Delia's base rose around him. Compressed thought, gray and translucent, twenty feet across with a single entrance. The same structure she'd been building in practice over the past month. It had progressively gotten tighter the more confidence she had in it. Charlie could almost feel her belief in the walls as they took shape around him.
Outside, the Board Games arena stretched under the permanent pink-orange sky of Terminal Hypnos. The stands were full. Charlie hadn't expected that. He'd caught a glimpse before Delia's walls went up: rows of agents, junior and senior, and everyone in between. It was a Saturday night, and it seemed everyone who didn't have a field assignment was in attendance. The Academy games were the first on the docket, followed by the senior teams.
Charlie could see a whole section of instructors near the top. He'd spotted Merlose in the third row. She'd given him a thumbs-up that was somehow both encouraging and deeply worried.
He set the doors on the pedestal and got to work.
In practice, he'd modeled his encryption on the room that brought him to Terminal Hypnos. Four distinct puzzles, sequential but independent, each requiring a different solving strategy. The same structure the Puzzler used to protect Terminal Hypnos and the Waste. Sharpe had cracked it every time. She'd said the layers were good but predictable. He built like an engineer, she'd told him. Methodical. Clean. Easy to follow once you understood the logic.
So Charlie stopped being an engineer.
He thought about the anti-puzzle. The mirror in the counter-encryption zone that broke the rules of reflection. The space that resisted being solved, that evolved with the solver, that used your instincts against you.
He couldn't build that. Not yet. He didn't understand it well enough to believe in it, but he could borrow from it.
The first layer was standard. Four independent puzzles requiring different strategies, the same model he'd used in practice. Anyone good enough to be on a Board Games team could handle that, but the second layer reversed the intent. Whatever approach solved the first layer would make the second layer harder. Progress became regression. The better you were at solving, the more the encryption punished you for it.
Charlie didn't know if it would hold. He'd never tried anything like it in a match.
"Time," Courtney's voice carried from outside.
Charlie stepped through the entrance. The arena noise hit him like a wave. Cheering, shouting, someone blowing a horn that sounded like a dying animal.
Courtney stood at the center line, arms crossed, scanning the opposing team. Rasputin's six were already in position. Their holder had built something that looked less like a fortress and more like a maze, low walls branching in every direction.
"Nervous?" she asked Charlie.
"Yes, very."
"Good, means your brain is preparing for what comes next. Just remember the plan."
Charlie chewed his lip and tried to recall the instructions Courtney had given over the past week. His brain was mush, like it was actively deleting every memory he ever had.
"You do remember the plan, right?" Courtney asked, clearly seeing the panic on Charlie's face.
"Uh..."
She rolled her eyes and squared up to Charlie. "I'll forgive it this time because it's your first game. I almost imagined myself in my underwear the first time I stepped out here. I'm told that's a common occurrence in dreams when you're nervous."
She smiled, but the thought just made Charlie worried he would suddenly look down and see just his boxers.
Courtney pointed across the way at a boy wearing Rasputin's red and gold. "Their puzzler is Aoto Oda," Courtney said without looking at Charlie. "Third year. Mid-puzzler but very physical."
"Physical how?"
"He'll try to knock you out of the round if you get close to their token. Encryption is just a tool used for distraction. He's a brawler who happens to encrypt."
Charlie filed that away. "And he'll fight me?"
"Yes, but the plan is the same as practice. You focus on defense first and stay in the base. Marcus shadows you the whole game. When we shift to offense, you and Marcus push their base while Jin and I handle the field. Yolanda's apparitions screen for you."
"And Delia?"
"Holds our base together. She'll be in there with you, but in a separate part."
A whistle sounded. The match official, a senior agent Charlie didn't recognize, stood at the center line.
"Round one. All bases, objects, and apparitions have been built. Both puzzlers have set encryption, and tokens are live. Begin on the second whistle."
Charlie jogged back to Delia's base. Marcus fell in beside him, already alert, his eyes tracking the opposing team's movements.
"You good?" Marcus asked.
"I think so."
"Good enough." Marcus positioned himself at the entrance and cracked his knuckles. "Stay behind me. If their watcher gets in, don't try to fight. Just keep the encryption intact between you and them."
The second whistle blew.
The arena erupted.
Charlie couldn't see much from inside the base. He heard the clash of apparitions outside and the shouts of the team. There was Courtney's voice cutting through the noise with calm and precise instructions. He felt the walls shudder as something heavy collided with the exterior.
