Chapter 17: Terms of Engagement
**[11:01 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
The pulsing blue light of the crystal core painted the space between them in an ethereal, ghostly glow.
It was a silent, impossible truth, offered up in the misty, decaying heart of the shipyards.
Nyx's eyes, those sharp, analytical green eyes, were locked onto the crystal with laser focus.
Her cool, controlled expression didn't break. There was no gasp of shock, no step back in fear.
But Alex saw it.
A flicker of something deep in her gaze. A sudden, intense sharpening of her focus.
It was the look of a master craftsman who has just been shown a piece of technology from a thousand years in the future.
It was awe, filtered through a lens of pure, undiluted intellect.
She didn't speak.
Instead, she reached into her leather jacket and pulled out a device that made Alex's enhanced senses take notice.
It was a sleek, black handheld scanner, unlike anything he had ever seen. Far more advanced than the standard-issue equipment the APD used for evidence analysis.
She aimed it at the crystal core with professional precision.
A soft, intricate web of green light emanated from the scanner, enveloping the crystal in delicate geometric patterns.
On the scanner's screen, lines of complex data and shifting, three-dimensional diagrams began to scroll at dizzying speed.
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**[11:03 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
She watched the screen, her expression unreadable, for a full minute.
The only sounds were the lapping of the water against the pier and the soft electronic hum of her device.
Finally, she lowered the scanner.
She looked up, and her eyes met Alex's.
The professional skepticism was gone.
It had been replaced by a chilling, profound seriousness that made the hairs on the back of Alex's neck stand up.
"The energy signature is wrong," she said, her voice a low, hushed whisper that carried more weight than a shout.
"It's emitting low-level temporal radiation that shouldn't be possible with any known technology."
She took a step closer, her eyes never leaving the crystal.
"It's violating at least two fundamental laws of thermodynamics."
"According to everything we know about physics," she concluded, her voice barely audible over the harbor sounds, "this object you are holding should not, cannot, exist."
She looked at him then, and for the first time, he saw her not just as a hacker or an operator, but as a fellow believer in the impossible.
"You're not crazy," she stated. It was a fact, not a compliment.
The impossible had been verified by someone who understood the science behind it.
The game had just changed completely.
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**[11:08 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
"His name was Albin Croft," Alex began, his voice low and steady in the misty night air.
He laid out the entire story, a concise, brutal summary of his unsanctioned investigation.
He spoke of the stopped clocks, the EMP murder weapon, the paranoid research logs hidden in corporate servers.
He spoke of Elias Deckard, of OmniTech's dark projects, and of the Chronos Device that had killed its own creator.
He explained how the crystal contained the data logs, the proof of the murder, but that it was hostile to any interface he could devise.
He laid his entire illegal, insane case at her feet like an offering.
She listened without interruption, her gaze never wavering from his face.
Her mind was clearly a high-speed processor, absorbing every detail, every implication, every connection.
When he finished, a deep silence settled between them again.
She looked from Alex to the crystal, then back to Alex.
"This is not a 'job'," she said finally, her voice firm and leaving no room for negotiation.
"This is the single most significant, and most dangerous, technological discovery in human history."
"I am not working for you, Detective."
"I am working with you."
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**[11:12 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
"We are partners," she declared with the authority of someone used to making decisions that mattered. "Equal partners. Or we are nothing. And I walk away right now."
Alex met her gaze. He saw no deception there, no hidden agenda.
Only absolute, unwavering resolve.
"Partners," he agreed with a single nod.
"Good," she said. "Now for my terms."
"I don't need your money. My compensation for this is full, unredacted, co-equal access to this device and all the data we recover from it."
She gestured towards the crystal with her scanner.
"This technology will change everything we understand about physics, about time, about reality itself."
"This is my new life's work. Those are my terms."
"Agreed," Alex said without hesitation. The knowledge was worthless if the killer walked free.
"Finally," she said, taking another step closer, her presence commanding the space around them. "The rules of engagement."
"From this moment on, there are no more reckless, lone wolf operations. We share all intelligence. We plan all actions together."
"You, Detective, are a brilliant but blunt instrument. You kick down doors and see what happens."
She tapped her own temple with a single finger.
"I am a scalpel. I find the weakness, the single pressure point that matters, and I cut with absolute precision."
