The memory artifact sat on the workbench between them, its lead casing open, revealing a crystalline structure inside.

  "Neural imprints are delicate," Ash explained, connecting various cables to a modified interface. "Most are degraded beyond recovery during extraction."

  Elias watched her work, the quiet efficiency of someone who had done this many times before.

  "And mine?" he asked, eyeing the shimmering crystal.

  "Remarkably intact. Someone wanted this memory preserved," she replied without looking up. "Or protected."

  The Shimmerskin rested in its maintenance cradle, pulsing occasionally with faint blue light.

  Since the fight with the mimicry anomaly, Elias had been reluctant to wear it, even as his condition continued to deteriorate.

  [ESTIMATED FUNCTIONALITY: 39 DAYS, 14 HOURS]

  [NEURAL DEGRADATION: MODERATE]

  [STABILIZER REQUIRED]

  He dismissed the warnings with a thought, focusing instead on the memory artifact.

  "How does this work?" he asked, watching Ash connect the final leads.

  "Think of it as a replay," she said, her fingers dancing across the terminal. "Not exactly what happened, but what was perceived."

  She looked up at him, her expression serious.

  "But the Veil adds a layer. Gives context. Shows connections that might have been missed the first time."

  Elias nodded, settling into the chair she indicated.

  "Ready?" she asked, hovering her finger over the activation sequence.

  "No," he answered honestly. "But let's do it anyway."

  Ash smiled, a rare expression that transformed her face.

  "That's the spirit," she said, and pressed the key.

  The world around Elias dissolved.

  [MEMORY SEQUENCE INITIALIZED]

  [PRAGUE: 19 MONTHS AGO]

  [MISSION: CLASSIFIED]

  The memory crystallized around him, revealing a laboratory deep beneath the winding streets of Prague's Old Town.

  The facility bore all the hallmarks of Soviet-era construction—concrete walls, exposed pipe work, air thick with the scent of chemical preservatives and ozone.

  He recognized it immediately: Operation Halcyon.

  Elias watched himself moving through the lab, Shimmerskin active, nearly invisible in the dim emergency lighting.

  The red alarm strobes cast everything in a hellish glow.

  Memory-Elias moved with purpose, checking corners, securing doorways—textbook infiltration.

  But something was wrong.

  [ANOMALY DETECTED: TIMELINE INCONSISTENCY]

  The notification pulsed in his peripheral vision, a feature of the Veil he hadn't seen before.

  "What is this?" he murmured, knowing Ash couldn't hear him.

  [MEMORY CONTAINS TEMPORAL DISTORTIONS]

  [ATTEMPTING RECONSTRUCTION]

  Memory-Elias approached a sealed containment unit at the center of the laboratory.

  Inside, suspended in a clear solution, was what appeared to be a fragment of black glass, irregular in shape, about the size of a fist.

  This was the target—the anomaly EIDOLON had sent him to secure.

  Memory-Elias attached a specialized transport container to the unit, bypassing security protocols with practiced ease.

  The sequence jumped, a static burst of disconnected images—

  —gunfire in a corridor—

  —a woman in a lab coat, speaking frantically in Czech—

  —blood on the Shimmerskin—

  —the containment unit cracking—

  [CRITICAL MEMORY CORRUPTION DETECTED]

  The scene stabilized.

  Memory-Elias was no longer alone.

  A woman stood across the broken containment unit, dressed in tactical gear similar to his own.

  Ash. Younger, her hair longer, but unmistakably her.

  "You're too late," Memory-Ash said, her voice distorted by the memory's degradation. "It's already awake."

  Memory-Elias raised his weapon. "Step away from the anomaly."

  She laughed, the sound eerily clear compared to her voice.

  "That's not how this works, Vale. Look at your hands."

  Memory-Elias glanced down.

  His gloves were covered in a fine black dust that seemed to move with purpose, flowing up his arms, disappearing beneath the Shimmerskin.

