099 THE DREAM?
Damen ran toward the location in the SOS message. The person who asked for his help might be the one who hacked GenSyn's computer to help him.
Returning the favor wasn't unreasonable.
To his surprise, the location led him to his old middle-high school.
The guard at the gate recognized him instantly.
"Wait a second—aren't you the genius from our school? Damen Dark! Come back to visit your teachers?"
Damen gave a small wave. "Good to see you. I'm just here to see someone. Can I come in?"
"For you? Anytime," the guard said, opening the gate.
Following the signal on his phone, Damen headed toward the cafeteria. The place was quiet. It wasn't lunch hour yet.
"This is strange," he muttered. "He's calling for help… but there's nobody here."
Before he could leave, his communicator buzzed.
Dorin was calling.
"We've got a new case. It may be related to you."
Damen frowned. "What case could possibly relate to me?"
"We found a boy in one of the labs at GenSyn," Dorin said. "His brain's attached to a bio-synthetic computer. They were running experiments on him."
"What does that have to do with me?" Damen asked, though an uneasy feeling began creeping up his spine.
"We ran a background check on the boy," Dorin continued. "He's from your old middle school. He went comatose about six months ago after a fight. We're still piecing together what happened. You might get better answers if you visit the school."
"I'm already here in the school," Damen said quietly.
"What? Already there? Did you have a premonition or something?"
"Coincidence," Damen replied. "I was nearby and thought I'd visit some teachers."
He ended the call, unease turning into dread.
Dorin had also sent him an image—an unconscious boy floating inside a life-sustenance tank, his brain connected to a web of wires and machinery.
Name: Ethen Lace.
Damen's chest tightened.
He went straight to the principal's office.
Principal Dean looked up from his desk, startled but delighted.
"Damen Dark! What a pleasant surprise. What brings our school's pride back to his alma mater?"
Damen smiled politely and showed his SIA badge. "I'm working part-time for the SIA now. I came to ask about a student—Ethen Lace."
The principal blinked. "An SIA agent already? Impressive! I always knew you were destined for great things."
"Thank you, sir," Damen said, his tone flat but respectful.
Dean rifled through a cabinet and pulled out a file. "Yes… Ethen Lace. Poor boy. He was bullied in the cafeteria—beaten unconscious. We sent him to the hospital, but later heard he was taken into the care of GenSyn Industries."
"Taken? By GenSyn? Why?" Damen asked.
"The hospital reported massive psychic fluctuations in his brain," Dean explained. "GenSyn said they'd study him and try to revive him. He had no family to contest it, so… they took him."
"That's… a pity," Damen murmured, his eyes darkening.
He knew the kind of helplessness Ethen went through all too well. He was the outcast in society that nobody cares about and his fate was always to be stepped upon by others.
Damen went through the same fate before. He was lucky but Ethen Lace- not so much.
Then the principal hesitated, flipping through Ethen's file again. "You know… now that you mention him, there's something I never forgot. When he collapsed, he was clutching a poster of you—so tightly we couldn't pry it from his hands until the paramedics came."
He retrieved a crumpled, blood-stained sheet from the folder and handed it over.
It was a faded poster of Damen, smiling proudly as he received a certificate from the very same principal.
"He was your biggest fan," Dean said softly. "The other students said his last words before he lost consciousness were… 'Big Brother, save me.'"
Damen stared at the poster in silence, the air around him turning heavy.
That voice—the one in the SOS message—suddenly made perfect sense. "Big Brother, save me."
That voice belonged to Ethen Lace.
-----
Damen returned to GenSyn Industries and headed straight for the infirmary. The staff led him through a series of sterile corridors until they reached a heavily secured chamber. Inside, the air was cold and heavy with the hum of machinery.
A large containment tank stood at the center, filled with pale blue fluid. Suspended within was a boy — his body crisscrossed with cables and tubes feeding into a massive neural console behind him.
"Is this Ethen Lace?" Damen asked quietly.
"Yes," Dorin replied, glancing at the readings. "Did you find out anything about him?"
"He's my biggest fan," Damen said with a faint, ironic smile.
"Be serious, Damen," Dorin snapped, her tone sharp with worry.
Ignoring her irritation, Damen looked back at the boy. "Can I talk to him? Is there any chance he can hear me?"
Lander nodded. "Possibly. His brain activity isn't flat, the REM readings are normal… he could be dreaming."
He handed Damen a headset. "Here. The audio will transmit through the tank. If he recognizes your voice, it might trigger a response."
Damen slipped the headset on, took a deep breath, and spoke softly. "Ethen… it's Big Brother. I came to save you. Can you hear me?"
His voice echoed faintly through the chamber. There was no response. The monitors continued their slow, rhythmic beeping.
Damen tried again, louder this time. "Wake up, Ethen. It's me. Wake up."
Seconds stretched into minutes. Then, just as they were about to give up, a faint tremor rippled through the tank. Ethen's eyes fluttered open.
Dorin froze. "Is he awake?"
"We don't know," said one of the SIA scientists, staring at the monitors. "Could just be a reflex… or something else."
Damen stepped closer to the tank, the glass fogging slightly from the warmth of his breath. He stared into Ethen's half-open eyes. Though they were still, vacant even, Damen could feel that the boy was listening.
"Wake up, Ethen," he said quietly. "Wake up from your dream. Big Brother is here to help you."
For a moment, there was only the hum of machines and the rhythmic pulse of the monitors. Then, Ethen's body suddenly convulsed — violent tremors rippling through the suspended liquid.
"Stabilize him!" one of the scientists shouted.
Technicians rushed forward, injecting stabilizing serums into the tank. The convulsions slowly subsided. Ethen's breathing evened out, the monitors returning to their steady beat.
Damen exhaled in relief and was about to remove his headset when a faint, trembling voice crackled through the speakers.
"Big Brother… save me…"