Kyla woke up to her phone buzzing on the nightstand. She groaned, squinting at the bright screen. 6:47 AM. It was Josh.
"This better be important," she mumbled into the phone.
"Get to the station. Now. We got a hit on the laptop." Josh's voice was awake and alert, which made Kyla wonder if he'd even slept. "I'll grab us breakfast on the way. You like bagels?"
"Yeah, sure. Everything bagel with—"
"Cream cheese. Got it. See you in twenty."
He hung up before she could ask how he knew her bagel order. Kyla dragged herself out of bed and into the shower, her mind already spinning with possibilities. What could they have found on that laptop? Maybe emails? A list of targets? Information about the stones?
Forty minutes later, she walked into the station's tech lab with wet hair and wrinkled clothes she'd pulled from her laundry basket. Josh was already there, looking annoyingly put together in a clean button-down shirt, talking to Detective Sarah Lin from the cyber crimes unit.
"Martinez, good timing," Detective Lin said, gesturing to her computer screen. "Your partner here has been breathing down my neck since 5 AM."
"I brought coffee," Josh said defensively, handing Kyla a cup and a paper bag. "And bagels."
Kyla took a grateful bite while Detective Lin pulled up a series of files on her screen. "So here's what we found. The laptop belongs to Marcus Webb, one of your suspects. Most of it is pretty standard stuff—social media, some gaming, lots of sports betting sites. But then we found this."
She clicked on a folder labeled "Project Cascade." Inside were dozens of documents, photos, and what looked like hand-drawn maps.
"What are we looking at?" Kyla asked, leaning closer.
"Near as I can tell, it's research. Webb and his partner were looking for something specific. These documents mention stones—they call them 'fragments'—scattered throughout the city. They've got locations marked, dates, even security details for various buildings."
Josh set down his coffee. "So they weren't just robbing places for money."
"The money was probably just a bonus," Lin confirmed. "They were searching for these fragments. And according to this"—she opened a spreadsheet—"they've found seven so far. We only recovered one."
"Where are the other six?" Kyla asked.
Lin shrugged. "That's your job to figure out. But there's something else. Webb was communicating with someone through an encrypted messaging app. We cracked most of it, but the messages are... weird. Look at this."
She pulled up a conversation thread. Kyla read the messages, her confusion growing with each line.
Unknown User: Did you find the fragment at the location I provided?
MWebb: Yes. Same blue glow as the others. Where do we take it?
Unknown User: Not yet. We need all twelve before the alignment. The portal is not stable enough.
MWebb: What if we get caught?
Unknown User: You won't. The King protects his servants. Continue the search. Time is running short.
Kyla looked at Josh. "The King? Portal? What is this, some kind of role-playing game?"
"I thought so too," Lin said. "But the dates match up with real burglaries. These guys were serious, whatever they were doing."
Josh was quiet, staring at the messages with an expression Kyla couldn't read. Finally, he said, "Can you trace the unknown user?"
"Already tried. They're using some serious encryption, routing through servers in about fifteen different countries. Whoever this person is, they know what they're doing. It could take weeks to track them down."
"We don't have weeks," Josh muttered. He turned to Kyla. "We need to talk to Webb and Ortiz again. Today."
They spent the next hour reviewing all the files from the laptop, taking notes and photos. The maps showed locations all over Tides—some they recognized from recent burglaries, others in places that hadn't been hit yet. One location caught Kyla's attention: a warehouse in the industrial district, marked with a red star and the words "MAIN SITE—DO NOT APPROACH ALONE."
"What do you think that means?" she asked Josh.
"Nothing good." He took a photo of the map with his phone. "Let's keep that one between us for now."
By ten o'clock, they were sitting across from Marcus Webb in Interview Room 2. Webb's lawyer, a sharp-dressed woman named Patricia Huang, sat beside him with a notepad and an expression that said she wasn't going to let them push her client around.
"My client is willing to cooperate in exchange for a reduced sentence," Huang began.
Sergeant Chen, who'd insisted on sitting in, crossed his arms. "Depends on what he has to say."
Josh slid a printout of the encrypted messages across the table. "Who were you working for, Marcus?"
Webb glanced at his lawyer, who nodded slightly. He took a shaky breath. "I don't know his real name. We only ever talked online. He called himself... the Messenger."
"The Messenger," Kyla repeated. "And what did this Messenger want?"
"The fragments. The glowing stones. He said they were important, that they had power. He paid us ten thousand dollars for each one we found."
"That's a lot of money for some rocks," Chen said. "What makes them so special?"
Webb's hands were shaking now. "I don't know, man. I didn't ask questions. The money was good, and he always knew exactly where to find them. He'd send us locations, building layouts, security schedules. It was like he had access to information he shouldn't have."
Josh leaned forward. "The message mentioned a portal. What portal?"
"I don't know! I swear! He just said we needed to collect twelve fragments before something called 'the alignment.' He said it was happening soon, and if we didn't have all twelve, something bad would happen."
"Bad how?" Kyla asked.
