The silence in the hallway was a physical thing, thick and suffocating. It was Leo who moved first, grabbing Maya's elbow and Jax's arm, his grip surprisingly strong. "We need to go. Now."
He didn't have to say it twice. They moved as a single, terrified organism, stumbling down the stairs and bursting out into the too-bright morning. The sunlight felt invasive, exposing them. Every passing face seemed to be watching them. Every idling car looked like a government vehicle.
"My place," Jax said, his voice tight. "It's close. And it's a fucking fortress for Wi-Fi, at least."
No one argued. They walked quickly, not running, trying to look like normal students. It was the hardest performance of Maya's life. Her heart was a trapped bird beating against her ribs.
'He was protecting us.' Leo's words echoed, but they brought no comfort. If a tenured professor with decades of accolades needed to protect them from these people, what chance did they have?
Jax's apartment was a cluttered cave on the third floor of a nondescript building. Towers of computer parts, tangled cables, and empty energy drink cans formed a kind of modern-art landscape. The air smelled of solder and stale pizza. He immediately closed the blinds, plunging the room into a dim, electronic twilight lit only by the glow of multiple monitors.
"Okay," Jax said, pacing in front of his main rig. "Okay, think. What do we know? We know they're called Pandora Division. We know they have scary suits and take people's phones. We know they scared the shit out of Professor Evans." He ran a hand through his already messy hair. "That's it. That's all we know."
"We know they're interested in the door," Maya said, sinking onto a couch that was mostly clear of hardware. The cushions exhaled a cloud of dust. "And they're interested in us because we touched it."
"We know the door is... alive," Chloe whispered. She hadn't moved from the doorway, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as if she were freezing. "It's a living thing, or a prison for one. And we woke it up."
"It's not alive, Chloe!" Jax snapped, his nerves frayed. "It's a... a machine! An ancient, weird machine we don't understand! Calling it 'alive' is what gets us into this kind of mystical, unscientific trouble!"
"And your science has all the answers, does it?" she fired back, her eyes flashing with a rare anger. "Your science explain the hum? The warmth? The symbol that moved? The tremor that happened right after we left?"
"Coincidence and..."
"Stop it!" Maya's voice cut through the argument, sharp and tired. "Just stop. Arguing about what it is doesn't change what's happening. They have the Professor. They have our names. We're next. The question is, what do we do?"
The room went quiet again, the only sound the faint whir of computer fans.
"We run," Jax said quietly. "We get out of the city. Go to ground. My cousin has a cabin in the Poconos, no cell service, nothing."
"And then what?" Leo asked. He was standing stiffly by the door, his arms crossed. He looked pale but resolute. "We hide forever? We abandon our degrees, our lives? We become fugitives based on what? A feeling?"
"Based on the fact that a federal agent who knows our academic specialties told us we were part of a national security event, Leo!" Maya shot back, frustration boiling over. "This isn't a feeling! This is men with guns and the authority to make people disappear!"
"And running makes us look guilty!" Leo countered, his voice rising. "It confirms their suspicions! The only logical move is to stay, to cooperate, to demonstrate that we are just students who stumbled onto something strange. The truth is our best defense."
"The truth?" Chloe let out a hollow, broken laugh. "The truth is that we saw a stone dog made of light on a magical door that hums. You think that's the story that gets us a lawyer and a apology? They'll lock us in a rubber room!"
The knock on the door was soft. Polite.
It froze the blood in their veins.
All four of them stared at the door, their argument forgotten, swallowed by a pure, primal fear.
It came again. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Jax looked at Maya, his eyes wide with panic. He shook his head, a frantic, silent no.
Leo, ever the pragmatist, mouthed, 'Don't answer it.'
But it didn't matter. The doorknob turned. The lock-a cheap, standard deadbolt-gave way with a quiet, sickening snick. The door swung open.
Dr. Aris Thorne stood in the doorway, flanked by two of his silent agents. He looked exactly as he had the night before: impeccable suit, calm expression, the air of a man who was always exactly where he meant to be. He held a small, sleek tablet.
"Mr. Henderson," Thorne said, his voice pleasant, as if he'd just dropped by for coffee. "A fascinating signal-to-noise ratio you have here. It's like trying to listen to a symphony in a hurricane."
His pale eyes swept the room, taking in the terrified faces of the others. "Ms. Reed. Ms. Davis. Mr. Torres. I'm glad you're all together. It saves time."
"You can't just break in," Jax stammered, his bravado utterly gone.
Thorne's smile was a fleeting thing. "This is a national security perimeter now. The rules are... flexible." He stepped inside, his agents remaining in the hall, closing the door behind him. He didn't seem to notice the mess. His focus was entirely on them. "I need to ask you a few more questions. Individually. It won't take long."
"We're not going anywhere with you," Maya said, trying to sound defiant, but her voice wavered.
"I'm not asking you to," Thorne replied, his tone soothing, almost paternal. "We can do it right here. Mr. Henderson, if you'd come with me? We'll use the kitchen."
He didn't wait for an answer. He simply turned and walked towards Jax's small, cluttered kitchenette, expecting to be obeyed. After a terrified glance at the others, Jax, looking like a condemned man, followed him.
