CHAPTER 152: THE NEXT TRACE

Vanessa’s workshop no longer looked like just a student’s lab.

Overnight, it had been changed. General Ironwood kept his promise. Boxes of army-level gear now stood along the walls, their casing looked very different from Vanessa’s own custom-built devices.

"Well," Vanessa said, running her hand over a new, buzzing server bank. "His stuff works very well, I’ll give him that. But it has no style at all."

Jonah managed a weak smile. They were trying to act normal, but the General’s final warning still felt heavy. I will hunt you myself. They had a powerful new ally, but he was also a powerful new threat.

"As long as it works," Jonah said.

"Oh, it works," Vanessa replied, her eyes getting brighter as she plugged her datapad into a port. A very large holographic map of the entire nation appeared in the middle of the room. "The General gave us access to everything. A full list of every known and suspected Bureau black site. All their secret labs, safe houses, and forgotten storage units."

A dozen red dots glowed on the map, scattered across the country.

"That’s a lot of dots," Jonah said, feeling a little less hopeful.

"Too many," Seraph agreed, walking into the room with Draven right behind her. "We can’t raid a dozen secret bases. We’d be chasing ghosts for years, and they’d see us coming a mile away. We need to find the right one."

Draven put his arms over his chest. "So we have a list, but we don’t know which one is the real target. We’re still blind."

"Not completely," Jonah said quietly.

All eyes turned to him.

"When I... connected with Subject Alpha," he began, the words still feeling bad in his mouth, "I tried to absorb its essence when it dissolved. It didn’t work. It was too corrupted. But my system managed to grab a tiny piece. A small bit of memory."

Vanessa looked at him with concern. "You mean the face you saw? Dr. Thorne?"

"That, and something else," Jonah said, closing his eyes. "I need to... go back in. See if there’s anything else there."

Seraph gave him a sharp look. "Are you sure about that? Reliving that thing’s final moments won’t be pleasant."

"I know," Jonah said. "But it’s our only real lead."

He found a calm spot in the lab, sat on the floor, and put his legs across each other. He breathed in deeply and let the noise of the lab become quiet. He focused his mind inside, looking for the tiny, corrupted piece of information that was now inside him..

He found it.

Instantly, the cold feeling returned. The feeling of being stitched together, of a mind that was never meant to be. The pain was like a burning fire in his head. But now, he was ready for it. Just as he did with Maul’s fury, he didn’t fight the feeling. He paid attention to it..

He pushed through the pain and the confusion. He was trying to find a specific thing. Anything. Something to see, something to smell... something to hear.

And then he heard it.

It wasn’t a loud noise. It was a constant buzz. BZZZZZZZZZZT. It was the sound of great power. The sound of a city’s heart beating.

Jonah’s eyes shot open. He was breathing hard, sweat forming on his forehead.

"A power line," he said, his voice tight. "A very big one. The lab gets its power from a city’s main power source."

Vanessa looked up quickly from her screen. " A city’s main power source? That’s... a lot of power. And it leaves a huge energy signature." She turned to her new military-grade server. "General Ironwood gave us access to the national power grid schematics. If I compare that buzzing sound to the list of secret Bureau spots..."

Her fingers moved very fast on the keyboard. The holographic map in the center of the room began to move and change. A new light appeared over the map, a glowing blue web that showed how power moved across the whole country.

"Okay," she said softly, looking very focused. "Sorting the list now. Show me only Bureau sites located in a major city."

BEEP.

Eight of the red dots on the map vanished. Four remained. Cinderfall City, the capital, and two other major hubs.

"Getting closer," Draven rumbled.

"Now," Vanessa said. "Let’s find that buzz. I’m checking the list of places left against the city’s power lines. Looking for any spot that is using a very big, steady amount of power, enough to be the buzz Jonah heard."

The server bank next to her began to whir loudly, the fans kicking into high gear as it processed the massive amount of data. The three remaining red dots on the map began to flash, one by one, as the system checked them.

The dot over the capital went out. Negative.

The dot over the southern port city went dark. Negative.

Only two dots were left.

The first dot, located in the government district, flashed and went dark. Negative.

Only one red dot remained. It glowed with a steady, ominous light.

PING.

A clear sound cut through the noisy sound of the server. Vanessa stared at the screen, her eyes wide.

"I’ve got it," she whispered.

She moved her hand, and the holographic map showed a closer view, She swiped her hand, and the holographic map zoomed in, focusing on the remaining point of light. It wasn’t in a high tech government complex. It wasn’t in a secret underground bunker.

It was in the heart of Cinderfall City’s manufacturing district. The most industrial part of the city. The location was a huge, empty looking warehouse, surrounded by many other old, unused factories.

"The Primary Genesis Facility," Seraph said, her voice a low and dangerous. "It’s been right under our noses this whole time."

They all stared at the glowing red dot. The hunt was over. They had found their target.

It was hidden in plain sight.