Darius smiled broadly, showing his teeth.
"I already like the place. Set the GPS, Marcus," Darius said.
But the mercenary didn’t seem convinced at all. His eyes reflected pure military distrust.
"No one gives away security in this world, Jonah. What do they want in exchange for letting us in?" Marcus asked.
Jonah took a few seconds to respond.
"Resources," Jonah said.
"What kind? Weapons, medicine, labor?" Marcus asked.
"It depends on what you need and the quota they impose on you when you arrive," Jonah said.
"That’s not a tactical answer," Marcus countered.
Jonah sighed, exhausted.
"The Bastion functions like a small, independent city. There are merchants, a paramilitary guard force, real doctors, mechanic workshops. But they also have very strict rules. If you break one, they expel you into the forest or execute you," Jonah said.
"And who runs that paradise?" I asked.
Jonah shifted his gaze toward the window.
"A woman named Mara Voss. She’s not related to anyone in this vehicle, if that’s what you’re thinking," Jonah said.
I didn’t know the name, but the way he pronounced it made the air in the truck grow cold.
"Is she trustworthy?" I inquired.
Jonah let out a laugh without a drop of humor.
"No. She’s the most dangerous person in this region," Jonah replied.
"Then why would we go directly to her door?" I asked.
"Because it’s one of the few damn places within a hundred kilometers where people don’t have to sleep with a weapon under their pillow, Gabriel. They have walls. And we need walls," Jonah said.
Marcus considered the information in silence, weighing the risks.
"Did you live there?" Marcus asked.
Jonah didn’t answer immediately; his clenched jaw betrayed an internal conflict.
Elias broke the silence.
"I escaped from there," Elias said.
All heads turned toward him at once.
"Why?" I asked, moving a little closer.
Elias crossed his arms, rubbing his elbows as if he were cold.
"Because Voss’s guards discovered I was synchronized," Elias said.
The atmosphere changed drastically. Marcus gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. Scarlett instinctively moved her hand toward the hilt of her knife.
"What did they do to you?" Marcus growled.
"They wanted to study me," Elias replied.
"Study you? Like a lab rat?" Marcus asked.
"There’s a heavily guarded room in the center of the Bastion." Elias paused deeply, as if the mere mention of the place made him nauseous. "They call it the White Room," he said.
"What’s in there?" I pressed.
"Objects," Elias replied.
"What kind of objects?" I asked.
"Things... strange things they’ve been finding in the ruins after the Rupture," Elias said.
Elias quickly explained that Voss’s scavengers brought unusual fragments from outside. Some of those objects reacted violently to the synchronized. Others produced unlimited energy. Some even seemed to alter or destroy normal electrical devices just by touching them.
"And they study them to create technology?" I asked.
"They’re trying to understand them to use them as weapons," Elias clarified, looking me in the eyes. "They seek to understand Resonance," he said.
"That could be useful for understanding our own System," I said.
Elias shook his head, somber.
"It could also kill you in seconds. That room is cursed," Elias said.
I didn’t respond. My mind was working at full speed. A few seconds later, I slid my hand into the pocket of my tactical jacket and pulled out the black crystal I had recovered from the mimic’s corpse. The Rupture Fragment. I had almost forgotten it. Now it burned against my fingers.
Elias saw it and his pupils dilated.
"Where did you get that?" Elias asked.
"I found it in the apartment where everything started. A creature dropped it when it died," I said.
"Did you touch it directly with your hands?" Elias asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"And what happened?" Elias asked.
"Absolutely nothing," I said.
Elias extended a trembling hand.
"Let me see it," Elias said.
I handed it to him carefully. He observed it for several seconds, turning it under the faint light entering through the windows.
"This... this belongs to the same class of anomalous objects that Voss’s men keep under lock and key in the White Room. I can feel the noise," Elias said.
I opened my interface and focused my gaze on the piece of metal.
UNKNOWN OBJECT
Composition: Partially identified (Non-terrestrial alloy).
Origin: Unknown.
Interaction with Resonance: Confirmed.
Status: Inactive.
"My System doesn’t tell me much," I commented with frustration. "It just says it’s inactive."
"Try again," Elias insisted.
"Why? I already scanned it," I said.
"Because before you were alone. Now you’re near another synchronized. The static in the air is greater," Elias said.
