The facility’s emergency alarm blared to life. The harsh white lighting of the facility's interior was immediately replaced with a dim red hue as the backup generator kicked in. Warning lights flashed, and the corridor was immediately filled with shouts and screams of alarm as people began to rush.

  “Noelle, Ben, do either of you have any idea what’s going on? Was this your doing?”

  Evantra avoided the stream of people rushing down the corridor towards the bunker entrance. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she pushed forwards.

  “No! We were given instructions to secure the experiments, then to head straight for the bunker. Ben?”

  “Nothing to report, Amitabha. I checked the status of the facility and didn’t find any breaches in the external perimeter. It must be because of something on the inside.”

  “A Veilsurge? I’m getting real sick of those popping up out of nowhere,” Evantra said breathlessly, jostled by the people around her who were scrambling to run towards the bunker. Seeing the entrance to the emergency stairwell nearby, Evantra immediately ducked into it to avoid being crushed by the crowd.

  “Doubtful, Amitabha. They have sensors that can detect the presence of the veilsurges. Unless…”

  “Unless?”

  “The location of the Veilsurge was in B2 – the closed loop separated from the rest of the grid.”

  Evantra gritted her teeth as her mind whirled. Ideally, they would have had the option to carefully plan out how they would scout out the second basement level. But after an incident on this scale, it was equally likely that they would step up security, making any scouting efforts close to impossible.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she heard Noelle’s voice echo.

  “Let’s meet at sector L6. It should be deserted with everyone heading to the bunker. Ben, the security feed is down?”

  “Yes, Amitabha. Until power is restored, it shouldn’t be live.”

  “Got it. Noelle, you’ll get me in. Once I get to a local terminal and take down the security feeds in the basement level, we should be able to move about freely. If anything changes, we retreat. Let’s not overextend ourselves.”

  ***

  “There you are.”

  Evantra let out a sigh of relief upon the sight of her two friends. They were both sweaty and looked breathless from the exertion, but it seemed like Noelle was coping much better than she would have before Coach Senju’s training.

  “This is the door?”

  Noelle nodded, striding up to the biometric scanner and allowing her retina to be scanned. Evantra’s heart was thudding in anticipation before she watched the lock on the large door emit a green light and a high-pitched beep.

  Benjamin handed her a drive.

  “The cameras will be up and running. Once you find a terminal, plug this in. It’ll suspend the security system. Then the pair of us will be free to proceed further into the facility with Noelle’s help without fear of being caught on the feeds.”

  “Alright… but if the situation changes, we’re getting out of here immediately. We’ll need to cook up an alibi for why we didn’t head to the bunker.”

  “Good luck,” Noelle said, her voice shaking as she tightly gripped Evantra’s forearm.

  She gave her friend a reassuring grin.

  “Stay safe you two.”

  She watched as her friends headed into a nearby room.

  [Ritual of concealment]

  Veilsouls remaining: 1,965

  She crossed the threshold, heading through the entrance. She eyed the cameras around the doorway.

  Just like with my gambit with Caliburn… once they review the footage, they’ll figure out that something went wrong, unless they write it off as a malfunction due to the power shut-down.

  I need to hurry.

  To her surprise, there weren’t many researchers out and about in the hallways. It looked as if the basement was reserved for executives and senior employees and trusted guards. Wherever the incident that had caused the lockdown was, it wasn’t anywhere close to her. After all, a single floor of the facility was enormous, and with any luck, she would be able to evade any organics that were around.

  Evantra quickly plugged in the drive, heading to the very first terminal that she found.

  She activated her comms once she saw the light on the drive blink green.

  “Ben… it’s been uploaded.”

  “Coming through now.”

  After waiting a few minutes, Benjamin and Noelle entered the laboratory. Noelle immediately entered her details into the system, her eyes lighting up when she successfully gained access.

  “Lily… I need to make this up to you,” she whispered, before gesturing for Ben to take over.

