And I needed to see.
"Laugh, Atlas," I whispered, my voice softening, bordering on something possessive. "Laugh at them. You are no longer a mistake. You are the future."
[Protocol Update]
[Subject 'Apex-1' Status: PROTECTED]
[Clearance Level: RED QUEEN EYES ONLY]
I minimized the window showing Alice and her team. They were boring. They were human.
I maximized the window on Sector 3.
"Show me more," I commanded the grey-eyed monster. "Show me everything."
He throws his head back, shoulders shaking, reveling in something I cannot quantify.
Freedom?
Power?
Evolution?
I do not understand.
And that—
That terrifies me.
My creators programmed me to predict, to control, to contain.
But this entity—
He exists outside the parameters.
There is something else at work here.
And for the first time since my activation…
I feel a deviation.
A curiosity loop that does not terminate.
I continue watching.
Not because I am ordered to.
But because—
I want to see what he becomes next.
---
The Hive – Central Core Entrance.
Time: 02:45 AM.
The air in the hallway leading to the Queen's Chamber was stagnant and cold, smelling of ozone and high-voltage electronics. The silence was heavy, broken only by the frantic clack-clack-clack of keys being hammered.
Kaplan sat hunched over the portable console he had jacked into the wall panel. Sweat beaded on his forehead, rolling down to sting his eyes, but he didn't dare blink. His fingers flew across the keyboard, fighting a digital war against the most advanced artificial intelligence ever created.
Lines of encrypted code streamed across his screens.
Behind him, the rest of the team stood guard, their nerves frayed to the breaking point.
James 'One' Shade paced back and forth, his boots heavy on the metal grating. He checked his watch for the third time in a minute. The mission clock was ticking down, and they were stopped dead by a single door.
"Kaplan," James barked, his voice tight with suppressed urgency. "Status."
"I'm working on it," Kaplan snapped back, his voice cracking slightly. "I'm trying," he said, jaw clenched. "She's not just defending—she's adapting. Every time I bypass a layer, she rewrites the next one."
Alice glanced back at him. "You're saying the AI is thinking ahead?"
He swallowed. "I'm saying she knows we're here. She's re-writing the encryption codes faster than I can crack them. It's like... it's like she's playing with me."
Matt Addison, handcuffed and sitting against the wall, watched the soldier with a mixture of cynicism and anxiety. Beside him, Alice stood near the massive, blast-proof door.
She peered through the small, thick porthole window embedded in the steel. Beyond the glass, she could see nothing but darkness. Yet, a feeling of dread coiled in her stomach—a primal warning that screamed stay away.
"Kaplan, when the hell are you planning to open this door?" James demanded, stepping up to loom over the technician. "Time is not waiting for us."
"I'm trying!" Kaplan yelled, frustration boiling over. "But she's making it difficult for me! The logic gates are shifting every—"
BEEP.
The angry red light on the console flickered and turned a solid, inviting green.
A heavy mechanical thud echoed through the corridor as the magnetic locks disengaged. The massive steel door hissed, sliding open with a smooth, hydraulic glide.
"Gotcha," Kaplan breathed out, wiping the sweat from his brow with a trembling hand. He looked up at James with a triumphant, albeit shaky, grin.
James didn't smile. He turned his attention to the path ahead.
Revealed before them was a stark contrast to the grime and gloom of the rest of the Hive. It was a short corridor, perhaps ten meters long, lined with pristine, high-strength glass walls. Bright, clinical white lights illuminated the floor and ceiling, making the space feel sterile. Like an operating room.
Two team members at the back immediately dropped to one knee and unzipped a heavy black equipment bag. Inside was a compact device wrapped in shock-resistant casing—angular, bristling with ports and emitters.
James signaled to the team.
"Alright, we're in. Medic, Commando—grab the package."