Then footsteps. Fast, coming toward the entrance.
Marcus braced.
The opposing watcher came through low and fast. He was older than Charlie, maybe sixteen, with close-cropped hair and the kind of build that suggested he'd been doing this for years. He didn't slow down at the entrance. He just ran straight at Marcus.
They collided. Marcus was strong, but the watcher was faster. They grappled, spun, and Marcus drove a shoulder into the kid's chest, pushing him back toward the entrance.
The watcher glanced past Marcus, directly at Charlie. He smiled.
"Boss told me to get the tunneler first. No hard feelings."
Charlie's stomach went cold.
Boss. The tunneler. He thought of the minotaur's voice in the Waste: The boss wants him.
Marcus didn't seem to register the words. He drove forward again, forcing the watcher back through the entrance. They tumbled out onto the arena floor, still locked together.
Charlie stood alone in the base. His hands were shaking, and it had nothing to do with the match.
Boss told me to get the tunneler first.
Was the watcher working for the Hive like the apparitions? Charlie knew the boy was close to Rasputin. Was Rasputin the boss? Tunneler wasn't a Board Games term, at least not that Charlie was aware of. Best Charlie could tell, it was rarely used in the SCA for the best encryption specialists. He had only heard Merlose, Sharpe, and the Director use it in the SCA.
Outside the SCA, the apparitions in the Waste had used it.
"Focus, Brunswick!" Courtney's voice, distant but sharp.
Charlie exhaled. The encryption was holding. He could feel it, the way you feel a knot you've tied when someone pulls on the rope. It was tight and intact. The opposing team's offensive push was hitting Delia's walls, but they weren't getting through.
Outside, something cracked. Yolanda shouted a warning. Charlie felt two of her apparitions wink out, one after another, like lights being switched off.
"Yolanda's down!" someone called. Jin, maybe.
The walls shuddered again. Harder this time.
That's when he saw Marcus launch the opposing watcher out of the arena and into the pink sky. He didn't return, which meant he must have woken up.
"Watcher is down! Good work, Marcus," Courtney called. "Offense! Charlie, Marcus, go!"
Marcus appeared at the entrance, breathing hard. His sleeve was torn. "You heard her. Stay close."
They ran.
The arena floor between the two bases was chaos. Apparitions clashed in the middle ground, dissolving on contact. The numbers were thinning fast. Jin had manifested a series of barriers that created a narrow corridor toward the opposing base. Courtney was directing traffic, pointing and shouting. Jin had manifested something that looked like a choker around Courtney's neck, amplifying her voice above everything else.
"Left side! Jin, hold that lane! Marcus, take him through!"
Marcus led. Charlie followed. They skirted the main engagement, using Jin's barriers as cover. An opposing apparition, something with too many legs, lunged at them. Marcus intercepted it with a move that was half tackle, half controlled fall, and it dissolved on impact.
"Go!" Marcus pointed. "I'll catch up." Two more apparitions descended on Marcus, who braced himself with a sword that glowed.
Charlie ran. The maze-like base was ahead. He could see the low walls branching in every direction, and his brain was already mapping the structure, looking for the pattern underneath.
He entered through the nearest gap.
The encryption hit him immediately. Aoto's mind translated into Charlie's perception as a series of physical locks, but not mechanical ones. These were thick, fibrous knots. They felt organic, like tendons twisted around each other. Charlie's fingers found the first one and pulled.
It resisted. Aoto's encryption wasn't clever the way Charlie's was. It was stubborn and dense. The kind of lock that didn't need elegance because it had mass. Like trying to untangle a ball of rubber bands by brute force.
Charlie stopped pulling. He looked at the structure of it instead. The knots weren't random. They had a pattern, a rhythm. Aoto was physical, and his encryption reflected that. Everything was tension and resistance. Push against it, and it pushed back harder.
So Charlie didn't push. He cut.
Not with a knife, but with belief. He could see the strands separating where he believed the edge should be. The knot fell apart, and he slipped through to the next layer.
The second layer was heavier. More knots, more mass, but Charlie had the principle now. He wasn't solving the encryption. He was unbelieving it. Strand by strand, finding the load-bearing assumptions and removing them.
Footsteps behind him. Closing fast and heavy.
"Hey."
