Faultlines
Prague – Dusk
The city looked the same. Cold breath rising in the air, the river glinting gold beneath the iron bridges. But to Rhea, it felt haunted.
Lex walked beside her, hands in pockets, shoulders tense.
"This is where we first kissed," he murmured. "And I almost forgot."
Rhea stopped. "But you didn't."
He turned to her. "That's what scares me."
They stood in front of the old rooftop building now—chained off, forgotten. The broken lantern still hung, tilting like a memory left out in the rain.
Lex pushed the gate open.
Inside, everything felt suspended—like time had folded in on itself. The wind carried something strange. Metallic. Artificial.
Then Lex's voice echoed from a hidden speaker:
> "Welcome back."
Rhea grabbed his arm. "Lex—"
He pulled a small shard of mirror from his coat, the one they'd recovered weeks ago. It shimmered. Reacting.
Suddenly, the rooftop lights blinked on.
A hologram bloomed in the air. Not Lex—but a younger version. Barely twenty. Eyes too trusting.
"Rhea Malin," the hologram said. "You are now authorized."
The floor vibrated. A panel slid open.
Beneath it: a sealed drive marked GENEVA – ECHONET_01.
Lex stared at it. "That's the original archive."
Rhea swallowed. "Then Ezra isn't luring us. He's testing us."
---
India – Midnight
The heat of the Delhi night pressed down as Shivin guided Micah and Sky through a forgotten service tunnel behind an industrial lab. Cartwright's old site—officially "decommissioned."
Sky whispered, "I can't believe this place is still standing."
Micah answered, "They never demolish what they can reuse."
Shivin keyed in an old override. The metal door hissed open.
Inside: darkness. Then motion-triggered lights flickered on.
A long corridor. Old lab coats. Rusted tech. And painted on the far wall:
"PROJECT ECHONET – CLOSED FOR ETHICAL REVIEW."
Micah muttered, "Ethical, my ass."
They reached the control room. Dust coated everything, but the core system was blinking—active.
Shivin slid in. "No way this should still be online."
Sky stepped closer. "Lex's name is in here."
He pulled up a line of code.
SUBJECT ID: LEX_04
LINKED SUBJECT: SKY_07
Status: Dual Synchronization Deferred
Micah leaned in. "Deferred?"
Shivin's face darkened. "It means the sync between you and Lex was interrupted. Your minds were never fully separated."
Sky whispered, "You mean… if they trigger one of us—"
Shivin finished for him. "—the other follows."
---
Prague – That Same Moment
Lex held the Geneva drive in shaking hands. Rhea placed hers over his.
"What if this tells us everything?" she asked.
Lex looked at her, haunted. "Then we'll finally know why we were chosen."
Above them, a small red light blinked.
Unseen. Watching.
Ezra's voice whispered into a private line:
> "Let's see who breaks first."