The corridor sealed behind them with a heavy metallic impact that shook dust from the ceiling.
Ethan turned and pushed against the door.
Nothing.
He tried the handle again even though there was no visible mechanism to operate.
"It's locked."
Seth kept his attention on the figure ahead.
"Forget the door."
"I'd rather not."
"Seth," Mara whispered.
He looked at her.
She had backed against the wall. Her face had lost what little color remained in it.
"You said they keep them below the students," Ethan said. "What exactly is coming toward us?"
Mara swallowed.
"I don't know what they are anymore."
The shape moved closer.
Its footsteps dragged across the metal floor. One leg seemed weaker than the other, forcing its body into an uneven rhythm.
Step.
Drag.
Step.
Drag.
The emergency light above them flickered.
For an instant Ethan saw the creature clearly.
It was human.
At least it had once been.
A hospital gown hung loosely around its body. Several sections of its clothing had been torn away. Its skin looked pale beneath the red lighting and thin crystalline lines ran beneath the surface of its arms and neck.
Its head remained lowered.
Seth stared at it.
"Don't attack it."
Ethan looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because it isn't hunting us."
The figure stopped.
Its head lifted.
One eye focused on Seth.
The other remained clouded.
Then it spoke.
"Finally."
Ethan felt his stomach tighten.
The voice was rough but unmistakably human.
Seth took one cautious step forward.
"Who are you?"
The figure's mouth twitched.
"You don't remember me."
"No."
"You wouldn't."
It took another step.
"You weren't supposed to remember anything."
Mara moved closer to Ethan.
"Don't listen to him."
The figure looked at her.
"You still have the flowers in your blood."
Mara's hand went immediately to her throat.
Seth noticed.
"You know about the hybrid."
The figure laughed quietly.
"Everyone down here knows about the hybrid."
Ethan studied him.
"Who are you?"
The figure raised one trembling hand.
A plastic identification band hung around his wrist.
The name was almost impossible to read.
Ethan stepped closer.
"Dr. Halden."
The man's expression changed.
"You can read it."
"You worked here."
"I still do."
Ethan glanced around the corridor.
"That doesn't look like working."
Halden looked down at himself.
"No."
He seemed to consider the statement.
"It doesn't."
A low vibration passed through the walls.
Seth suddenly grabbed the side of his head.
Ethan moved toward him.
"What happened?"
"Someone is coming."
Halden's expression tightened.
"Not someone."
The corridor lights went out.
A sound came from behind the walls.
Thousands of tiny clicks.
Seth straightened.
"The network is opening."
Halden moved toward a panel.
"We need to go."
Ethan followed him.
"Where?"
"Anywhere that isn't here."
Halden pressed his palm against the panel.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
"Come on."
The wall remained sealed.
Seth walked over.
He placed his hand against the same panel.
The metal immediately unlocked.
Halden froze.
Ethan stared.
"Why did it respond to him?"
Halden looked at Seth with something between fear and recognition.
"Because it remembers what you are."
Seth removed his hand.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"And nobody has explained it."
"No."
Halden looked toward the dark corridor.
"Because the people who knew the whole story are dead."
A metallic crash echoed behind them.
Halden's face tightened.
"Now move."
The panel opened.
They slipped into a narrow service passage.
Halden pulled the door shut.
A second later something struck it from the other side.
The impact bent the metal inward.
Ethan stared at the dent.
"What was that?"
Halden kept walking.
"The first generation."
"The first what?"
"Subjects."
They hurried through the passage.
The walls here were older than the rest of Point Veert. Rust marked the seams and old cables hung from the ceiling. The clean architecture of the upper facility had disappeared.
Ethan noticed dates stamped onto the metal panels.
Some were decades old.
"How long has this place existed?"
Halden didn't stop.
"Longer than the college."
Seth looked at the walls.
"How much longer?"
Halden hesitated.
"Seventy-three years."
Ethan stopped.
"Point Veert has only been here for thirty-two."
Halden looked back.
"Exactly."
Another impact struck the sealed door behind them.
The metal groaned.
Halden started walking again.
"You need to understand something before we go any farther."
Ethan caught up.
"Go ahead."
"The college wasn't built around the crystal."
Seth looked at him.
"It was built over it."
Halden nodded.
"The first researchers found the lattice underground. They thought it was mineral."
"And then?"
"They discovered it responded to biological tissue."
Seth's expression hardened.
Halden continued.
"Every experiment made it stronger."
They reached a junction.
Three passages branched ahead.
Halden stopped.
His breathing had become heavier.
Ethan noticed.
"You don't know where to go."
"I know exactly where to go."
"Then why are you stopping?"
Halden looked at Seth.
"Because the network knows where we are going too."
The red emergency lights flickered.
One passage illuminated.
Then another.
Then the third.
All three routes.
Seth closed his eyes.
He listened.
"The left one is blocked."
Halden stared.
"How do you know?"
"I can feel the pressure."
"The middle?"
"Something is moving through it."
Halden nodded slowly.
"And the right?"
Seth opened his eyes.
"Empty."
Halden looked toward the right-hand corridor.
"Then we take it."
They moved.
Behind them came another impact.
This one stronger.
The door they had escaped through finally gave way.
A low roar rolled through the passage.
Mara looked back.
"What is that?"
Halden answered without turning.
"The system's first mistake."
Ethan frowned.
"That's not a creature."
"No."
Halden's voice dropped.
"It's a person who survived the process."
They rounded the corner.
The corridor opened into a large underground room.
Old laboratory equipment filled the space.
Broken tanks stood along the walls.
Some were empty.
Some still contained cloudy liquid.
In the center stood a circular table covered with photographs.
Ethan approached.
Every photograph showed students.
Different years.
Different faces.
The same campus.
The same forest.
The same hunting grounds.
He picked one up.
The date was from fifteen years earlier.
The student looked almost exactly like Mara.
Seth picked up another.
His expression changed.
Ethan noticed.
"What?"
Seth turned the photograph around.
On the back was a handwritten note.
Ethan read it.
SUBJECT 17 — COMPATIBLE RESPONSE DETECTED.
Below that was another line.
WAIT FOR THE DONOVAN VARIANT.
Ethan stared at the words.
Mara stepped backward.
Halden closed his eyes.
Seth said nothing.
Then the laboratory doors slammed shut.
Every monitor in the room turned on at once.
Fargrave appeared on the screens.
He looked directly into the camera.
"I was hoping you would find this room."
Ethan stepped toward the nearest monitor.
"You knew we'd come here."
Fargrave nodded.
"I knew Seth would."
Seth stared at the screen.
"Why?"
Fargrave's expression remained unreadable.
"Because this is where the first attempt failed."
A sound came from the ceiling.
Metal bending.
Halden looked up.
"He's here."
Fargrave continued speaking.
"And now we finally have the opportunity to correct it."
The ceiling cracked open.
Something dropped into the laboratory.
The lights shattered.
Mara screamed.
Seth turned.
The thing that had followed them stood between them and the only exit.
And this time it was smiling.