Page 135 of Fractured Loyalties
We don’t speak on the way back.
Elias drives like the street owes him answers. Like every pothole’s a provocation. I keep my hands in my lap, fingers twisting, not from nerves—habit. The kind I thought I killed years ago.
By the time we pull into the lower garage, I can already see the shift in his posture. That sharp tilt of his shoulders. The one that says: something’s changed.
The door to the interior slams before I’m even fully out of the car.
I follow him down the corridor, past the vault, into the core room. The main terminal is lit up like it’s breathing fire.
Lydia’s already there.
She looks up at me. Her expression isn’t soft. But there’s something different in it now. Something like an apology. Or a warning.
“We found something,” she says, eyes flicking to Elias.
He says nothing. Just gestures.
She hits play.
The clip is short. Audio only.
At first, it’s static. Then a voice. Male. Calm. Confident in that way only monsters are.
Lydia speaks low, almost under her breath. “It’s him. Vale.”
The male voice crackles through the speaker. “You think she’s just leverage? No. She’s the design. He just doesn’t know he’s building it around her yet,” it says.
Elias glances sharply at Lydia, then mutters, “That’s Vale. Confirmed.”
Then silence.
The file ends.
I feel sick.
Elias doesn’t move.
His jaw ticks. Once. Then again.
“That was yesterday,” Lydia says. “Intercepted off a burner near the northeast docks. Same voiceprint signature that tagged the EIDOLON alert.”
I speak before I mean to.
“What does he mean, I’m the design?”
Elias doesn’t answer.
Because he’s already moving.
Across the room. Toward the weapons vault.
“Wait,” I say.
He stops.
Turns.
And I don’t recognize his face.
