Chapter 197 A bargain with a mad scientist
Chapter 197 A bargain with a mad scientist
The interrogation room felt smaller after Calder’s last confession.
Like the walls themselves understood something terrible had entered the conversation.
No one moved for several long seconds after he whispered those words.
“Who the fuck is the Architect?”, Vincent had said earlier.
The silence afterward wasn’t empty.
It was thinking.
Calculating.
Because suddenly every piece of this looked different.
Not random hybrid outbreaks.
Not isolated experiments.
Infrastructure.
Deployment.
Selection.
Someone wasn’t creating monsters recklessly.
Someone was positioning them carefully.
And somehow
I had become a problem they didn’t anticipate.
Rain continued hammering against headquarters above us while fluorescent lights buzzed softly overhead.
Calder looked exhausted now.
Not defiant.
Not arrogant.
Just tired in the way people became when survival instincts finally outweighed loyalty.
Darius noticed it too.
I could feel the shift beside me.
The moment he realized the scientist was close to breaking completely.
Darius stepped forward slowly.
“What do you want?”
Calder looked up sharply.
Smart enough to understand exactly what that question meant.
Not mercy.
Terms.
The scientist swallowed visibly.
Then finally:
“Protection.”
Vincent scoffed immediately from near the wall.
“You don’t deserve protection.”
“I know.”
The honesty startled the room slightly.
Calder’s eyes drifted toward me again.
Always me.
“But if they know I’m alive,” he continued quietly, “they’ll erase me the same way they erased Vortan.”
Mara crossed her arms.
“You helped build this.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No denial.
God.
That somehow made him worse.
Because he knew exactly what he’d done.
Darius’s voice remained cold.
“You expect sanctuary after decades of human experimentation?”
“No.” Calder’s breathing roughened slightly. “I expect survival to motivate rational decisions.”
Fred let out a humorless laugh through the observation speaker.
“He’s still talking like a scientist.”
Calder ignored him.
His gaze stayed fixed on Darius.
“You need information more than revenge right now.”
The room stayed silent.
Because unfortunately
He wasn’t wrong.
I hated that he wasn’t wrong.
Darius looked toward me briefly.
Not asking permission.
Checking instinct.
Grounding.
Always grounding.
I understood immediately what he was thinking.
Keeping Calder alive felt dangerous.
But killing him now would blind us.
And whoever controlled the hybrids already stayed three moves ahead.
We needed answers.
Even ugly ones.
Darius finally looked back at Calder.
“You cooperate fully.”
The scientist nodded immediately.
“You remain under containment,” Darius continued. “One lie and I hand you to the people who want you dead personally.”
Calder believed him.
I saw it instantly.
The scientist exhaled shakily.
Then leaned back slightly against the restraint chair.
For a moment he looked strangely relieved.
Like speaking the truth out loud after years of secrecy physically exhausted him.
I crossed my arms slowly.
“Start talking.”
Calder closed his eyes briefly.
Then quietly:
“The V-Canis deployments aren’t random.”
There it was again.
Deployment.
Not attacks.
Not outbreaks.
Military language.
Darius’s expression hardened.
“We already figured that out.”
“No.” Calder shook his head slightly. “You identified movement patterns. You still haven’t identified the objective.”
My pulse slowed dangerously.
“What objective?”
Calder opened his eyes slowly.
“Destabilization.”
The word settled heavily through the room.
He continued before anyone interrupted.
“The hybrid variants are being released strategically against territorial leadership structures.”
Fred spoke sharply through the speaker.
“Explain clearly.”
Calder nodded once.
“The unstable variants target isolated communities first. Rural packs. Smaller bloodlines. They create panic.” His gaze drifted downward briefly. “Then V-Canis units follow.”
Vincent frowned.
“To clean up survivors?”
“No.”
Calder looked back up.
“To eliminate leadership.”
Silence.
Cold.
Immediate.
I thought about every recent attack report.
Pack Alphas killed first.
Defensive structures collapsing rapidly afterward.
Council territories descending into chaos before reinforcements arrived.
God.
This wasn’t terrorism.
It was systematic dismantling.
Darius stepped closer.
“They’re targeting command hierarchies.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Calder’s expression darkened.
“Because divided packs become dependent.”
The realization hit the room like a knife.
Not random destruction.
Preparation.
Someone wanted power structures weakened before something larger arrived.
Mara entered the interrogation room fully now, tablet in hand.
“Dependent on who?”
Calder looked genuinely unsettled suddenly.
“I don’t know.”
Lie.
Small one.
I saw it immediately.
“You do.”
His eyes snapped toward me.
“I know theories.”
“Tell us.”
Calder hesitated too long.
Then quietly:
“There are factions inside the systems now.”
My beast stirred uneasily beneath my ribs.
“What systems?”
“The old containment network.” He swallowed visibly. “Architect operations. Remaining Council black sites. Military adaptation programs.” His voice weakened slightly.
“Someone consolidated command recently,” Calder whispered.
My pulse spiked.
“The figure from the safehouse.”
“Yes. The Architect”
Thane finally spoke from near the doorway.
“The hybrids responded to him instantly.”
Calder nodded.
“That should not have been possible.”
“Why?”
The scientist looked toward me slowly.
“Because the synchronization project was unfinished.”
Silence.
Then:
“Unless someone completed it.”
The room chilled instantly.
Fred cursed softly through the speaker.
“No.”
Calder laughed weakly again.
“You’re all still thinking too small.”
Darius’s jaw flexed sharply.
“Then help us think bigger.”
The scientist stared at the table for several long seconds.
Then finally:
“There’s another facility.”
The atmosphere sharpened immediately.
Everyone in the room straightened slightly.
“Location,” Darius said instantly.
Calder hesitated.
Not strategically.
Fearfully.
That mattered.
“It wasn’t supposed to become operational yet.”
“Calder.”
The scientist flinched slightly at my tone.
Then slowly:
“The deployment coordination is happening there.”
Fred’s voice came sharp through the speaker.
“You’re saying they centralized command.”
“Yes.”
Tessa moved closer immediately.
“Where?”
Calder looked pale suddenly.
Actually pale.
Because he knew what giving us this meant.
No going back afterward.
No surviving both sides anymore.
Finally
Very quietly
He recited coordinates.
The room exploded into movement instantly.
Thane grabbed the numbers immediately, cross-checking satellite overlays while Vincent started issuing deployment alerts through secure comm channels.
Darius remained motionless for one second longer.
Watching Calder carefully.
“Tell me what’s there.”
Calder’s breathing roughened.
“A staging site.”
“For what?”
Silence.
Then:
“Large-scale deployment.”
Cold spread violently through my chest.
Darius looked murderous now.
“How many hybrids?”
“I don’t know.”
“Estimate.”
Calder swallowed visibly.
“Enough.”
God.
The word hit harder than numbers somehow.
Thane looked up sharply from the tactical screen.
“I found the coordinates.”
Everyone turned toward him.
The hacker enlarged a satellite map across the observation display.
Dense forest.
Mountain territory.
Abandoned infrastructure buried beneath industrial ruins near the eastern borderlands.