Chapter 7: Whispers in the Void

They hid in the skeletal remains of Abuja's abandoned Millennium Tower. Wind whistled through shattered windows thirty floors up. Below, the city simmered under E.E.A. lockdown.

Confidence rigged signal-scramblers. "Safe. For now."

Doris tended to Emmy, wiping her face with a damp cloth. The girl slept fitfully, golden light still flickering under her eyelids.

"You scared me," Doris whispered to Tony, her voice raw. "That… energy. Like something not human."

Tony flexed his hand. The Vanta-blue glow had faded, but the cold serpent remained. "I'm still me, Mom."

"Are you?" She touched his cheek. "Your eyes… they've got blue cracks in the brown now. Like broken glass."

*`> PHYSICAL ASSIMILATION: 18%`*

Tony looked away. Mr. Okafor brought news: Ken was held at E.E.A. Central Detention – "The Lighthouse" – a brutalist tower near the Presidential Villa.

"Impossible to breach," Confidence said, pulling up schematics. "Scanners, auto-turrets, Tier-A Variant guards. They'll execute Ken to draw you out, Tony."

*`> STRATEGIC ANALYSIS: ACCURATE`*

*`> PROBABILITY OF CAPTURE IF ATTEMPTED: 99.3%`*

Tony stared at the holographic fortress. *Dad.* The man who scoffed at the Pulse, who clung to normalcy. Now a pawn because of him.

Emmy stirred. "The lonely thing… it's louder." She pointed northeast. "There."

Tony followed her gaze. On the horizon, the E.E.A. HQ pulsed with light. But beyond it, Tony *saw* something else – a phantom tower of glitching Vanta-blue geometry, superimposed on reality.

*`> STRUCTURE DETECTED: PULSE EPICENTER`*

*`> DESIGNATION: BEACON ZETA`*

Confidence frowned. "What do you—?"

Tony grabbed her wrist tablet. His fingers left faint blue smears on the screen. He overlaid city plans with the Pulse's radiation signature. A pattern emerged: the Vanta-symbol was a *map*. Its intersection point wasn't E.E.A. HQ.

"It's under the old Nyanya Motor Park," Tony breathed. "The Pulse didn't *hit* Abuja. It *targeted* something buried there."

---

**Nyanya Motor Park – Abandoned Transit Hub**

Getting past E.E.A. patrols was terrifyingly easy. Tony bent light around their stolen minivan, creating a bubble of invisibility. Vehicles swerved around empty air. Scanners passed over them like ghosts.

*`> LIGHT REFRACTION FIELD: STABLE`*

*`> ENERGY DRAW: 0.7%`*

Confidence watched Tony, awed and wary. "You're not even straining."

The derelict motor park loomed – a graveyard of rusted buses. Emmy pressed her hands to the chain-link fence. "Here. It's so sad."

Tony cut through the gate with a thought. The air hummed, thick with unseen energy. Dust motes hung frozen mid-fall. At the center of the cracked concourse stood a pedestal of smooth, obsidian stone. Not man-made. *Alien.*

On it pulsed the Vanta-symbol – three jagged lines intersecting a circle. The source of the broadcast.

*`> ARTIFACT ANALYSIS: NON-TERRESTRIAL`*

*`> ENERGY SIGNATURE: 99.8% PULSE MATCH`*

*`> FUNCTION: COSMIC BEACON / ARCHIVAL IMPLANT`*

Tony approached. The symbol called to the serpent in his blood. He raised a hand—

*"Freeze! Unmeasured Variant!"*

E.E.A. troopers materialized from cloaking fields. Not grunts. Sleek, silver-armored units with helmets like featureless mirrors. At their head stood a woman – Commander Idara. Her skin flickered with static, eyes glowing pure white.

*`> COMMANDER IDARA`*

*`> CLASS: STATIC-SKIN VARIANT (TIER-S)`*

*`> ABILITIES: ELECTROMAGNETIC DOMINANCE, SENSOR GHOSTING`*

"You've led us to the prize, Ghost," Idara's voice buzzed with interference. "This beacon is the key to controlling the Pulse's evolution. Hand it over."

Confidence raised her pistol. "Like hell—"

Idara flicked her wrist. Confidence's gun disintegrated into molten slag. She cried out, clutching burned hands.

Tony stepped forward. "You knew it was here. You used me to find it."

"Of course." Idara smiled, a static rictus. "Unmeasured Variants are… excellent dowsing rods for Pulse artifacts. Now step aside."

Troopers advanced. Tony felt the pressure – Idara's EM field pressing against his light-bending bubble, threatening to collapse it. He couldn't fight her and protect his family.

Emmy stumbled toward the pedestal. "It's crying…"

*`> PSIONIC RESONANCE DETECTED: MAXIMUM`*

The Vanta-symbol flared. Emmy screamed – a psychic detonation that tore through the concourse. Troopers clutched their helmets, collapsing. Idara staggered, her static-field flickering.

Tony seized the moment. He didn't attack Idara. He attacked *reality* around the pedestal.

*`> PROTOCOL: SPATIAL TRANSLOCATION`*

Space screamed. The pedestal, the beacon, Emmy, Doris, Confidence, and Tony *folded*—

—and reappeared on the windswept roof of the Millennium Tower.

The beacon hummed softly. Emmy slumped, unconscious. Doris caught her.

Confidence stared at Tony. "You moved a building?"

"Just a piece." He touched the alien stone. Cold seeped into his bones. Images flooded his mind:

***A dying star.***

***A ship of light fleeing its collapse.***

***A payload fired toward a blue-green world.***

***Not an accident. A delivery.***

*`> BEACON ARCHIVE ACCESSED`*

*`> MISSION LOG: SEEDING PROTOCOL INITIATED`*

*`> TARGET SPECIES: HOMO SAPIENS`*

*`> PURPOSE: EVOLUTIONARY CATALYST`*

Tony recoiled. "It's not a weapon. It's… a test."

Confidence frowned. "For what?"

*`> FINAL ANALYSIS: ASCENSION`*

*`> FAILURE = EXTINCTION`*

Below them, Abuja burned. Commander Idara's voice crackled over every frequency, filled with static-rage:

*"Find Ghost! Find the beacon! Burn the city if you have to!"*

The hunt had become a war. And Tony held the key to humanity's final exam.