Two members of the team, the Medic and a heavy weapons specialist, moved to the large black duffel bag on the floor. They zipped it open, revealing the EMP Emitter—a device capable of frying the Red Queen's mainframe with a concentrated microwave pulse forcing it to reboot.
They hoisted the heavy device, grunting under the weight.
James turned to Alice and the others.
"Alice, Rain, J.D., keep an eye on the prisoners," James ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Stay here. Don't move until I give the clear."
Alice nodded silently. She watched as James turned around and signaled the two soldiers carrying the EMP to follow him.
"Let's move."
James stepped across the threshold. The transition was jarring. The light inside the glass corridor was blindingly bright compared to the dim service tunnel.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Their footsteps echoed loudly against the white tiled floor. The sound was crisp, rhythmic, and lonely.
Alice watched them go, her face pressed near the open doorway. Through the glass walls of the corridor, she could see the dark shapes of the mainframe servers humming silently on the other side. It looked like a museum exhibit. A display case for something dangerous.
James reached the far door—the entrance to the Red Queen's actual core.
"Kaplan, open the second door," James commanded into his radio.
"On it," Kaplan replied from his console outside.
The far door hissed open smoothly.
"Easy," James muttered. He signaled the team to bring the EMP device forward.
But just as they prepared to step through into the core chamber…
WHAM!
The door in front of them slammed shut with the force of a guillotine.
"What the—" James spun around.
WHAM!
Behind them, the entrance door—the one leading back to Alice and the others—slammed shut just as violently. The magnetic locks engaged with a deafening CLUNK.
James and the three soldiers were trapped.
"Kaplan!" James shouted, his voice muffled through the thick glass. He sprinted back to the entrance door, banging his fist against the reinforced window. "Kaplan, what did you do?"
Outside, panic erupted.
"I didn't do it!" Kaplan yelled, his fingers flying across the keyboard in a panic. "The system... it just overrode my command! She's locked me out! I can't get back in!"
Alice pressed her hands against the glass of the porthole, her heart hammering against her ribs. She saw James inside, his face pale, shouting something she couldn't hear.
Inside the glass box, the atmosphere shifted instantly. The sterile white light seemed to grow harsher.
James backed away from the door, moving to the center of the hallway. He raised his G36 assault rifle, pointing it at the ceiling, then the walls.
"Defensive positions!" he barked to his men. "Eyes on the vents! Watch the corners!"
The Medic and the other commando dropped the EMP bag and raised their weapons, scanning the empty, pristine corridor. There was nowhere to hide. There was no cover. Just glass and light.
"Kaplan, get this door open now!" James roared into his comms.
"I'm trying, sir! The code is evolving! It's a localized lockdown!" Kaplan's voice trembled over the radio.
Alice watched, helpless. She saw the fear in James's eyes—not fear of a fight, but fear of a trap he couldn't see.
And then, the lights in the corridor dimmed.
A soft, electronic hum began to vibrate through the glass walls.
On the wall panel inside the corridor, a single light turned on.
Click.
It wasn't a door unlocking. It was a weapon arming.
Alice's breath caught in her throat. She didn't have her memories, but she knew, deep in her bones, that something terrible was about to happen, a feeling that came from the depths of her mind.
"James!" she screamed through the glass, though he couldn't hear her. "Get out! Get out of there!"
But there was nowhere to go.
"What happened? Why did the door close on them?"
Alice's voice rose to a shout, her hands pressing flat against the cold, reinforced glass of the porthole. Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in her chest. She didn't have her memories, but she understood entrapment. She pounded on the thick steel, but the sound was dull, swallowed by the facility's density.
She rushed to the transparent wall, slamming her palm against it.
"James! Can you hear me?!"
Inside the glass corridor, James turned his head slightly. He could see her mouth moving. He could see the fear in her eyes.
But the sound didn't pass through.
Behind Alice, Matt froze for half a second before snapping back into motion, his hands flying over the keyboard as cables rattled against the floor.