Charlie turned. Aoto stood at the end of the corridor, arms loose at his sides. He was a head taller than Charlie and twice as wide. His expression was almost apologetic.
"Nothing personal."
He charged.
Charlie didn't think. He dove sideways through a gap in the low wall that Aoto was too big to follow. The older boy slammed into the wall, and it shuddered but held. Rasputin's holder, at least, was good at construction.
Aoto vaulted over. Charlie was already moving, weaving through the maze, his brain processing the layout faster than his legs could carry him. Left, right, dead end, back, left again. The maze was Aoto's territory, but it was still a maze, and Charlie's mind ate mazes for breakfast.
He could hear Aoto behind him, close but not gaining. The bigger boy was fast in a straight line, but every turn cost him momentum.
Charlie found a nook and tucked himself into it. He pressed against the wall as Aoto's heavy feet moved past. He watched the older boy round another corner, then doubled back. Same sequence back, but in reverse. He felt the encryption again before he saw it. A couple more layers, and the token would be his.
He cut the second layer like he did the first. It resisted at first, but the more he focused, the deeper he cut. The strands popped as they released until the knot fell away.
Charlie stepped forward, and there it was. A small silver wrench on a pedestal, wrapped in the last layer of Aoto's encryption. This knot was the thickest, and there was something else about it that Charlie didn't quite understand. No matter, it was all that stood between him and winning this round.
He began to cut, and after the first strand fell, he heard it.
Your friends all laugh at you behind your back.
Charlie stopped. What was that? He shook his head and cut the next.
Everyone looks down on you. You can see it in their eyes.
Charlie realized that with each cut or untangling, Aoto had instilled a personal insult. Charlie wasn't sure if these were targeted at him or if they would say the same to everyone. He lied to himself that he didn't care.
It was cruel, but effective. Charlie could see why Rasputin had recruited Aoto to begin with.
He doubled his effort and let the insults wash over him. He could feel the tears welling, but he wiped them away with the back of his hand. Before he realized he was doing it, he started to hum. It wasn't an actual song at first, just noise to drown out the cruelty, but soon it became the song his mother always sang at bedtime.
I love you...you love me...
He hummed it over and over as the strands fell away. He increased his volume to fight against the psychic venom.
"You have a terrible singing voice, Brunswick."
Charlie turned to see that Aoto was back.
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"This is a dirty trick," Charlie replied.
"People don't like looking in the mirror when they know they're hideous. Why not make a challenge that forces you to look at the worst parts of yourself? Seems rather elegant to me."
"You designed this for me?"
"Mostly. With the boss's help, of course."
That name again. Charlie could feel his blood boiling. He didn't care that Aoto was stronger than him or faster. Charlie wanted to tackle the boy and make him wake up. He took a step away from the pedestal.
That's when Marcus barreled into Aoto, holding the same glowing sword.
"Focus, Brunswick, the token!" he yelled as Aoto held him off.
Charlie made the final cut.
This doesn't change how anyone will see you.
It said that last line with a sigh. Charlie grabbed the wrench and lifted it off the pedestal.
The whistle blew.
"Round one! Token captured! Point to Sharpe's team!"
The arena erupted. Charlie stood in the wreckage of Aoto's encryption, the wrench catching the light in his hand, and realized he'd forgotten to breathe. His hands were shaking again, but this time it was adrenaline, not fear.
Marcus reached him first, grinning. "That was fast."
"He's not a puzzler," Charlie said. "He's a fighter who encrypts."
"You say that like it's an insult."
"No, a fact."
Courtney appeared at the maze entrance. She didn't smile. She never smiled during matches.
"Two more rounds. They'll adjust. Stay sharp."
Charlie nodded. His legs felt like water, and his brain felt like fire.
There was a small pause while they had to wait for Rasputin's watcher to return to sleep before starting. Courtney asked for a debrief from Marcus and Charlie during the break.
"Any issues?"
"Yolanda needs to stay in the game," Marcus said, rolling his shoulder.
Yolanda had seemingly fallen back asleep and was ready for round two.
"They ganged up on me while you were defending Brunswick. We're at a disadvantage with you only shadowing him." Yolanda looked at Charlie with a face he couldn't quite parse.
"It is what it is," Courtney chimed in. "We all know our assignments. Focus on defense this round. Sucker them into the base and the encryption, then counter. Marcus, Delia, and Charlie stay with their token. Everyone else is with me."
