Chapter 5: Surveillance and Secrets

The air under the rusted train cars hung thick with dust and the smell of decayed metal. Confidence slid aside a false panel beneath a derelict engine, revealing a narrow tunnel.

"Welcome to the Ratway," she said, clicking on a battery lantern. "Used by pro-democracy groups during the last crackdown. E.E.A. sensors can't penetrate the old iron hulls."

The space beyond was cramped but surprisingly organized: sleeping bags, canned food, a bank of flickering monitors fed by a nest of wires snaking up a ventilation shaft.

"Starlink uplink," Confidence explained, tapping a modem blinking with green LEDs. "Hacked. Untraceable. My contact in telecom buried it."

Tony scanned the screens. Live feeds showed E.E.A. checkpoints across Abuja:

- **WUSE DISTRICT:** Troopers scanning lines of civilians with handheld devices. A woman glowed orange on the screen. They dragged her screaming into a black van.

- **GWAGWALADA BRIDGE:** Armored vehicles blocking traffic. A drone zapped a fleeing man with blue energy. He collapsed, convulsing.

- **CITY CENTER:** A massive holographic tier list flickered above the E.E.A. HQ:

**TIER F: DORMANT - 62%**

**TIER E-B: STABILIZING - 29%**

**TIER A-S: ACTIVE THREAT - 8%**

**TIER SS-SSS: NATIONAL THREAT - <1%**

Tony's gut clenched. "They're cataloging us."

"Publicly." Confidence pulled up a different feed – encrypted chat logs. "But their *internal* classifications are worse." She highlighted a leaked document:

> **E.E.A. DIRECTIVE ALPHA:**

> **UNMEASURED VARIANT DETECTED - ABUJA SECTOR.**

> **PROFILE: ENERGY MANIPULATION / SPATIAL DISTORTION.**

> **THREAT LEVEL: OMEGA (UNQUANTIFIABLE).**

> **RESPONSE: TERMINATE ON SIGHT.**

Tony stared at the words. **Unmeasured. Omega. Terminate.** The serpent inside him stirred, cold and furious. "How do they know?"

"Your little light show at home?" Confidence pulled up a grainy thermal image: Tony warping through the mirror, glowing bright blue. "Drone caught it. They've dubbed you 'Ghost'." She handed him a crumpled paper flyer:

**WANTED: UNMEASURED VARIANT "GHOST"**

**EXTREME CAUTION - DO NOT ENGAGE**

**REWARD: 10 MILLION NAIRA**

Beneath the text was a blurred, hooded figure – unmistakably him.

"They're hunting you specifically, Tony. Not just containing. *Exterminating.*"

*`> CONCLUSION: ACCURATE`*

*`> COUNTERMEASURES REQUIRED`*

Tony sank onto a crate. "What about Emmy? My mom?"

"Tier C and Null. Low priority… for now." Confidence's voice softened. "But Ken…" She pulled up a security feed from his office building. E.E.A. troops marched him out in handcuffs. "They're detaining 'influential non-compliant personnel.'"

Tony shot up. "We have to—"

"*No.*" Confidence blocked him. "Walking into an E.E.A. fortress is suicide. We need leverage. Information." She pointed to the monitors. "The Pulse wasn't random. They're hiding something bigger."

Suddenly, the monitors flickered violently. All feeds dissolved into static, then reformed, showing the same looping image: a Vanta-blue symbol – three jagged lines intersecting a circle.

*`> SIGNAL SOURCE: UNKNOWN`*

*`> TRANSMISSION PROTOCOL: NON-HUMAN`*

The symbol pulsed once, then vanished. The feeds returned to normal.

Confidence paled. "That wasn't me."

A low *thrum* vibrated through the tunnel walls. Dust rained from the ceiling.

*`> STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED`*

*`> HEAT SIGNATURE DETECTED: EXTREME`*

The false panel at the entrance blew inward in a shower of sparks. A figure stood wreathed in smoke, molten skin dripping onto the concrete floor. His eyes glowed like furnace coals beneath an E.E.A. helmet.

"Target acquired: Unmeasured Variant 'Ghost'," the figure growled, voice like cracking stone. "Containment protocol: Purge."

Confidence shoved Tony back. "Molten Skin! Tier B at least!"

The trooper raised a hand. The air shimmered with intense heat. Pipes along the wall glowed red, then white.

*`> THREAT ANALYSIS: PYROKINETIC/THERMOKINETIC`*

*`> VULNERABILITY: SPATIAL ISOLATION`*

Tony reacted without thought. The serpent surged. He stepped *forward*—not toward the trooper, but *through* space itself. Reality bent violently. One moment he was five meters away; the next, he was *behind* the molten trooper, hand outstretched, pulsing with unstable Vanta-blue energy.

*`> PROTOCOL: PARTIAL REALITY EXCISION`*

He didn't push. He *erased*.

His hand passed through the trooper's back. Not touching flesh. Tearing a localized hole in the fabric of existence.

The molten man didn't scream. He *fragmented*. His body pixelated, dissolving into shimmering static motes that winked out of existence, leaving only the smell of ozone and the echo of his cut-off command.

Silence.

Confidence stared, mouth agape, at the empty space where a Tier B Variant had stood. The molten puddle on the floor was the only evidence he'd existed.

"What…" she whispered, voice raw. "What did you just *do*?"

Tony looked at his hand. The Vanta-blue energy faded, leaving cold numbness. The serpent coiled back, satisfied.

*`> THREAT NEUTRALIZED`*

*`> REALITY STABILIZING`*

"I think," Tony said, his voice hollow, "I deleted him."

Outside, sirens wailed, converging on their location. They'd bought seconds, not safety.

And Tony knew, with chilling certainty, that whatever he was becoming… it was far more dangerous than the E.E.A. feared.