Date: January 4, 2021
Location: Austin, Texas
Time: 9:00 AM
Blaze sat at the edge of his polished kitchen island, the sunlight filtering through the blinds like prison bars. The precise geometry of his breakfast—apple slices cut into perfect hexagons, a boiled egg halved with surgical sharpness—reflected the mind that prepared it. The kitchen clock ticked at exactly 900 beats per hour. He had measured it.
The laptop before him was open to a custom-coded OS, a silent storm of windows processing gigabytes of data siphoned from Silas's decrypted drives. Blaze's sapphire eyes glowed under the screen's pale light as he reclined, absorbing metadata like it was poetry.
"Silas was just an infected cell," he murmured. "But even cancer has a source."
Within a collapsed directory labeled 'AG_Protocol', Blaze located a communication pattern. Silas hadn't worked alone. There was a handler—a liaison named Vance. Blaze leaned forward and activated his synthesizer. It was time to become someone else.
---
Time: 11:04 AM
Blaze stood near the window, phone in hand. He had routed the call through four dummy servers in Belarus, Cuba, Sweden, and finally New York. The signal would be untraceable for at least 47 minutes.
The voice he had selected was calm, professional. Male, early 30s, slight European accent. Just enough charm to inspire trust.
> Blaze (synthesized voice): "Mr. Vance. I believe we have overlapping interests."
> Vance (hesitant): "Who is this?"
> Blaze: "A friend of Silas. He's been…reassigned. Now I'm taking over."
> Vance: "I wasn't informed."
> Blaze: "Because you're on a need-to-know leash. And you don't need to know who I am. Just answer this: where is the next Tier 2 test site?"
Silence. Blaze's fingers tapped once on the glass. A soft chime emitted from the background server.
> Blaze: "Answer. Or I trigger the leak I've pre-planted on your daughter's private school servers."
> Vance: "...East Austin. Abandoned warehouse on Sparks Avenue. Tonight, 7 PM."
> Blaze: "See? You can be useful. Like a well-trained hound."
He ended the call with a blink.
---
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Abandoned warehouse, Sparks Avenue
Blaze stood atop a support beam, crouched like a predator above a dimly lit floor. Below, six men paced uneasily, unaware of the hidden mics and cameras that recorded their every word.
They had come expecting payment, recruitment, maybe even initiation.
They found dread.
> Voice over loudspeaker (Blaze): "Each of you was promised reward. Instead, I offer revelation."
> Man 1: "Who the hell is that?!"
> Blaze: "A mirror. You'll break before I do."
Gas began to hiss through the vents—nonlethal but disorienting. Flashbangs rigged behind crates ignited in sequence. Screams followed.
One man lashed out with a crowbar. Another pulled a knife. Paranoia exploded like wildfire. They turned on each other.
Blaze dropped down quietly, landing without a sound. He walked through the chaos like a ghost, unbothered.
> Man 3 (bleeding): "What… what do you want?!"
> Blaze: "To see if desperation makes monsters. Turns out, it only reveals them."
He recorded it all.
---
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Blaze's apartment
With surgical precision, Blaze wiped the day's data from Austin's traffic cams and security systems. He inserted footage of himself walking around South Congress Avenue at 3 PM—laughing, smiling, playing tourist. Every detail—down to the pigeon poop on his jacket—was flawless.
He stared into the screen.
> Blaze (whispers): "You're watching the wrong me. Good."
---
Time: 10:30 PM
The knock was soft.
Blaze stood still. His hand hovered over the hidden knife in the flower vase.
He opened the door.
A girl stood there. Red hoodie, black leggings, raven-black hair in a braid. Eyes violet, skin pale.
> Girl: "The Architects sent me to tell you: You're too early, monster."
Before he could respond, she vanished into the stairwell.
He didn't move for 38 seconds.
Then he smiled.
> Blaze: "Interesting. They blinked."