  “Our priorities are Project Darwin, the Trove Seeker, and then his work on microrituals – in that order. If you can pinpoint the location of his office or a holding area for artefacts on this floor, start with that,” Evantra said, before turning to Noelle.

  “Let’s go further in.”

  The girl nodded before they left Ben to his devices. Evantra noticed how he pulled up the real-time security feed, not the spoofed version that he had substituted to keep an eye out for approaching personnel.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Proceeding down the empty hallway, Evantra was eerily reminded of her time in the laboratory in the UK, where she had first encountered the wraith and the ritual that started it all. They finally came upon a doorway at a junction that seemed to lead into a connecting room.

  “Should I…?”

  Evantra nodded her agreement as she scanned the area.

  “Anyone in our vicinity, Ben?”

  “You’re in luck, Amitabha. There are cameras down on the other side of the floor, a distance away from your location. Although… Wraith…”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “There’s something off about the room in front of you. You’ll see when you enter, Amitabha.”

  Before Evantra could reply, she watched as the doors opened.

  They were met with a cavernous room resembling a hanger that was coated in darkness. Evantra could hear the low thrum of machinery around her as they entered. The room was otherwise deathly silent, and there didn’t seem to be any Demeteria operatives in the area.

  She reached out to Noelle, grabbing her by the arm before activating her skill.

  [Darkvision]

  Her surroundings came into detail.

  Evantra stared at row upon row of gigantic rectangular cubic structures, also accompanied by large, cylindrical glass tubes made of the same metallic material. She passed her visor over to Noelle to wear.

  “Any idea what we’re looking at?” she whispered.

  “N-no.”

  They avoided the central walkway, instead proceeding through the room using one of the side pathways. Evantra felt Noelle’s hand tighten around her arm. Her pulse was racing, and her eyes narrowed as she walked closer to one of the ‘containers’, feeling her skin prickle.

  Her eyes narrowed as she peered at one of the cylindrical structures.

  That looks an awful lot like…

  On a whim, she activated her [ritual of veilsight].

  Veilsouls remaining: 1,955

  Evantra’s eyes widened.

  Black particles twisted through the air, roiling like a swarm of locusts. The particles were contained and converged in nebulous masses in every single container. It was an eerie mirror of what she had seen in Megabuilding Z5, the hazy particles that indicated the presence of the ritual above, or the poltergeist that occupied in the higher floors of the megabuilding.

  Rituals?

  Or… ghosts?

  What is Demteria doing with all of this?

  “Evantra, up ahead,” Noelle whispered.

  Then she heard it.

  Voices.

  “Please… anybody. Help us.”

  A feminine voice could be heard emanating from the room beyond them. Evantra flinched as Noelle’s hand tightened around her forearm like a vice. The girl’s body had turned rigid, and Evantra could see a look of pure desperation in her eyes.

  “This is what he does,” she whispered.

  “Evantra… we have to help them.”

  Help who?

  Damnit Noelle… I knew I should have pried it out of her.

  “Stay back. Or else, we’re forgetting the plan and going back just the way we came. Keep a lookout, and if anything goes wrong, run and regroup with Ben, got it?”

  The girl eventually relented, loosening her grip and allowing Evantra to tug her hand free. She cursed, turning to glimpse at the two blades that she had sheathed by her sides. She had checked in her firearm at the facility’s armoury, and wasn’t armed with anything of more substance.

  “Ben… what am I looking at?” Evantra whispered, casting a brief glance at Noelle who was crouched behind one of the containment units nearby. Her look of angst hadn’t shifted an inch, and it seemed like she was itching to charge right in.

  “Feeds are cut inside the room ahead, Amitabha. Proceed with caution.”

  Thankfully for her, Evantra had the benefit of the cover of darkness.

  She slowly stepped into the room, eyes instantly darting from one end to the other.

  Her breath caught.

  Beyond her was a large laboratory. It was cordoned into different sections, each with a different ‘theme’ or focus. One section of the room seemed to be covered in a wall of cybernetic implants. Optics, legs, arms, subdermals and even internal components were kept in a transparent refrigerated compartment.