The main room was left in a suffocating silence. Maya, Leo, and Chloe stood frozen, listening. They couldn't hear Thorne's questions, only the low, calm murmur of his voice. Then they heard Jax's voice, higher, strained.
"...just a geological anomaly! We were curious! That's all!"
A pause. Thorne's murmur again, soft, reasonable.
"I don't know! It was just... energy! I'm a tech, not a physicist!"
Another pause. This one was longer. When Thorne spoke again, his voice was still calm, but it carried a new, subtle weight.
"Clean energy, Mr. Henderson. Imagine that. The power to light cities, to end resource wars, trapped beneath the earth for millennia. And you, with your toys, were the first to ring the doorbell. Do you really want to be the person who stood in the way of that? Because of sentiment?"
Maya met Leo's horrified gaze. They were appealing to Jax's core identity-the problem-solver, the technologist. They were offering him a place on the right side of history.
They heard Jax again, but his voice was weaker now, confused. "I... I don't... I just..."
"Think about it," Thorne said, his tone final. "Ms. Davis? Your turn."
Jax stumbled out of the kitchen, his face a mask of confusion and conflict. He wouldn't meet their eyes. Chloe, trembling, was shepherded in next.
This time, the conversation was different. They heard Thorne's voice, then a sharp, frightened gasp from Chloe.
"Your affinity is quite remarkable," Thorne's voice was clinical now, dissecting.
"A natural sensitivity. We could learn so much from you. How the signal is received by the human organism. Of course, the process of learning would be... invasive. We'd have to see how you're wired. But it would be for the greater good. The advancement of science."
A soft, terrified sob was the only response.
"Just cooperate, Ms. Davis," Thorne said, his voice losing its clinical edge and becoming almost kindly. "It will be so much easier for you if you just cooperate."
Chloe came out a few minutes later, her face streaked with tears, her body shaking. She looked broken.
"Mr. Torres," Thorne called.
Leo walked in, his back straight, his face a carefully composed mask. Maya held her breath. This was the battle of titans-unyielding logic versus absolute authority.
She could hear Thorne's voice, but not the words. Then Leo's, clear and firm. "I've seen no evidence of that. Our findings are inconclusive."
A longer pause. Thorne's response was a low murmur.
"The Hound-Keepers," Leo said, and his voice had lost some of its certainty. "That's... mythological. Not historical."
Thorne's voice again, soft, persuasive.
"That's not possible," Leo said, but he sounded shaken. "The carbon dating... the stratigraphic layer..."
Another murmur from Thorne, the tone of a professor presenting irrefutable proof to a skeptical student.
There was a long, long silence from the kitchen. When Leo finally emerged, he looked... hollow. The surety was gone from his eyes, replaced by a deep, unsettling doubt. He leaned against the wall, staring at nothing.
Thorne walked out last, looking utterly unruffled. He smoothed his suit jacket.
"Ms. Reed," he said. "The last, and I suspect, the most important."
Maya's legs felt like water, but she forced herself to walk into the kitchen. Thorne gestured for her to sit at the small, grease-spotted table. He remained standing, looking down at her, his presence filling the tiny space.
"You're the heart of this little group, aren't you, Maya?" he began, his voice conversational. "The moral center. The one who feels responsible for them."
She said nothing, just stared at him, her jaw clenched.
"I'm not your enemy," he said, spreading his hands. "I'm a custodian. The thing you found... it is dangerous in the wrong hands. It is a source of power that has caused extinction-level events before. My division exists to ensure that doesn't happen again."
"By taking our professor? By threatening my friends?"
"By containing a threat," he corrected gently. "Professor Evans is safe. He is being debriefed, just as you are. Your friends... they are collateral. Unfortunate, but necessary."
He leaned forward slightly, his pale eyes capturing hers. "But you, Maya. You touched it. You felt it, didn't you? Not with a machine. Not with a book. You felt it here." He tapped his own chest, over his heart. "What did it feel like?"
The question was a key, turning in a lock deep inside her. She saw the door in her mind, felt the ghost of that warm, vibrating stone beneath her fingertips. The loneliness. The age. The power.
She couldn't lie. Not about that.
"It felt... old," she whispered, the words dragged out of her. "And sad. And... alone."
Thorne's eyes lit up with a quiet, intense triumph. "Yes," he breathed. "Exactly. A relic of a dead world. A weapon that doesn't know it's a weapon. And you are now connected to it." He straightened up, his manner becoming brisk, businesslike.
"You will all remain in the city. You will not speak of this to anyone. We will be watching. When the artifact is ready to be... communicated with... you will assist us."
He turned and walked out of the kitchen, through the main room, and out the apartment door without another word. The door clicked shut.
The four of them were left alone in the dim, silent apartment, the ghost of his presence clinging to the air. They had been assessed, probed, and divided. Their reality had been systematically dismantled and replaced with Thorne's.
Jax was staring at his hands, wrestling with the promise of clean energy. Chloe was a trembling statue of fear. Leo was grappling with a history he thought he knew.
And Maya... Maya was left with the chilling certainty that Thorne saw her not as a witness, or a student, or a problem.
He saw her as a tool. And he was just waiting to use her.