  "What the hell is this?" Memory-Elias demanded, attempting to shake the substance off.

  "The beginning," Memory-Ash replied, her form flickering as though seen through damaged footage. "Or the end. Depends how you look at it."

  The scene dissolved again, fragments of memory cascading like broken glass—

  —a helicopter evacuation—

  —medical personnel in hazmat suits—

  —Dr. Chen, younger, her face twisted with concern—

  —Director Cole, shouting orders—

  —the black substance, now contained in a quarantine cylinder—

  [ATTEMPTING MEMORY RECONSTRUCTION]

  [INSUFFICIENT DATA]

  [ACCESSING SECONDARY MEMORY TRACES]

  The scene shifted again, but differently—as though viewing events from another angle.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Not his memory anymore.

  Ash's.

  She stood in the same lab, but earlier, before the alarms.

  She was speaking to an older man with wire-rimmed glasses and a patchy beard.

  "It doesn't just respond to commands, Doctor," she was saying. "It anticipates them."

  The doctor nodded, making notes on a tablet.

  "The neural integration is beyond anything we predicted. How are the side effects?"

  "Manageable," she replied, but her face told a different story.

  "And the others?" the doctor asked.

  "There are no others," she said flatly. "Just me."

  The doctor sighed, removing his glasses.

  "Nightshade, we both know that's not true. EIDOLON has their own asset. Codename Veil."

  Her expression hardened.

  "Then we need to accelerate the timeline. If they secure the artifact before we're ready—"

  An alarm blared, cutting her off.

  The doctor's head snapped up.

  "They're here," he said, eyes wide with fear. "It's too soon."

  The scene fragmented once more, a chaotic jumble of perspectives—

  —Ash running through corridors—

  —Memory-Elias breaking through security barriers—

  —the black substance, pulsing with inner light—

  —the doctor, his hands raised, pleading—

  —gunshots—

  —blood—

  —the containment unit shattering—

  —darkness—

  [MEMORY SEQUENCE DEGRADED BEYOND RECOVERY]

  [TERMINATING PLAYBACK]

  Elias gasped as the memory released him, lurching forward in his chair.

  His head pounded, vision swimming with afterimages.

  "Easy," Ash said, supporting him before he could fall. "First playbacks are always rough."

  He pushed her away, stumbling to his feet.

  "You were there," he accused, voice ragged. "You were working with them."

  Ash's expression remained neutral.

  "Yes."

  "Who?" he demanded. "Who were you working for?"

  She sighed, running a hand through her short hair.

  "Does it matter? Everyone wanted the same thing. The Veil. The thing in that containment unit was just a fragment, but it was enough."

  Elias's interface pulsed, analyzing the information as his own memories aligned with what he'd seen.

  "The black substance. It went into my Shimmerskin."

  Ash nodded.

  "Into mine too. That's how we both got the interface. But yours integrated differently. More completely."

  Elias paced the small confines of the hideout, trying to process everything.

  "EIDOLON told me it was a bioweapon. Something the Russians had developed."

  A bitter laugh escaped Ash.

  "Of course they did. SCP told me it was alien technology. A way to enhance human perception."

  "SCP?" Elias stopped his pacing. "Who are they?"

  "Special Containment Procedures. Another agency like EIDOLON. Different countries, same goals."

  She crossed to a metal cabinet, extracting a file.

  "There are more players in this game than you realize, Elias."

  She handed him the file.

  "SCP, EIDOLON, the Russian GRU Division P, Chinese Ministry 8... all trying to control anomalies."

  Elias flipped through the documents—redacted reports, surveillance photos, personnel files.

  "But what is it? The Veil. What is it really?"

  Ash shrugged.

  "No one knows for certain. The working theory is some kind of distributed intelligence. A technology so advanced it might as well be alive."

  She tapped her temple.

  "What we do know is that it's in our heads now. And it's changing us."

  Elias glanced at his interface.