They won the second round on points. Charlie's reverse-logic encryption held for the full timer. Aoto had gone on the attack but got caught in the regression loop. Every solution he found made the next layer worse. He was still working when the horn sounded. On the other side of the field, Courtney and Jin had pushed deep enough into Rasputin's base to outscore their offense.
Two out of three meant no third round. Charlie could see Rasputin's team bickering with each other as the crowd cheered around them. He was overwhelmed by the sound and the lights, but he still smiled and looked for his friends.
Merlose found him outside the arena. She was leaning against the corridor wall with her arms crossed, and Charlie could tell she'd been there awhile. Probably since the second round.
"Did you see that?" Charlie asked with a smile.
"Of course." She pushed off the wall and fell into step beside him. "You looked good out there, but don't let it go to your head."
"Where else would it go?"
She glanced at him sideways. Almost smiled. "How do you feel?"
"Tired. My brain feels like someone wrung it out."
"That's normal after heavy encryption work. You'll sleep well tonight." She paused. "Well. You'll wake up well tonight. You know what I mean."
Charlie almost laughed.
They walked through the corridor outside the arena, where the crowd was still filtering out. Agents he didn't recognize clapped him on the shoulder as they passed. One of them said something about the regression loop that Charlie didn't fully hear.
Fiona and Kenji caught up to him first. Fiona punched his arm. "That was disgusting, Brunswick. In a good way."
"The bit where you just stopped believing the knot existed?" Kenji shook his head. "I don't even understand how that works."
"Neither do I," Charlie admitted.
They moved on. The Reyes twins gave him identical thumbs-ups from across the corridor without breaking stride.
Then Benedicta appeared, Donna and Priya flanking her as always. She stopped directly in Charlie's path, looked him up and down, and smiled.
"Congratulations, Brunswick. You beat a mid-tier puzzler who fights instead of encrypts." She tilted her head. "I'm sure the trophy will look lovely on your shelf."
"Thanks, Benedicta."
"It wasn't a compliment. It was context." She glanced at Merlose. "Agent Merlose."
"Agent Crispin," Merlose replied, her tone perfectly even.
"Aoto's an idiot," Donna said. "Anyone could have cracked that. It was all muscle and no brain."
"And yet Rasputin's team has won how many seasons in a row?" Priya added, glancing at Benedicta for confirmation.
"Three," Benedicta said. "Which makes this interesting, not impressive. We'll see how Brunswick handles a real puzzler." She looked at Charlie one more time. "Enjoy the attention. It's the only part of this you're actually good at."
They walked away. Donna bumped Charlie's shoulder as she passed. Priya didn't look at him.
"She's a delight," Merlose muttered.
"Charlie!"
Sadie was jogging toward him, face bright, slightly out of breath like she'd pushed through the crowd to find him. She didn't slow down. She threw her arms around him in a hug that pressed her fully against his chest.
"That was incredible," she said into his shoulder. "The whole arena was losing their minds."
Charlie stood stiff, arms half-raised, not sure where to put his hands. "It was okay."
"It was not okay, it was amazing." She pulled back but kept her hands on his chest, smoothing the front of his uniform where the hug had rumpled it. Her fingers lingered, straightening the fabric just below his collar. "You've got frosting on you, by the way. Teddy must have hugged you already."
"He didn't, actually."
"Then you're just messy." She brushed something off his shirt and smiled up at him. "I told you you'd figure it out. Back in Sharpe's class, remember? I said I could tell."
"You did say that."
"I'm always right." She held his gaze a beat too long, then stepped back. "Okay. I'll let you bask. You earned it." She pointed at him as she walked backward into the crowd. "We're still on for that practice date, by the way. Don't forget."
"It's not a date," Charlie called after her.
"Whatever you say, Brunswick." She disappeared into the crowd.
Merlose watched her go with an expression Charlie couldn't read. Then she looked at Charlie and seemed to decide not to say whatever she was thinking.
"Merlose?"
"Hm?"
"Rasputin's watcher said something to me. During the first round."
Her casual expression dropped. "What did he say?"
"He called me the tunneler. He said his boss told him to get the tunneler first."
Merlose was quiet for several steps.
"Boss," she repeated.
"The apparitions in the Waste used the same word. When they tried to take me to Terminal Omega. They said 'the boss wants him.'"
More silence. Merlose's jaw tightened. Before she could respond, a voice called from behind them.
