Phantom's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Phantom held the crystal shard to the light. The three flashes inside had begun to blur. Their edges frayed, colors bleeding into gray. Something was pulling at them. Phantom felt it like a hook behind the eyes. The shard grew warm, then hot. This was not the natural fade. Someone had set this in motion. A cracked monitor flickered on a nearby wall. The security feed jumped and glitched, but Phantom caught a frozen frame. An older man in a field vest stood in this hallway, glasses low on his nose, a chip case in one hand. Text scrolled across the corrupted image: KAINE, M. He had not left the trap for Phantom. He had rigged it to erase what he could not carry, so no one could trace his work. The shard pulsed harder. Whatever Kaine planted was draining it. Phantom pressed a hand to a wall vent and felt cold air rise from below. The power came from deeper. Phantom followed conduits down a stairwell into a reactor chamber. A tall core glowed green behind metal bands. Cables ran from it to a squat device on the floor, antennas splayed, its core throbbing in time with the shard's heat. The signal jammer was killing the memories. Phantom knelt beside it. Ripping it out would spark a surge. But the same machine could work against itself. Phantom found the input port and jacked in the crystal shard's holder, then spun the dials to full output. The device screamed. A wall of sound tore through the chamber, flat and endless, drowning every other frequency. The jammer's own sensors overloaded. The green pull on the shard snapped. Phantom felt the three flashes settle, still cracked, but no longer bleeding away. The heat faded from the crystal. Phantom shoved it back into the pouch and ran for the stairs as the reactor core flared white. At the top, Phantom stopped and looked back. The shard was safe. Phantom would not risk it near this place again. But the facility itself had to go, along with every trace Kaine might return for. Phantom pried a red cover off the reactor's manual vent and hauled the lever down. Below, the core cracked. A low roar climbed through the floor. Phantom pushed through the wide doors into open air and kept walking. Behind, the metal siding buckled. Fire punched through the cracked windows. The old sign fell and burned. Phantom stood in the smoke and pulled out the shard. The three flashes still glowed inside, steady now, held for a little longer. But the chip that could save them forever was gone, and now Phantom had a name for the man who took it. Kaine. Wherever he had gone, he carried the only thing that could stop the fade for good. Phantom turned from the fire and started walking, following the one lead left.