The elevator descended like a whisper through the spine of Dravien Industries.
Knox Vancewell stood alone inside, tablet in hand, eyes fixed on the digital readout above the doors. Floor 99. Floor 98. Floor 97.
Each number felt like a countdown.
He had memorized the building's schematics before stepping inside.
Not just the public blueprints—the hidden ones. The ones buried in archived zoning requests and encrypted contractor logs.
Dravien Industries was more than a corporate fortress. It was a labyrinth. A vault. A weapon.
And Virelia Dravien studied its architect.
The elevator chimed softly as it reached the executive operations level.
The doors slid open to reveal a corridor of glass and steel, lit by recessed lighting that cast no shadows.
Everything here was designed to be seen. And yet, Knox knew, the most dangerous things were always invisible.
He walked with measured steps, passing rooms filled with silent staff, each absorbed in their own world of data, strategy, and silence. No one looked up. No one greeted him. That was fine. He preferred it that way.
At the end of the corridor, a biometric scanner awaited. He placed his thumb on the pad. The tablet vibrated once.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The door slid open.
Inside was a workspace unlike any he'd seen. Minimalist. Stark. A single desk, a wall of screens, and a panoramic view of Valemont City bleeding silver beneath the storm.
Virelia stood at the far end, arms crossed, her reflection a ghost in the glass.
She didn't turn.
"Your first task," she said, voice like frost. "Find out who accessed the boardroom system."
Knox stepped forward. "Already working on it."
She turned then, eyes narrowing. "Explain."
"The breach wasn't external," he said. "It was triggered by proximity. Someone inside the room activated a dormant protocol."
"Impossible. That system requires dual authentication."
Knox nodded.
"Unless someone bypassed it."
Virelia's jaw clenched. "You're suggesting sabotage."
"I'm suggesting familiarity," Knox replied. "Someone who knew the architecture. Someone who knew you."
She walked to the desk, tapped a command into the tablet.
A holographic projection bloomed between them—schematics of the boardroom, timestamps, access logs. One entry blinked red.
UNKNOWN USER. TIME: 13:25. LOCATION: BOARDROOM.
Virelia stared at it.
"That's fifteen minutes before you entered."
Knox's gaze sharpened. "And ten minutes after the folder was placed."
She looked at him. "You think the HR director planted it?"
"I think someone used him."
Virelia paced slowly, her heels echoing like distant gunfire. "Julian's firm has tried to infiltrate before. But this… this is different."
Knox nodded.
"It's not corporate espionage. It's personal."
She stopped. "Then we need to make it impersonal."
Knox raised an eyebrow. "How?"
Virelia turned to the screens. "We activate Echo Protocol."
Knox's expression didn't change, but inside, something shifted. Echo Protocol wasn't just a security measure. It was a purge. A reset. A way to erase threats before they became visible.
"You're sure?" he asked.
She didn't hesitate. "I built this empire from betrayal. I won't let it fall to ghosts."
Knox stepped forward. "Then I'll need full access."
Virelia studied him. "You already have it."
The storm outside roared louder, as if the city itself had heard her declaration.
Knox turned to leave, but paused.
"One more thing."
She looked up.
"The shimmer," he said. "Your tower. It wasn't a glitch."
Her eyes narrowed. "Then what was it?"
Knox's voice was quiet. "A displacement. Like something was trying to overwrite reality."
Virelia's breath caught.
Knox continued. "If someone's testing tech that can manipulate perception at this scale… we're not dealing with rivals."
She stepped closer. "Then who?"
Knox met her gaze. "We're dealing with architects."
The word hung in the air like a prophecy.
Outside, lightning split the sky again.
And somewhere deep beneath Dravien Industries, a dormant server hummed to life.
Knox Vancewell moved through the lower corridors of Dravien Industries with the precision of a surgeon.
The executive level had been pristine—clinical in its silence. But down here, beneath the surface, the air felt different. Denser. Charged.
He passed through a series of security gates, each requiring a different form of authentication: retinal scan, voiceprint, quantum key.
The deeper he went, the fewer people he saw. Until finally, there were none.
The final door was unmarked. No keypad. No scanner. Just a smooth panel of obsidian glass.
Knox placed his palm against it.
The wall shimmered, then dissolved.
Inside was the Echo Chamber.
It wasn't a room. It was a vault of cognition—an interface between human thought and synthetic intelligence. The walls pulsed with data streams, cascading like waterfalls of light. In the center, a single console awaited.
Knox approached, his tablet syncing automatically.
ECHO PROTOCOL: INITIALIZING...
USER: KNOX VANCEWELL
ACCESS LEVEL: OMEGA
STATUS: AWAITING DIRECTIVE
He hesitated.
Echo Protocol wasn't just a tool. It was a weaponized algorithm designed to detect anomalies in perception, behavior, and memory. It could rewrite access logs, trace quantum footprints, even simulate alternate outcomes to predict sabotage before it occurred.
But it came with a cost.
Knox tapped the console.
BEGIN TRACE: BOARDROOM INCIDENT — 13:25
The chamber darkened. A holographic reconstruction unfolded around him—ghostly figures seated at the boardroom table, frozen in time. The shimmer appeared again, flickering like a mirage near the far wall.
Knox stepped closer.
"Magnify," he whispered.
The shimmer expanded, revealing a figure—blurred, faceless, but undeniably present. Not the HR director. Not anyone on record.
IDENTITY: UNKNOWN
SIGNAL SOURCE: NON-LOCAL
Knox's pulse quickened. "Non-local" meant the entity hadn't entered through physical means. It had been projected. Or worse—manifested.
He ran a secondary scan.
TRACE PATTERN: ARCHITECTURE SIGNATURE DETECTED
Knox froze.
Architecture signatures were theoretical. A way to tag reality-altering tech by its design language. Only one group had ever been rumored to use them.
The Architects.
He exited the simulation and opened a secure channel to Virelia.
She answered instantly.
"What did you find?"
Knox's voice was low. "They didn't breach the system. They rewrote it."
Virelia's eyes narrowed. "Explain."
"The shimmer wasn't a glitch. It was a signature. Someone used perception tech to enter the boardroom without triggering any physical sensors. They didn't hack Echo. They spoke its language."
Virelia was silent for a moment. Then: "How many others know?"
"Just us."
"Good. Keep it that way."
Knox hesitated. "There's more."
He sent her the reconstructed image.
Virelia studied the faceless figure. "It's not my ex husbands idea."
"No," Knox said. "It's someone older. Someone who's been inside the system since before it was built."
Virelia turned away, staring out at the storm. "Then we're not dealing with ghosts."
Knox shook his head. "I think it's one of the original designers."
Virelia stepped forward. "We're dealing with my brother."
The chamber lights flickered.
As he turned to leave, the console blinked again.
MESSAGE RECEIVED
Knox paused.
The message was short. Just six words.
YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO LIVE.
He stared at it.
Then the lights went out.