Dr. Mathers was hunched over his data, polishing slides for the lab heads. This year's binding program had gone smoothly — the numbers where higher than. He was about to save the deck when the door exploded inward.
"BANG!"
The office door slammed against the wall. Mathers didn't bother looking up. "Someone better have died, or I'm killing you," he said without turning.
A young scientist stood in the doorway, chest heaving. "Sir… s—" He swallowed. "Sir, you have to see this. Now."
In the research bay a broken device sat on an analysis table like a foreign relic. Scientists swarmed it the way ants swarm sugar.
"How is this even possible?" Mathers muttered, forcing his way through the crowd. "Begin a full teardown. I want every component catalogued — metallurgy, microstructure, firmware, everything."
The device had been found on the thief.
"How did someone outside this lab build a boost nullifier?" Mathers thought as he moved between workstations. A technician glanced up. "Initial scans show no fingerprints or biological traces aside from residues tied to our suspect. This was professionally made — production-line precision."
"So there could be more of these?" Mathers asked.
"Possible," the technician said. "We push a routine inspection, order to police units — sweep Eclipse City factories. We don't mention why; they'll report back through secure channels."
"No one outside these walls should know this device exists," Mathers said. "And the suspect — where is he?"
Containment.
"Bring him in." Dr. Lacy's voice left no room for argument. Two guards dragged a man into the room and shoved him into a chair. He was bloodied, the left eye swollen.
Lacy planted a heel between his knees and lifted his chin with a gloved hand. "Looks like someone already did a number on you." She scanned the clipboard. "Jonathen — street robber turned potential terrorist. Quite the upgrade."
"Tell me where you got that device," she said, circling like a predator. "And I'll let you walk."
'Silence.'
"Cat got your tongue? Or did they promise a quick exit if you shut up?" Her hand stroked his cheek, deliberate and cold. "You've been jailed, sure. But you've never spent time in my containment. We play by my rules here."
Jonathen lunged.
"THWIP."
Webbing snapped out. He froze, bound to the chair. Lacy smiled. "Naughty boy. The numbness fades after a while , don't worry you can still talk''
She signaled at the door. "You can come in."
Siri glided in: long curls, black lipstick, a white flowing dress and royal purple heels. She moved like oil. "So the hard way, then?" she purred. "Jonny, meet Siri — she breaks her toys."
Lacy left them. Siri stepped close until her eyes glowed faint pink. A scream pierced the room. The guard outside flinched.
When Siri emerged she looked bored. "Disappointing. He was just a thug — a test subject who didn't know what he had."
"Any supplier intel?" Lacy demanded.
"Only the device," Siri said. "It arrived in a plain package with a single instruction letter. No identifiers."
Lacy's jaw tightened. "Mathers won't like that." She pointed to a guard. "Take him to medical."
Jonathen was frothing when they carried him out.
Research.
"Sir — after scans and deconstruction we've mapped the device." A scientist handed Mathers a tablet. Mathers stared until the lab blurred.
"This can't be," he breathed.
Another researcher entered. "Interrogation's done, sir."
"And?"
"They got nothing."
Mathers' only answer was a quiet, "Understood."
Later, alone in his office with the tablet glowing, Mathers stared at the readout. The anti-cosmic signature — a classified identifier embedded in the restrictor bands — blinked on the display. Only a handful of people knew how to seed that signature.
How had a common thief come across it?
He set the tablet down and felt the thing he'd dreaded most: the possibility of a mole.
The scene pulls back over the main lobby: technicians, engineers, floor workers moving through their days, unaware of what was currently brewing.
Somewhere else, in a dim room, two figures sat across a table.
"So it works?" one asked.
"Of course it works. I built it," the other said, sliding a prototype into a briefcase. "Now about payment — your back is scratched. Time to settle up."
The first hand lay on the case. "Before we close this deal: the prototype was taken by the labs. How do I know the rest won't be stopped?"
The other smiled, thin and certain. "Trust me. They won't stop it — not even if they want to