayden's mind—this time urgently bold:
"WARNING: Intent mismatch detected.They are not showing you everything.They are not telling you the full protocol.Proceed with caution."
Alex stood beside Kayden now, shoulder touching his.
Phineas stood on the other side.
Three kids.Against a room full of cold eyes and old secrets.
Kayden stared Hale down.
"You want to study me? Fine.You want to understand the anomaly? Fine.But if you try to contain me—if you try to isolate me—if you try to make me disappear like him—"
He stepped forward, jaw tight.
"I will walk out of here and never look back."
Silence.
Not fear.Worse.
Calculation.
Kayden felt it in the air.
He felt it in the way Hale lowered his gaze.He felt it in the way the woman tapped her tablet once, recording something.He felt it in the way the building chilled around him, like the walls themselves knew the word "containment."
Finally, Hale spoke softly.
"We hear you, Kayden."
Kayden didn't believe it.
Hale looked at the others."Dismissed. We continue this briefing tomorrow."
Back in the hall, lights flickering above them, Alex exhaled shakily.
"Bro… this is bad."
Phineas nodded, pale. "They were going to lock you up if you slipped."
Kayden stared at the floor.
"Not if," he whispered."When."
The warning from the anomaly echoed again in his mind:
"Don't trust the hand that offers keys."
Now he understood why.
The agency didn't want him dead.They didn't want him hurt.
They wanted him contained.
And Kayden realized something terrifying.
The anomaly might not be the only enemy.