The hallway outside the briefing room felt colder than the room itself. Not because of air-conditioning or steel walls. It was the kind of cold that came from information—too much of it—pressed into a space too small to hold it.
Alex muttered a shaky curse under his breath. Phineas was already pulling his tablet out, fingers moving fast, capturing whatever data he could before the facility's firewalls swallowed it. Kayden walked silently, his thoughts a tight knot in his skull.
He wanted to leave.He wanted to breathe air that wasn't recycled.He wanted to be somewhere where the walls didn't pulse with secrets.
They turned a corner toward the exit—and Hale's voice cut through the hallway like a blade.
"Kayden."
Kayden stopped walking.Alex and Phineas turned too.
Hale wasn't following them.He was waiting for them.
Hands behind his back.Expression neutral.Eyes sharper than before.
Alex immediately stepped in front of Kayden. "If you're here to threaten him—"
"I'm not," Hale replied calmly. "I need to speak to Kayden alone."
Kayden's pulse thudded once—hard.
Phineas narrowed his eyes. "That is not happening."
Hale's jaw tightened, but his tone stayed steady.
"Only Kayden."
Alex shook his head. "No way. After everything in that room? He's not going anywhere alone."
Hale exhaled. Slowly.Almost… reluctantly.
"Please."
That single word—that break in his tone—made Kayden pause.He had never heard Agent Hale sound anything other than composed and controlled.
Kayden placed a hand on Alex's arm."It's fine. I'll be right here."
Alex's expression was a storm. "Kayden, you don't—"
"It's okay," Kayden repeated.
He didn't trust Hale.But something in the man's voice carried weight.Fear, maybe.Or guilt.
Alex reluctantly stepped aside, staying only a few meters away. Phineas didn't move far either, eyes fixed on Hale like he could break him with observation alone.
Hale waited until they had distance.
Then his face shifted.
Not colder.Not harsher.
More human.
"Kayden," he said quietly, "you need to understand something before this goes any further."
Kayden crossed his arms, trying to stop the tremor in his wrists. "Say it."
Hale looked past him for a moment, as if ensuring no one else would hear.
Then he stepped closer.
"The officials in that room," Hale said, voice barely above a whisper,"don't see you as a person. They see you as a containment variable."
Kayden's jaw clenched. "I already figured that out."
"No," Hale said sharply. "You haven't."
He leaned in, eyes locked with Kayden's.
"They want to isolate you. Not to protect the public…but to control the anomaly's access to you."
Kayden's breath caught.
APEX pulsed:"WARNING: Hale's statement aligns with high-risk protocol patterns."
Kayden swallowed. "Why are you telling me this?"
Hale hesitated—and for the first time since Kayden had met him, Hale looked afraid.
"Because I watched this happen once before."
Kayden's heartbeat stopped.
Hale continued, voice dropping further.
"In 1972, the last Arclight was not 'contained.' He was imprisoned."
Alex froze where he stood. Even Phineas stopped breathing.
Kayden's stomach twisted.
Hale kept going, eyes burning with something that looked like regret.
"They didn't understand him. Or the anomaly. They only knew he reacted to it. And so they trapped him in a facility deeper than this one—under the assumption the anomaly would stop responding if the… variable was controlled."
Kayden's hands curled into fists.
"What happened?"
Hale's throat tightened.
"He kept reacting. Even in isolation. Even restrained. The anomaly kept searching for him. Breaking boundaries. Warping the foundation of the facility. He was driving himself insane trying not to answer it."
Kayden felt cold spread through his chest like frost.
"And then," Hale said softly,"he vanished from a locked, sealed room.No breach.No warning.He just… disappeared."
Kayden exhaled through shaking lips.
"That's what you meant by disappeared."
Hale nodded once.
Kayden whispered, "They want to do that to me?"
Hale didn't sugarcoat it.
"If you show them something they can't control…yes."
Kayden's pulse hammered.Alex stepped closer, fists clenched, hearing enough to understand.
"Then why tell him any of this?" Alex snapped. "Why help him?"
Hale turned toward Alex slowly.
"Because the man who vanished in 1972 was my mentor."
Alex flinched.Phineas' eyes widened.
Kayden stared.
Hale continued:
"He cared about people like you, Kayden. People who weren't built for cages. And I watched the agency turn him into an experiment until the anomaly claimed him."His voice cracked—barely, but it cracked."I'm not letting that happen again."
Kayden felt something heavy settle inside him.
Not fear.
Resolve.
Hale stepped even closer, lowering his voice to the faintest whisper.
"You need to understand the real danger, Kayden."
Kayden forced his voice out.
"What danger?"
Hale looked him dead in the eye.
"Not the anomaly.Not the signal.Not whatever is trying to reach you.The real danger…"
He glanced back at the briefing room door.
"…is the people who think they can own you."
Kayden's breath stuttered.
For the first time, Hale didn't look like a government agent.
He looked like a man haunted by a ghost.
He placed something small and metallic into Kayden's palm—a thin, hexagonal device the size of a coin.
"What is this?" Kayden whispered.
"A failsafe," Hale said. "If anything happens—if they try to isolate you, restrain you, or remove you from your friends—press the center. It'll send me your location and override their internal locks."
Alex blinked. "Bro… he's giving you a jailbreak button."
Phineas muttered, "Highly classified tech he's not supposed to hand out."
Kayden looked at Hale.
"Why trust me?"
Hale's expression softened, only a fraction.
"Because you don't want power.You want answers.My mentor was the same."
Kayden stared down at the device.
It felt heavier than it should.
Hale leaned in one last time.
"And Kayden… one more thing."
Kayden looked up.
"If the anomaly ever warns you again…listen."
Kayden's blood ran cold.
Hale's face was carved with fear.Not for himself.For Kayden.
The agent stepped back.
"Tomorrow," he said quietly, "you decide how much they learn.Just make sure you keep something for yourself."
Then he walked away, footsteps echoing down the steel corridor.
Kayden stood frozen, the small metal device burning in his shaking hand.
Alex placed a hand on his shoulder.Phineas stepped to his other side.
Kayden didn't speak.
He couldn't.
Because for the first time…
He realized he wasn't trapped between two sides.
He was the battlefield.