"Brunswick! There he is."
Sharpe was walking toward them with a small group of instructors in tow. Her face was open and warm in a way Charlie had rarely seen. She clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to make him stumble.
"The way you cut through Oda's encryption. I don't think I've seen anyone dismantle a knot like that."
"You could see that?"
"If you know what to look for." Sharpe shook her head. "Most puzzlers untangle. You just stopped believing the knot was there. That's a different thing entirely."
Charlie blinked. He'd forgotten about that. It felt like it happened to someone else.
"I just found the best way to solve the problem."
"The fastest way between point A and point B is a straight line." Sharpe smiled. She patted his shoulder once more and left her hand there. "Takes a strong mind to realize the line can be a blade." She squeezed and walked past him toward Courtney.
"The regression loop was clever," Hellstorm said, bouncing on his heels the way he always did when he was excited. "Anti-solve mechanics in a first-year match. Rasputin must be beside himself. You'll be a monster once you can start defending yourself out there."
"Speaking of which." Grubb stepped forward from the back of the group. He'd been so quiet Charlie hadn't noticed him. "Your shielding still needs work, Brunswick. I...I'd be...h-happy to train..."
"Yes, Hellstorm, quite something, wasn't it?"
Rasputin's voice cut through like a blade finding the gap in armor. He appeared from the dispersing crowd, hands clasped behind his back, smiling the way people smile when they're choosing where to put the knife. He was tall and angular, with cheekbones that looked designed for looking down at people.
"A first year on a promising team. Sharpe, you must be very proud. It's been, what, six seasons since your last win? Seven?"
"Four," Sharpe looked up from her conversation with Courtney and said evenly.
"Four, of course, and all it took was a boy who learned to encrypt three months ago." He turned to Charlie. "That regression loop was creative, Brunswick. Truly. I imagine it's quite intuitive for someone who experiences the world as one long regression loop already."
Nobody laughed. Rasputin didn't seem to notice, or didn't seem to care.
"Your puzzler has potential. Raw, unrefined, but potential." He looked at Sharpe. "Enjoy it while you can. Aoto underestimated him. That won't happen twice."
He leaned down to whisper in Charlie's ear.
"I saw you take a step toward him at the end. I wonder what truths his knot whispered into your ears? You're a ticking time-bomb, Brunswick. Just don't stand near me when you go off."
He turned and walked past Grubb, who lingered to the side. The shield instructor just shrugged and went his own way into the growing crowd.
Charlie stood very still. The corridor felt suddenly too warm, and there was a pull on his chest.
He looked down.
He was holding a chain-link pocket watch that was pinned to his shirt. He didn't remember putting it on. He didn't remember anyone touching him, but there it was, sitting in his hand just below the watch Merlose had given him. It sang against his skin like it had always been there.
It was black where his was silver. The face had no numbers, no hands. Just a faint pulse, like a heartbeat pressed under glass.
Charlie had seen a watch like this before. On a chain attached to a man standing beyond a doorway of a room that didn't exist.
Bartleby.
The pulse quickened, or maybe that was Charlie's own heart. It was getting hard to tell.
Then the voice came.
Not from the watch or through his ears. It was from somewhere behind his eyes, warm and close, like someone whispering into the space between thoughts.
You worked so hard out there, Charlie.
The corridor noise dimmed. Merlose was saying something to Sharpe and Courtney. Grubb was hovering over other students, who were ignoring him. The instructors were talking, but none of them seemed to notice what was happening to Charlie.
The way they talk to you. It must be such a tiring fight. All that effort just to be understood. All that translation. Even in victory. Every room you walk into, you have to decode it first. Every face, every joke, and every silence. You're always one step behind because your brain has to process what everyone else just knows.
Charlie couldn't move. He wanted to yank the chain and throw it to the ground, but his hand wouldn't listen.
What if you didn't have to? What if understanding was just there, the way breathing is there? No decoding. No lag. No more watching everyone laugh at something you'll figure out three seconds too late.
The corridor was gone now. Not physically, but it didn't matter anymore. Charlie was standing in a dark room with no walls, and the voice was everywhere.
I'm not offering you power, Charlie. I'm not offering you answers. I'm offering you the one thing nobody else can give you. Connection. Real connection. The kind where you don't have to try.
Charlie felt tears on his face. He didn't know when they'd started.
