Page 203 of Villainous Rise

I had no idea what the citizens of Chroma Bay thought of a massive aircraft parked in plain sight alongside the city’s most iconic building. I couldn’t bring myself to care. My eyes stayed glued to the sickening files filling the screen.

“The power signatures match perfectly,” Cipher was saying. “The modifications are designed to amplify and redirect⁠—”

“But why?” Havoc interrupted.

I tuned them out again, my fingers tracing over a grainy photo included in the file. A younger Helios, William Evans. His cohort surrounded him in the picture, smiling faces of people who would later testify against him, claiming his power surge was deliberate.

Given the information in the files, everyone that had spoken against Helios was dead. The rest of the group he’d been a member of were safe and the murders would have stopped. Helios probably never would have been found out if Cipher hadn’t caused my cuff to go offline.

I couldn’t reconcile the man I knew with someone capable of calculated murder. But then again, I couldn’t reconcile the Alliance I’d dedicated my life to with an organization that would torture and gaslight a traumatized young man just to cover their own mistakes while experimenting on him.

“What are they doing to you now, William?” I whispered. Was this all him?

As I sat locked in my own horror, the voices behind me grew increasingly heated. Cipher and Havoc had moved from discussion to argument, their tones sharp enough to finally pierce through my shocked haze.

“That’s not possible,” Havoc growled, his voice carrying that dangerous edge I rarely heard outside of combat.

“The evidence is right there,” Cipher snapped back. “I don’t make mistakes with this kind of analysis.”

I turned around, finding them standing nearly toe-to-toe. “What are you two arguing about?” I asked.

Cipher looked at me. “I found additional records about Helios’s rehabilitation program. There’s a connection to Halcyon that⁠—“

“It’s impossible,” Havoc cut in, his jaw tight.

“Tell me,” I said to Cipher, ignoring Havoc’s interruption.

Cipher glanced between us before continuing. “Part of Helios’s ‘rehabilitation’ included a six-month rotation as security detail at the Vault.”

The blood drained from my face. “The Vault? Where they’re keeping Halcyon?”

“That’s what the records show,” Cipher confirmed, his eyes never leaving mine.

Havoc must have seen the horror written across my face because he immediately stepped forward. “Annie, no. It can’t be Halcyon’s influence. The Vault has the most sophisticated security system in existence. Even if Helios had direct contact, Halcyon couldn’t have affected him with the power dampeners they have in place.”

“Havoc,” I said quietly, “what if you’re wrong?”

Havoc shook his head. “It’s impossible, Annie.”

“Then explain this,” Cipher said, motioning to one of the screens showing a complex network of financial transactions. “How the hell does Helios have access to Alexander Mercer’s accounts? The transactions began six weeks after his rotation at the Vault ended.”

I watched Havoc’s face carefully. In all my years with him, I’d rarely seen him rattled. But as he paled, I realized something I never thought I’d see, Havoc was afraid.

“What you’re suggesting,” Havoc started, his voice dropping to a near whisper. He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“We need to tell—“ I stopped myself.

Tell who? The Alliance? The same people who threw Helios under the bus when his powers destabilized because of them? The organization that treated him like a lab rat and covered up their mistakes instead of helping him? They’d just bury this too. Another “unfortunate incident” swept under the rug. I wasn’t sure the Aegis would be any better.

I straightened, a cold clarity washing over me. “We need to warn the Vault, at the very least. If there’s even a possibility that Halcyon is influencing people from within his cell, they need to know. They need to check their containment systems, tighten security. Something.”

The very thought of Halcyon extending his reach from captivity made my skin crawl. The phantom sensation of his power lingered in my mind from when I’d used it. That moment of connection, brief as it was, had been enough to glimpse the depthless void of his malice.

After a long moment, Havoc nodded. “You’re right. I’ll contact them immediately.” His expression hardened. “But more importantly, we need to find Helios. He must be contained.”

“Contained?” I echoed.

“Annie, there’s no doubt he’s responsible for these murders. The evidence is overwhelming.” Havoc’s voice carried that decisive tone he used when issuing orders that weren’t to be questioned.