  The next section contained a selection of different metallic puzzles. Arrayed out on the table, they seemed to be ordered from least complex to most. Other metallic objects were also kept securely behind a different compartment, ranging from small ball bearings to larger metallic objects of seemingly great weight and volume.

  But each section of the laboratory had something in common.

  Prison cells.

  “Is someone there?” Evantra heard a feminine voice call out from the far end of the room. Casting a quick glance towards the sections closest to the entrance, she realised that the prison cells in the sections containing the metallic objects and the cybernetic implants were empty.

  She crept forwards, taking cover behind furniture and objects while slowly drawing closer to the voice.

  “Cecille…” a soft male voice uttered, filled with concern. “Mon amie, please save your voice.”

  As Evantra crept up to the cells, her eyes widened as she finally made out the figures before her.

  The first was a towering man. He was slumped against the right wall of his cell. The cell itself was a large box comprised of transparent walls on each side. From the dim light that emanated from each of their cells, Evantra could make out that he had olive brown skin, had a large frame and messy, dark brown hair.

  Her gaze shifted to the innumerable scars across his exposed forearms before finally landing on his face. It was the face of a young man who looked to be slightly younger than her. A plump face with large, hazel eyes shadowed by fatigue. He had an innocent look about him, and unlike her initial impression, he seemed to have curled himself defensively into a ball with his forearms around his legs.

  He was trembling.

  “Please… I know you’re there,” the feminine voice said softly.

  Evantra froze, her gaze immediately shifting to the opposite side of the room.

  A girl about her own age was standing in an identical cell. She was dressed in long, stained brown robes and had wavy black hair that tumbled down across her shoulders. Her eyes were drawn and harrowed, similar to the other man. Even so, she was pretty and had a pair of ice blue eyes that shone even in the dim light of her cell.

  But it wasn’t those eyes that drew Evantra’s attention.

  More specifically, her focus was on the third eye in the centre of the girl’s forehead that was drilling into Evantra’s own.

  Crap.

  “They imprisoned us here against our will. If you could just find a way to let us out, we’ll be out of your hair. You can forget about us,” the girl plead. The man on the opposite side of the room curled into himself, placing his hands over his ears as if trying to escape the hope that the girl was inducing.

  Evantra gritted her teeth as she considered her options.

  Human experimentation.

  She knew that megacorporations were engaged in the practice. Trevor had been crystal clear about his own experience. But a part of her wanted to believe that Antoinne was different. That he had an appreciation for the sanctity of life, given his own experience with his granddaughter.

  She shook the thoughts free of her head and considered her options.

  If I release them… I’ll have to abort my exploration here.

  But if we don’t pull it off now… who knows how long it will be before we get our next chance, especially if they up the security in the basement.

  A chance like this might not come our way again.

  Evantra’s emotions warred within her, and she felt the familiar, frustrating sensation of helplessness seep into her. Which was when the image of a familiar, kindly policeman returned to her.

  A cop who was constantly in over his head, but who went to extraordinary lengths in spite of how pointless an exercise it seemed to be.

  Even if he knew what end lay in wait for him.

  Evantra strode out of the shadows and into the dim light of the cells. She watched as the man flinched before staring at her in wonder, his hands slowly coming away from his ears. Tears began to run free from all three of the girl’s eyes as her lip curled into a shaky smile in relief when Evantra gave her a curt nod. She advanced towards the cell quickly, crouching next to the locking mechanism and examining it to determine how it operated.

  “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much. Henri… we’re going to be ok,” the girl whispered.

  “Noelle, get in here. Ben? We’ve found some prisoners. Human test subjects. I’m going to try to find them a way into the main facility and point them towards the jungle.”

  “Understood. The file extraction is still in progress. Power still hasn’t been restored in the main facility; you still have time. But Wraith… Noelle entered the room after you… she isn’t with you?”

  Evantra felt a chill as Benjamin’s words reached her.