Your mother would have wanted you to be safe. To be happy. That's why she would sing that song to you every night before you fell asleep. Imagine every second of every day feels like that song. That's what I can offer. She didn't need you to translate. Neither do I.
"Charlie?"
His name, but it was distant and muffled. A girl's voice.
They'll never stop laughing. Not because they're cruel, but because they can't help it. You'll always be the boy who's almost there. Almost getting it. Almost fitting in, but never quite there. They'll laugh at you no matter how hard you try. To your face and behind your back. You know that's true. With me, you'll never be laughed at again, only laughed with.
"Charlie!"
Closer now. Someone was shaking his shoulder.
"Something's wrong with him. Teddy, what's he holding?"
"What is that? That's not his watch."
"Get it off him!"
Teddy's hand closed around the black watch and tugged. Charlie felt the connection stretch, resist, cling. The voice surged.
They'll pull you back into a world that doesn't want you. I'm the only door that opens both ways, Charlie. Come find me when you're ready. Terminal Omega will always welcome you.
Teddy yanked, and the watch came free.
Charlie gasped. The corridor slammed back into existence. Sound, light, the smell of dream food, and too many people. Merlose was in front of him, her hands on his shoulders, her face pale.
"Charlie. Charlie, look at me. Are you here?"
"I'm here," he said. His voice sounded like it belonged to someone smaller.
"What just happened?" Merlose's eyes were darting between Charlie and Teddy's hand.
They all looked down.
The watch was crumbling. The black surface flaked and curled, turning gray, then white, then nothing. It fell apart in Teddy's palm like a dead leaf, and what remained was ash. Fine, pale ash that drifted through his fingers and vanished before it hit the floor.
Four of them stood there. Charlie, Merlose, Teddy, and Gwen. Staring at Teddy's empty hand.
"What was that?" Teddy whispered.
Charlie wiped his face. His cheeks were wet, and his hands were shaking.
"Bartleby," he said.
They didn't go to the cafeteria or anywhere Charlie expected. Merlose had asked about forty or fifty questions, but they all boiled down to seeing if Charlie was alright. Once that was established, Merlose took his arm and steered him through the crowd without a word. Her grip was firm, and her face was the kind of calm that meant she was anything but.
"Schreier, Holloway, you're with us. Where are your handlers?"
"Field," Teddy replied.
"Not here," Gwen said next.
Two fairies appeared next to Merlose. One was a boy, and the other was a girl. Charlie thought they looked a little like Merlose.
"Find them. Leon is somewhere in Terminal Hypnos. Check all the back rooms. Harwick's assignment should be on the board. Tell them to meet us at the Director's office. Priority Omega."
They floated away in opposite directions.
"Where are we going?" Charlie asked.
"Up."
Within minutes, Harwick materialized from a side corridor, still wearing field gear, looking like he'd been pulled mid-assignment. Which he had.
"What happened?" Harwick asked, falling in beside Merlose.
"Not here."
The fairy reappeared a few flights of stairs later and whispered into Merlose's ear.
"What is it?" Harwick asked.
"He's playing cards again."
"I don't know why he cheats against his own apparitions." Harwick looked over his shoulder and smiled at Teddy. "Leon likes to play cards with two dogs and a walrus. He always wins."
The wayward handler appeared from a tube of rainbow light a few stories higher. He looked at Gwen with the expression of a man whose nap had been interrupted for something that had better be important.
"Oh," he said, looking at Merlose's face. He pushed the cards he was still holding into his breast pocket. "That bad?"
"Bring Gwen. Director's office. Now."
The six of them made the trip in silence. Charlie, Merlose, Teddy, Harwick, Gwen, and Leon. Along with the questions nobody was asking out loud. The corridors felt longer than usual. Charlie's hand kept drifting to his chest where the chain had been, touching nothing.
The Director's office was the same aggressively ordinary room. Plain wood door, brass handle, and no markings. Merlose knocked twice.
"Come in."
The Director sat behind her desk. The Watcher stood by the window, exactly where he'd been the first time. Charlie wondered if he ever left.
The Director looked at the group filing in, and her expression shifted by degrees. Not alarm, but assessment.
"Sit. I'll make more chairs."
Four more chairs appeared. Charlie, Teddy, Gwen, and Leon sat. Merlose and Harwick stood behind their charges.
"Agent Merlose. Report."