  [XP: 275/500]

  [LEVEL: 1]

  [SYSTEM EXPLOIT (BETA): COOLDOWN COMPLETE]

  "I need to know more," he said finally. "Everything you know."

  Ash nodded.

  "There's someone who might help. Former analyst who went dark after experiencing what he called 'interface corruption.'"

  "Where?"

  "D.C. But first—"

  She gestured to the Shimmerskin.

  "You need to wear it again. The deterioration is accelerating. Without integration support, you'll be dead in weeks."

  Elias eyed the suit warily.

  "The Shimmerskin is part of what's killing me."

  "No," she corrected. "Your body rejecting the integration is what's killing you. The suit helps manage the symptoms."

  She checked her watch.

  "We don't have much time. There's a plane waiting. Private charter."

  "To D.C.?"

  She nodded.

  "Wheels up in ninety minutes."

  Elias hesitated only briefly before reaching for the Shimmerskin.

  As the nanofabric flowed over his skin, coolness spreading across his limbs, the interface brightened, status indicators flickering to life.

  [INTEGRATION STABILIZING]

  [ESTIMATED FUNCTIONALITY: 41 DAYS, 7 HOURS]

  [WARNING: TEMPORARY SOLUTION]

  The relief was immediate—the bone-deep ache receding, his thoughts sharpening.

  "Better?" Ash asked, already packing equipment.

  "For now," he replied, helping her dismantle the workstation.

  Forty minutes later, they were in a nondescript sedan heading for a private airstrip outside Warsaw.

  Ash drove while Elias studied the file she'd given him, committing details to memory.

  "Your analyst," he said without looking up. "Name?"

  "Dr. Marcus Reid. Brilliant mathematician. Specialized in probability modeling for SCP before his breakdown."

  "And he experienced the same thing we are?"

  Ash nodded, eyes fixed on the road.

  "He was one of the first. Part of the initial research team studying Veil fragments."

  "But he's not using it anymore? The interface?"

  Her expression darkened.

  "He tried to remove it. Went to extreme measures."

  Elias raised an eyebrow.

  "How extreme?"

  "Self-trepanation."

  Elias winced.

  "Drilled a hole in his own skull?"

  "Tried to. Security found him before he could finish."

  They fell silent as they approached the airstrip, Ash flashing credentials at the guard post.

  The small Gulfstream waited on the tarmac, engines already spooling up.

  "How do we know he'll talk to us?" Elias asked as they boarded.

  Ash secured the cabin door behind them.

  "We don't. But he's been monitoring anomalous transmissions lately. Might have information about the orbital strike."

  The plane taxied toward the runway.

  "And if he doesn't want to be found?"

  Ash buckled herself in.

  "Then we'll have to convince him."

  The jet accelerated down the runway, lifting into the night sky over Poland.

  Elias watched the lights of Warsaw recede below them, wondering what awaited them in Washington.

  [NEW QUEST ACTIVATED: CONSULT THE ANALYST]

  [OBJECTIVE: LOCATE DR. MARCUS REID AND EXTRACT INFORMATION ABOUT VEIL ORIGINS]

  [REWARD: ADVANCED INTEGRATION PROTOCOLS, +200 XP]

  [DIFFICULTY: MODERATE]

  Twelve hours later, they stood outside an apartment building in Alexandria, Virginia.

  The red brick structure looked unremarkable—mid-century construction, lightly gentrified, overlooking a small park.

  "Third floor," Ash said, checking her phone. "Apartment 307."

  They entered through the main doors, bypassing the security system with a device Ash extracted from her bag.

  The elevator hummed quietly as they ascended.

  Elias activated [Observe], scanning for threats.

  [SURVEILLANCE DETECTED: BUILDING SECURITY CAMERAS - INACTIVE]

  [ANOMALOUS ENERGY SIGNATURES: FAINT, SOURCE UNDETERMINED]

  "Something's not right," he murmured as they reached the third floor.