I didn’t immediately understand what he meant, but I did as he said. I activated the System again and concentrated on the metal resting in Elias’s hand.
This time, something completely different happened.
The fragment began to emit a dull heat. Elias let out a groan, surprised by the sudden increase in temperature, and dropped it.
The object landed on my open palm.
A line of cyan light, bright and sharp, appeared on its metallic surface.
Then another line emerged, crossing the first. And another.
A holographic structure began to form over the metal, floating a few centimeters from my skin.
It was a three-dimensional topographic map.
In a second, I recognized the urban structure of the ruined city we had just abandoned and the vast forest surrounding us.
"What the hell is that...?" Darius murmured, standing up.
Everyone in the truck, except Marcus and the unconscious Lena, moved closer, hypnotized by the glowing projection.
The hologram didn’t just show terrain; it showed pulsing points of light.
One point was static, shining intensely over the gigantic tower dominating the city’s horizon.
Another appeared far from us, in the depths of the forest.
Jonah pointed at the second flash with a trembling finger.
"Those coordinates... that’s very close to the Bastion’s perimeter," Jonah said.
Then a third point appeared on the floating grid.
I stared at it, feeling my pulse quicken in my neck.
"These lights are signals. Entities," I whispered.
Elias moved even closer, illuminated by the blue reflection.
"What do you mean they’re entities?" Elias asked.
I activated the Analysis again. The System’s red text superimposed over the artifact’s blue light.
RESONANCE NETWORK PATTERN
Detected source 1: Located (Immobile).
Detected source 2: Located (Immobile).
Detected source 3: Located (In motion).
Compatibility with synchronized users: Partial.
I looked at Elias, waiting for his confirmation.
"There are three sources emitting signals right now," I said.
Elias shook his head, confused.
"That’s impossible. I can only feel two gigantic resonances out there," Elias said.
"I only see two on the map’s horizon too," I said.
But the third cyan point was there. And it began moving in the projection.
My stomach contracted violently. The point was located exactly at the center of our moving vehicle’s coordinates, not in the outer forest.
I turned slowly toward the back of the van.
Marcus was still focused on driving.
Maya was sitting alert beside Darius.
Jonah was holding Lena.
Evelyn was sorting medical gauze.
Scarlett was beside me.
Elias was still standing in front of me.
None of them emitted the energy signature the map was tracking. No one seemed to react.
The System issued an urgent warning.
[Unknown source detected in immediate proximity.]
[Relative distance: 3.2 meters.]
I looked around, feeling cold sweat on the back of my neck. Three meters. That was inside the van’s cargo area. Too close.
The bright point in the hologram flickered again, shifting.
[Relative distance: 2.8 meters.]
Then the logic of the numbers clicked in my mind. The artifact was pointing to a point moving with us.
I looked directly at Lena.
She had been completely unconscious for several minutes, sunk in a deep lethargy due to blood loss. Jonah was still massaging the back of her pale hand.
The holographic point and the red alert flickered in unison one last time.
[Relative distance: 2.4 meters. Imminent contact.]
Suddenly, Lena opened her eyes abruptly.
There was no transition. No disoriented blink, no moan of pain from the wound.
Her pupils fixed directly on me from the back of the truck.
She didn’t look at Jonah, even though he was squeezing her hand.
She didn’t look at Elias, who had saved her life.
She looked at me, with an icy, absolute lucidity that froze my blood.
"You can see it too," she whispered, her voice sounding slightly distorted, as if resonating inside a metallic tunnel.
The vehicle fell into total, absolute silence.
Jonah frowned, completely bewildered, and leaned over her.
"Lena? Love, what’s wrong?" Jonah asked.
She didn’t answer him. She didn’t even blink. She kept her eyes fixed on mine, as if the rest of the universe had ceased to exist.
I lowered my gaze, observing the metallic fragment in my palm.
The holographic light of the map had faded in the air, extinguishing completely.
But in my private interface... the third red warning point was still there.
Floating, static.
Right above Lena’s skull.
"I don’t understand," Elias said, breaking the silence with a trembling voice. "I’ve been centimeters from her and I felt nothing. It’s like something was turning her off."
I stared at Lena. She stared back at me.
And then, for the first time since I’d met her, she smiled. It wasn’t a warm smile. It was the smile of someone who had just found the answer to a question they’d been asking for a very long time.
"You’re the one," she whispered. "You’re the one they’re looking for."