Merlose told it clean and fast. The match, the aftermath, and Charlie going still in the corridor. The watch that appeared from nowhere. Teddy pulling it free. The ash.
"The object disintegrated on removal," Merlose said. "We have no physical evidence."
"We have four witnesses," the Director said. She turned to Charlie. "What did it say to you?"
Charlie's mouth went dry. Every eye in the room was on him.
"It was Bartleby. His voice. He said..." Charlie closed his eyes, trying to reconstruct it. The words were already fading, the way dream details do, but the feeling remained. "He said I worked hard. That I'm always translating. That everyone else just understands things, and I have to decode everything first."
The room was very quiet.
"He offered me connection. Real connection. The kind where I wouldn't have to try. Where understanding would just be there." Charlie opened his eyes. "He said my mother would have wanted me to be happy. He knew about the song she used to sing."
Merlose's grip tightened on the back of Charlie's chair. Harwick had gone very still.
"He said they'd never stop laughing at me. That I'd always be almost fitting in. And that with him, I'd never be laughed at again." Charlie swallowed. "He called it Terminal Omega. Said it would always welcome me."
The Director's expression didn't change. She looked at Teddy.
"Tell me how you found him."
Teddy sat up straighter. "We came to find him after the match. He was just standing in the corridor. Everyone was walking around him like he wasn't there. His eyes were open, but he wasn't seeing anything."
"I tried shaking his shoulder," Gwen added. "He didn't respond. Then I saw the watch. It was on a chain, pinned to his shirt. Black, with no face. Just a pulse."
"I grabbed it and pulled," Teddy said. "It didn't want to come off. Like it was holding on, but I pulled harder, and it let go. Then it just fell apart. Turned to ash in my hand."
He held up his palm. There was nothing there. Not even a smudge.
The Director looked at the Watcher. Something passed between them that Charlie couldn't read. The Watcher's expression didn't change, but his posture shifted.
"Thank you," the Director said to the three of them. Then, to the handlers: "Recommendations?"
Merlose didn't hesitate. "Increased security detail on Charlie. A senior agent escort between sessions. Restricted access to the outer corridors after hours."
"Terminal Hypnos is secure, Agent Merlose."
"With respect, Director, it clearly isn't."
The room temperature dropped. Not literally, but it felt like it.
"The incursion last month," Merlose pressed. "Rogue apparitions inside the Encryption wing. Inside Terminal Hypnos. Now a Hive artifact appearing on a junior agent in a public corridor. These aren't isolated events."
"I'm aware of the pattern, Agent Merlose."
"Then you're aware that the Hive has been more active in the last three months than it has been in thirty years. That their operations went dormant decades ago and started up again right around the time Charlie broke through the central encryption."
She said it fast, like if she slowed down, she'd stop herself. Charlie saw Harwick's eyes widen slightly. Leon sat up.
The Director's gaze could have cut glass.
"That information is classified, Agent Merlose."
"That information is relevant to every person in this room."
"It is relevant to the people I decide it is relevant to, and I had not decided it was relevant to three junior agents."
Merlose held her ground. "Someone inside Terminal Hypnos is helping the Hive. The incursion wasn't random. That watch didn't manifest from nothing. Bartleby's artifacts don't just appear. Someone carried it in, or someone opened a door for it."
"You're speculating."
"I'm connecting dots that you taught me to connect."
Silence. The kind that fills a room from the floor up.
The Director looked at Charlie. He couldn't tell what she was thinking. He never could.
"Junior Agents Brunswick, Schreier, and Holloway. Thank you for your account. This conversation does not leave this room. You will continue your normal training schedule. If anything unusual happens, anything at all, you report it to your handler immediately. Not to each other. Not to your instructors or friends. To your handler."
She looked at each of them in turn.
"Am I understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Gwen said.
"Yeah," Teddy said.
Charlie nodded.
"Handlers, stay. Junior agents, you're dismissed."
Charlie stood. His legs felt unsteady. As he reached the door, Merlose caught his eye. She gave him the smallest nod. It wasn't reassurance. It was something closer to an apology.
The three of them walked out into the corridor. The door closed behind them, and the muffled sound of adult voices continued on the other side.
They stood there for a moment. Teddy, Gwen, and Charlie.
"Someone on the inside," Teddy said quietly.
"Yeah," Gwen said.
Charlie wasn't sure they were thinking the same thing until he said the name and saw them nod.
"Rasputin."