Page 43 of Echos and Empires
“Some things do come first,” she chuckled and Liam smiled again. She was a fucking superstar.
Liam moved, taking the stairs two at a time behind Chris until they reached the small extra room that was most certainly not big enough for all of them to cram in.
Urgency bled into the room like an open wound. The group gathered around the computer, their anticipation a living, breathing thing.
“Could be tracked,” Alex warned, his words a shot of adrenaline in the charged air.
“Only one way to find out,” Chris held his hand out to Emma who placed the small black drive in it, and turned to slide it into the basic desktop tower.
Silence closed in like a fist as they plugged in the thumb drive, each second a taut line of expectation. All eyes were on the screen. In a blink, a single file loaded within the file explorer.
“It’s a PDF,” he said, the words echoing with the promise of unknowns, the threat of possibilities.
Liam leaned forward, the white-blue light painting his face
“Just read it, man,” Bash urged, the impatience in his voice matching the tight coil of tension Liam saw out of the corner of his eyes in Bash’s shoulders.
Liam’s eyes flicked over the screen, gathering letters and meanings like a net. He breathed deeply, preparing for whatever it was they were about to haul to the surface. “Preliminary Progress Report,” he began, the title like a lit fuse waiting to spark. “Phase Two Initiation.”
“What the hell is Phase Two?” Alex’s question was a pinpoint of the fear and curiosity Liam felt, too.
“We’ll find out,” Chris replied, his voice steady but tense, like a bowstring pulled to its limit.
Liam read on, his voice weaving through the words, drawing out their patterns and dangers. “Continued success ofthe initial cleansing has reduced global female population to projected levels, facilitating complete dependency on centralized reproductive efforts.”
“Jesus.” Emma’s voice broke through the charged air, a crack in the dense shell of tension. “He had something to do with the bombs.”
Rage erupted with volcanic force through every cell in Liam’s body, a searing inferno that consumed him entirely. The room dissolved into a blur, swallowed by the blistering heat of his fury, which became the sole focus of his existence. The bombs hadn’t been a fucking accident. Betrayal pulsed through his veins like molten lava, scorching everything in its path.
“Keep. Fucking. Reading.” Chris snarled. “Or I’ll break the god damn computer in my anger and we’ll learn nothing.”
The white-blue light continued to flicker, ghosts of words spilling out into the room like restless spirits. Liam barely blinked, the glow hardening the lines of his concentration. He read faster now, urgency and horror dueling in his throat. “Additional stages may include controlled experiments in genetic diversity and social integration. Construction on test environment scheduled for completion ahead of timeline.”
“Controlled experiments?” Chris repeated, the shock ricocheting off the walls. “Test environment?”
“Keep reading,” Bash said, the gruffness unable to hide the raw edge of his anger.
Liam nodded, words tumbling out like broken promises. “Island will remain the focal point for all Phase Two activity. Imminent relocation expected to triple population within eighteen months, increasing genetic viability. Population groups may experience unrest upon arrival, but simulations suggest minimal disruptions to primary objectives.”
Emma stood very still, her shadow quivering on the wall behind her like a trapped insect. “They’ve been planning this. Allof it. the island wasn’t just already made as a survival outpost. It was already made to destroy everything.”
Liam paused, letting the enormity of the revelation settle like radioactive ash in the air. “Victor,” he said, the single word a declaration of war. “He knew from the beginning. What the toxin would do. That’s why they had the island. It was always part of the plan.”
“No one escapes this level of devastation,” Alex said, the disbelief a bitter note on his tongue. “Unless…”
“He’s fucking behind it,” Chris finished, anger crystallizing the idea into something solid and lethal.
Liam didn’t need to point out that Chris was a little behind. His leader was likely too furious to put the obvious together at the same time Liam did.
“The last sentence,” Liam said, his voice the eye of a hurricane. “End of year projections suggest initial prototype communities could begin within twelve months.”
Silence settled over them, a thick fog, hanging over them, suffocating them and impossible to navigate.
Finally, Chris broke through, his words blunt instruments aimed at the truth. “Victor set us up.”
Liam continued, his voice a scalpel cutting into the dense mass of the report. “He orchestrated the whole damn thing.”
The screen’s glow was an unforgiving spotlight, highlighting their disbelief, their anger, their dawning understanding. Emma’s breath was uneven, her face a battleground where fear and determination warred. Bash’s fists were clenched tight, bloodless, ready to pound answers from the nearest wall or skull. Chris’s jaw was set, the grinding of his teeth a promise of retribution. Alex stared at the screen, as if he might find a different truth there if he just looked hard enough.