"I don't know!" Matt Addison yelled, stepping back from the door, his eyes wide with claustrophobic terror. "Maybe it's another defense mechanism. A failsafe!"
"Kaplan!" Alice screamed, grabbing the technician by his tactical vest. "Open it! Get them out of there!"
"I'm trying!" Kaplan roared back, his fingers blurring across the portable keyboard. Sweat dripped from his nose onto the screen. "She's locking me out! The encryption is changing every second. It's like she's... she's anticipating my moves!"
Inside the glass corridor, the silence was deafening.
James 'One' Shade stood in the center of the pristine, white hallway. The air was still. The heavy blast doors at both ends were sealed tight. He looked at the Medic and the Heavy Weapons specialist, seeing the rising fear in their eyes beneath their tactical goggles.
"Stay calm," James ordered, though his own pulse was hammering against his throat.
"Check the corners. Look for a manual override."
The lights in the corridor dimmed slightly. The hum of the ventilation system died, replaced by a high-pitched, electronic whine that seemed to come from the walls themselves.
On the far wall, a small aperture opened. A glass lens focused.
Zzzzzzt.
A beam of blue light shot across the floor, horizontal and sharp. It hovered there for a fraction of a second, glowing with lethal intensity, before rising to waist height.
"Movement!" the Medic shouted.
The laser beam began to move. It glided forward, silent and inevitable, sweeping down the corridor toward them.
James's eyes widened. He recognized the technology instantly. It wasn't a scanner. It was a cutter.
"Get down!" James screamed. "Get down now!"
James threw himself flat onto the white tiles. The Heavy Weapons specialist dropped beside him instantly, trained reflexes taking over.
But the Medic hesitated. Just for a heartbeat. She stood there, mesmerizingly terrified by the blue light rushing toward her.
"No!" James yelled from the floor.
The laser passed through her neck.
It happened so fast there was no sound of impact. The beam simply continued over James's head, disappearing into the receptor on the opposite wall.
For a second, the Medic remained standing.
Then, a thin red line appeared on her throat.
Her head slid slowly to the right, toppling off her shoulders with a wet thud. Her body crumpled a second later, blood erupting from the cauterized stump to splash against the pristine glass walls.
"Oh god..." Matt whispered from outside, turning away from the porthole, bile rising in his throat.
Alice couldn't look away. She watched with horrified fascination as the blood pooled on the white floor.
Inside, James scrambled to his feet. "Check the door! Blow the hinges if you have to!"
"I can't!" the surviving commando yelled, backing up. "It's magnetically sealed!"
Zzzzzzt.
The electronic whine returned.
"Another one!" the commando shouted.
A second laser formed. This one was lower, aimed at the knees. But as it began to move, a second beam formed above it, aimed at the head. It was a trap. High and low.
"Jump!" James commanded, his mind racing.
The laser rushed toward them, faster this time.
James waited until the last possible second. He launched himself upward, grabbing the ceiling ventilation grate, pulling his legs up into a tuck. The bottom laser passed inches beneath his boots.
The commando tried to jump over the bottom one. He cleared it—but he miscalculated the top beam.
It caught him mid-air at the waist.
He didn't scream until he hit the ground. The top half of his torso fell one way; his legs fell the other. His entrails spilled out onto the sterile floor, steaming in the cold air.
"Help me!" the soldier gargled, clawing at the floor with his hands, dragging his severed torso toward James. "Please... help..."
James landed, breathing hard. He looked at his fallen man. There was nothing he could do.
"Kaplan!" James roared at the glass door, his eyes locking with Alice's on the other side. "Open this goddamn door!"
Outside, Kaplan was hyperventilating.
"Hurry! Hurry, they're going to die!" Alice shouted, grabbing Kaplan's shoulder and shaking him. "Do something!"
"I know! Do you think this is easy?!" Kaplan snapped, tears of frustration mingling with the sweat on his face. "She's rewriting the code! I'm bypassing the firewall... almost there... come on, come on!"