Webb looked genuinely terrified. "He showed us a photo once. A video, actually. It was dark, hard to see, but there was this... thing. It looked like a rip in the air, glowing and moving. And through it, I could see something else. Another place. And there were shapes moving in it. Not human shapes."
The room went quiet. Kyla felt a chill crawl up her spine. She glanced at Josh, who looked like he was working hard to keep his expression neutral.
"You expect us to believe that?" Chen said flatly.
"I know how it sounds!" Webb's voice cracked. "But I saw what I saw. That's why I'm talking to you now. David and I, we thought it was just some rich weirdo's weird hobby. But after seeing that video, after finding that stone at the bank and feeling how warm it was, how it seemed to hum when I held it... I think we got involved in something way over our heads."
Huang put a hand on her client's arm. "That's enough for now. My client has cooperated. We want the deal in writing."
Chen stood. "We'll discuss it and get back to you."
Outside the interview room, Chen pulled Josh and Kyla aside. "What do you two make of that?"
"He's either telling the truth or he's completely lost it," Josh said carefully.
"Or he's trying to set up an insanity defense," Chen added. "Either way, we need to find this Messenger person and figure out what the hell is really going on. I want you two to track down the other locations on those maps. See if there's anything to this fragment story."
"What about the warehouse marked as the main site?" Kyla asked.
Chen frowned. "What warehouse?"
Josh and Kyla exchanged a quick look. "One of the locations on the map," Josh said smoothly. "We were planning to check it out."
"Fine. But take backup. I don't want my officers walking into something dangerous alone. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," they said in unison.
As they walked back to their desks, Josh grabbed Kyla's arm, pulling her into an empty conference room. "We're not taking backup to that warehouse."
"Josh, Chen just said—"
"I know what he said. But if there's really something strange going on, something that involves glowing stones and mysterious portals, I don't want to parade a bunch of officers through there until we know what we're dealing with."
Kyla crossed her arms. "So what, we just ignore direct orders?"
"We do some surveillance first. Tonight, after our shift. Just you and me, watching from a distance. If we see anything suspicious, we call it in. If not, we check it out tomorrow with backup like good little officers."
Kyla knew she should say no. Should insist they follow protocol. But the look in Josh's eyes—part determination, part curiosity, and maybe a little bit of excitement—made her hesitate.
"This is a bad idea," she said.
"Probably."
"We could get in serious trouble."
"Most likely."
"Fine. But we're just watching. No heroics."
Josh grinned. "Deal."
They spent the rest of the day following up on the other marked locations. Most were businesses that had already been burglarized. But two locations stood out: an antique shop in the downtown area and a private residence in the wealthy Northside neighborhood. Both owners reported strange occurrences—flickering lights, electronic devices malfunctioning, and a persistent humming sound late at night.
"It's the same pattern," Kyla said as they drove back to the station. "Everywhere these fragments are, weird things happen."
"Which means that warehouse is probably crawling with weird," Josh replied. "All the more reason to scope it out carefully."
That evening, after clocking out and changing into dark civilian clothes, they met in the station parking lot. Josh had brought binoculars, a flashlight, and two energy drinks.
"Ready for your first stakeout?" he asked.
Kyla accepted the energy drink. "As ready as I'll ever be."
The warehouse district was quiet after dark, most of the buildings abandoned or used for storage. Josh parked three blocks away from their target, and they approached on foot, sticking to the shadows. The warehouse itself was a massive concrete structure, four stories tall with broken windows and graffiti covering the lower walls.
They found a good vantage point behind a shipping container and settled in to watch. For the first hour, nothing happened. Kyla was starting to think this was a waste of time when she saw it—a flicker of blue light in one of the upper windows.
"Josh," she whispered. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah." He raised the binoculars. "There it is again. Someone's inside."
They watched as the light moved from window to window, sometimes bright, sometimes dim. Then they heard it. That humming sound, so low it was almost felt rather than heard, vibrating through the ground beneath their feet.
"Okay, that's definitely not normal," Kyla said.
Josh lowered the binoculars, his face serious in the dim light. "Tomorrow we come back with backup. But tonight, we document everything."
He pulled out his phone and started taking photos. Kyla did the same, zooming in as much as she could. As they watched, a figure appeared in one of the windows—just a silhouette, but clearly human-shaped. It stood there for a long moment, as if looking out over the city.
Then it turned, and even from this distance, Kyla could see its eyes. They glowed with the same eerie blue light as the stones.
"Oh my God," she breathed.
The figure disappeared back into the darkness. The humming stopped. The lights went out. Everything was still.
Josh and Kyla sat there for another hour, but nothing else happened. Finally, cold and stiff, they made their way back to the car.
"Did we just see what I think we saw?" Kyla asked.
Josh started the engine, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. "I don't know what we saw. But whatever is happening in this city, it's bigger than burglaries and stolen stones. And I think we just scratched the surface of something that's going to change everything."
As they drove through the empty streets of Tides, neither of them noticed the car that had been watching them. Or the figure inside it, whose eyes also glowed blue in the darkness.
The pieces were moving into place. The alignment was coming. And two young police officers had just stumbled onto a secret that could put them directly in the path of forces beyond their understanding.
End of Chapter 3