  Ash nodded, hand moving to the weapon concealed beneath her jacket.

  "I feel it too."

  The corridor stretched before them, utilitarian carpet muffling their footsteps.

  Apartment 307 was at the end of the hall, its door unremarkable except for a small, barely visible symbol etched into the frame.

  Ash noticed it first.

  "Warding," she whispered, fingers hovering over the mark without touching it.

  "Against what?"

  She didn't answer, instead extracting a small vial from her pocket.

  The liquid inside glowed faintly blue.

  She unscrewed the cap and carefully applied a drop to the symbol.

  It fizzed, then faded.

  "A precaution," she explained, putting the vial away. "Now we can knock."

  But before she could, Elias held up his hand.

  [THREAT DETECTED: PROXIMITY UNCERTAIN]

  "Someone's been here," he said quietly.

  Ash pressed her ear to the door, then stepped back.

  "We go in quick. You take point, I'll secure the perimeter."

  Elias nodded, hand on the doorknob.

  It turned easily, unlocked.

  A bad sign.

  The apartment beyond was in disarray.

  Papers covered every surface, pinned to walls with red string connecting seemingly random points.

  Monitors displayed security feeds from various locations—subway stations, government buildings, private residences.

  The air smelled of stale coffee and something chemical.

  Elias moved carefully through the chaos, Shimmerskin ready to activate at full camouflage if needed.

  Notebooks lay open on a desk, filled with equations and what looked like ritual diagrams.

  He picked one up, flipping through pages of increasingly manic handwriting.

  "Ash," he called softly. "Look at this."

  She joined him, examining the notebook.

  "The degradation pattern matches other cases," she confirmed. "Interface corruption alters cognitive pathways."

  Elias gestured to a door leading off the main room.

  "Bedroom?"

  "Bathroom," she corrected, moving toward it.

  She pushed the door open slowly.

  The bathroom was surprisingly clean compared to the rest of the apartment.

  But on the mirror, written in what appeared to be red ink, was a message:

  "SCP WAS RIGHT. HALCYON BREACHED CONTAINMENT."

  Elias stepped inside, examining the writing more closely.

  "Blood," he confirmed. "Recent."

  Ash's expression tightened.

  "Check the bedroom. I'll see if there's anything else here."

  Elias nodded, backing out of the bathroom.

  The bedroom door was ajar, darkness beyond.

  He pushed it open slowly, senses on high alert.

  The smell hit him first—metallic, organic.

  Death had a distinct scent.

  His interface flashed a warning:

  [THREAT PROXIMITY - UNSEEN]

  The bedroom was even more chaotic than the main room—bed overturned, dresser drawers pulled out, clothes strewn everywhere.

  And in the open closet, illuminated by the faint light from the hallway, was a body.

  Male, middle-aged, slumped against the wall.

  Fresh. Less than twenty-four hours.

  Elias approached cautiously, activating [Observe] again.

  [SUBJECT: MALE, APPROXIMATELY 45-50 YEARS]

  [CAUSE OF DEATH: EXSANGUINATION FROM MULTIPLE LACERATIONS]

  [TIME OF DEATH: ESTIMATED 18-20 HOURS AGO]

  [ANOMALOUS RESIDUE DETECTED]

  But before he could examine further, his HUD began to lag, interface flickering erratically.

  Something was interfering with the system.

  The Shimmerskin tightened against his skin, then locked—subsystems going into protective mode.

  Elias tried to back out of the room, suddenly feeling exposed.

  His earpiece crackled.

  "Elias," Ash's voice came through, distorted. "Something's wrong. My interface is—"

  The transmission cut off.

  And in that moment, Elias felt it—a presence in the apartment, watching.

  Not from the bedroom.

  Not from the bathroom.

  But from somewhere else. Somewhere impossible.

  The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

  Whatever had killed Dr. Reid hadn't left.

  It was still here.

  And it had noticed them.