Chapter 26 Untitled Chapter
Roberto stared at the device, then looked up. “Who gave you access to that frequency?” The man’s smile got wider. “That’s the wrong question.” He paused for a beat.“The question is why you still think it belongs to you.”
Silence hung heavy in the air. And for the first time, Kendrix saw it on Roberto’s face. Not control slipping. Realization. Something in his own system had answered a call he never made.
The man didn’t rush. He didn’t need to. He just stood there with the device, like it had already done what it came for. Roberto didn’t move either. But the room felt different. Kendrix felt it on her skin. The air got heavier.
“You’re enjoying this,” Bash muttered.
The man didn’t look at him. “We’re not here for that.”
Roberto’s voice stayed low. “Then leave.”
The man nodded, like he was marking something off a list, not taking orders. “We will.”
He turned for the door, then stopped and looked back at Kendrix. That look wasn’t curious anymore. It was checking something off. “You were right,” he said quietly.
Not to her. To Roberto. Kendrix frowned. “Right about what?”
No answer. Of course.
He lifted the device again. “This breach will be logged as noncompliance. Containment parameters are now escalated.”
Bash stepped forward. “Escalated by who?”
The man looked at him. “By the system that built him.”
The air dropped out of the room. Roberto’s jaw tightened. That was it. That was the reaction. But Kendrix saw his hand flex once at his side. Forced stillness, like he had just been named for something he didn’t want to say out loud.
The man walked out, and the others followed. Perfect timing. No mess. No fight. The door clicked shut. And for a second, nobody talked.
Bash broke it first. “Okay. Someone explain why I just heard, built him like that’s normal.”
No one answered.
Kendrix was still staring at the door. “That wasn’t a threat.”
Roberto didn’t look at her.“It was a report.”
“From who?”
He went silent. That stupid silence again.
She turned on him. “Roberto.”
He moved, barely. Eyes dropped to the floor like he was trying to fix a math problem that didn’t add up anymore.
“I don’t know,” he said quietly.
That was new. The first time she had heard him say it.
Bash blinked. “You don’t know?”
“That access shouldn’t exist,” Roberto said.
Kendrix laughed, short and ugly. “That’s your system. Your rules. Your people.”
His eyes came up slowly. And for the first time, there was something off in them.
“It was,” he said.
That one word changed everything.
Kendrix stepped back half a step. “So what does that mean now?”
No answer right away. Then a hum started somewhere deep in the house. Then another. Then more. Like stuff waking up in pieces.
Bash heard it too. “Tell me that’s a reboot.”
Roberto stared at the wall a second too long. “It isn’t.”
Kendrix felt it before she could name it. Not an attack. Not a breach. A switch.
Roberto said it quietly, like he didn’t want to give it shape. “They’re activating something.”
“What kind of something?” Bash said low.
Roberto looked at Kendrix. And it wasn’t control in his face. It was warning. “I built this place,” he said. “But I wasn’t the first one to design it.”
The hum got deeper. The lights flickered steadily.
Kendrix swallowed. “So what are you saying?”
Roberto’s voice dropped lower. “I’m saying someone just reminded me I’m inside a system I don’t fully own.” He paused, then said grudgingly. “And they’ve just decided to take it back.”
The hallway lights flickered once again.Not a power thing. Like the building was testing itself. Roberto noticed first. So did Kendrix.
She stopped halfway down the hall, a few steps behind him. “Tell me that’s normal.”
“It’s not,” he said.
That was new. His voice wasn’t calm. Wasn’t controlled. It was sharp.
A guard at the end of the hall tapped his earpiece. Nothing. He tried again. It was static. Then nothing. “Sir, comms…”
Every screen blinked at once, then turned black. For a second, the house felt dead.
Skyler’s voice cut in from ahead. “Roberto, the system just…”
Then it died. Roberto didn’t move. But everything in him went tight.
“That’s impossible,” he said.
Kendrix stared at him. “You’re doing that thing again.”
“What thing?”
“The ‘this doesn’t happen to me’ thing.”
Click. Click. Click. Every door in the hall locked at once. No one touched them. Every exit in the wing sealed at once, like the house decided to shut itself.
A guard pulled a handle. Nothing. His face changed. “Sir… it’s not responding.”
Roberto moved fast now. Not running. Never running. But it said enough. He slapped his palm on the panel. It showed green, then red, then nothing. He tried again. Still nothing.
Kendrix’s voice dropped. “Okay… that’s not just weird. What the fuck is going on?”
Skyler appeared at the end of the hall, breathing hard. Bash stood right behind him.
Skyler looked at Roberto. “Every access point got overwritten.”
“By what?” Bash asked.
Skyler didn’t answer. Because he knew.
“My system is internal,” Roberto said.
Skyler nodded. “It was.”
That word hit hard. Roberto's fingers twitched. Then the speakers crackled. Once, twice. A clean tone cut through, not a voice, not human. Every dead screen in the hall flared to life. >OVERRIDE ACTIVE
> CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL: ENGAGED
Kendrix stepped back without meaning to. “Okay. I don’t like that.”
Bash stared. “I really don’t like that.”
Skyler’s eyes narrowed. “That protocol isn’t in the current build.”
Roberto’s face didn’t change. But something behind it did.
“No,” he said quietly.
Another ping came closer inside the walls. Like the house was listening. Then the next line came up.
> SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: KENDRIX
Silence hit hard. Kendrix froze.
“Why is my name on your walls?”
No one answered. They were all looking at Roberto. And for the first time, he didn’t own the room.
Skyler kept it careful. “Roberto… tell me I can reverse this.”
Roberto didn’t look at him. He was already moving, toward the main panel.
Bash followed. “That’s not a yes, is it?” Roberto slammed his hand onto the panel. Manual override. His code. His build. It showed green, then green again, then red. Access denied.
He went still for half a second, then tried again. Same thing.
Skyler stepped closer. “It rejected you.”
Kendrix’s voice was smaller now. “That’s… possible?”
“Not by design,” Roberto said.
Another ping came closer. The doors at both ends slid shut, and metals locked into place. They were boxed in.
Bash turned. “Okay, I don’t care who built this place. I vote we leave asap.”
Skyler was already typing. Nothing loaded. No network. No backup.
He looked up slowly. “We’re cut off.”
Roberto turned. Eyes moving down the hall like he was counting the breaks. Then he said calmly.
“Someone is inside my system.”
Kendrix swallowed hard. "Inside your...what?"
He didn't answer. The system did. And under her name, a second line appeared.
>PRIORITY STATUS: MAXIMUM
>ACTION: CONTAINMENT
Bash exhaled. "Yeah. That sounds like bad news."