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**[11:15 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
"We will do this my way. With planning, with foresight, and with absolute operational security."
"Your old life as a cop, your methods, your approach... they are over. Do you understand?"
He looked at the pulsing blue crystal, the proof of a murder he could never solve alone.
He looked at this impossible, dangerous, brilliant woman standing in front of him.
He was a suspended cop with no badge, no allies, and no official resources.
He had no other choice.
"I understand," he said.
"Good," Nyx said, a hint of satisfaction in her voice. "Then our first order of business is damage control."
She looked him up and down with professional assessment.
"Your apartment is compromised. You've been running your entire covert operation from there. It's the first place they'll look if they realize the device is missing."
"Deckard is a professional. He will not assume this was a random burglary. He will assume it was a professional theft, and he will start hunting systematically."
"You cannot go back there. Your car, your burner phone, your laptop... they are all potential vectors for tracking. You will abandon all of them."
She was right. He had been so focused on finding the truth, he had barely considered the consequences of success.
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**[11:18 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small, sleek, featureless black phone and a thin piece of plastic—a key card.
She handed them to him.
"This is your new phone. It's encrypted, untraceable, and the only number programmed into it is mine."
"This is a key card. There's an address on the back."
Alex turned it over. An address for a high-rise building in the financial district.
"That is your new home," she stated matter-of-factly. "It is one of my safe houses. Clean, secure, and invisible to every surveillance grid that matters."
"The lease is under a shell corporation that doesn't exist. The utilities are paid for by a financial ghost. You will be invisible there."
Alex was stunned by her level of preparation, her foresight.
She wasn't just a hacker living in her parents' basement.
She was a full-blown shadow operator with resources that rivaled intelligence agencies.
"Get there. Now," she commanded.
"Don't stop anywhere. Don't contact anyone from your old life. Your previous identity is over, starting tonight."
"What about my apartment? My equipment? My personal things?"
A faint, dangerous smile touched her lips.
"My team will handle it," she said simply.
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**[11:21 PM - Pier 7, Aethelburg Shipyards]**
"They will scrub your apartment of all personal data, all equipment, and any trace that Detective Alex Stone was ever conducting an investigation there."
"By sunrise, to anyone looking, your apartment will be just another empty room for rent."
The finality of her words was absolute and chilling.
She was not just offering him a safe house.
She was erasing his entire previous existence.
She turned to leave, her black leather jacket blending into the shadows.
"One more thing," Alex said, stopping her mid-stride. "I don't even know your real name."
She paused, looking back at him over her shoulder, the mist swirling around her like something from a dream.
"You can call me Evelyn," she said.
And with that, she melted back into the shadows of the pier, disappearing as silently as she had arrived.
Alex was left alone with the cold night air on his face and the strange encrypted phone in his hand.
He looked at the address on the key card, memorizing it.
He had found his specialist, his partner in the impossible.
But in doing so, he had lost what little remained of his old life.
He was a ghost now, heading to a new safe house, partnered with a goddess of the digital realm.
The hunt for Elias Deckard had just entered a completely new level of the game.
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DETECTIVE'S LOG: ALEX STONE
CASE FILE: 002 - The Clockmaker (Unofficial)
STATUS: Partnership established with "Nyx" (real name: Evelyn). Her assistance and considerable resources now secured.
KEY EVIDENCE (CRIMESYNC DATA):
New Alliance: All future operations will be collaborative. Solo actions are prohibited under partnership terms.
Identity Erasure: Ordered to abandon current identity and relocate to secure safe house immediately. Digital and physical trail being systematically erased by her team.
Critical Asset: Chronos Device core remains in my possession and has been verified as impossible technology by independent analysis.
CURRENT OBJECTIVE: Proceed to designated safe house. Begin collaborative analysis of the device with Evelyn. Prepare for escalated conflict with corporate adversaries.
Personal Note: I've crossed a line I can never uncross. My old life is being systematically erased, and I'm trusting a woman I met an hour ago with everything. But she's the first person who's looked at the impossible and seen the same truth I see. Sometimes that's all the faith you need.
End of Chapter 17
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"The moment you choose to see the impossible as real, you stop being who you were and start becoming who you need to be."
To be continued...