It was late evening. The air smelled like rain that hadn't fallen yet. Jason, Lina, and Milo had finished yet another practice session with Mrs. Amari and Elyra. Their route home from the warehouse took them close to the industrial district. Beyond the abandoned buildings, with only the moon and the stars as their light, they entered a zone of bright yet dormant streets.

  Or supposedly dormant.

  Jason felt it before he saw anything. A pulse. Not subtle. Not background noise.

  This was massive.

  He staggered, caught himself against a wall. His vision blurred. His ears rang.

  What— RAE's thought cut off as the pulse hit again. Stronger. Focused. That's not random. That's structured.

  "Jason?" Lina's hand on his arm. "What's wrong?"

  "Did you feel that?" He looked at her, then Milo. "The spike?"

  Milo pulled out his tablet, checking his passive monitors. His eyes widened. "Holy shit. Look at this."

  He turned the screen toward them. The resonance graph showed a spike so large it dominated everything else—ambient noise, city interference, even RAE's signature reduced to background compared to this.

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  "That's from the containment chamber," Milo said. "The one we observed. Whatever's down there just broadcast at ten times the power we detected before."

  Jason looked in the direction. Dark. Silent.

  But not empty.

  I can identify it from here, RAE said, her voice tight. The architecture predates mine, but has similarities. It's cruder. But powerful.

  A pause. Then, quieter: An earlier attempt. Failed containment from over a decade ago. I don't know the designation, but this is dangerous.

  Jason felt his stomach drop. An entity older than RAE. Powerful enough to need containment. And it was awake.

  "We need to call Reeves," he said immediately. "Now."

  "Agreed," Lina said. "We're not equipped for this."

  Milo was already pulling out his phone. "It's past midnight. Should we wait until morning?"

  "No," Jason said firmly. "This is too big for it to wait. They need to know tonight."

  He pulled out his own phone, found Reeves' contact. The one labeled "Emergency Only."

  This qualified.

  The call connected after three rings. Reeves' voice, alert despite the hour. "Mr. Fischer. What's wrong?"

  "We've encountered a threat. Major threat. An older harmonic entity is active in the containment chamber we observed. It's broadcasting at massive power levels. RAE identified it as pre-her architecture—dangerous."

  A pause. Then: "We know. Where are you now?"

  "Border Mill-4. We were walking home past the industrial district when the spike hit."

  "Good. Stay there. Don't come closer. I'm contacting Director Malvek now. Expect a car within the hour for emergency debrief."

  The line went dead.

  "We did the right thing," Lina said quietly.

  "Yeah," Jason said.

  Forty minutes later, a car pulled up beside them. The back seat door opening, revealing a serious-looking Reeves.

  "Get in," he said. "Director Malvek wants to brief you."

  They climbed into the back seat, and Reeves closed the door behind them. The car pulled away from the curb, merging into the flow of traffic.