He didn’t like the image the mirror threw back at him. The emaciated face of an old man with bloodshot eyes. Those wrinkles had not been there before, nor had his hair been so gray. He felt like he’d aged a hundred years in the past few days—ever since he last spoke to Halden.

  Halden!

  With a grunt, he turned and walked out of the bathroom, pulling on his shirt.

  What had happened that day? Marthus was annoyed that he couldn’t remember. They were supposed to have dinner together. All he recalled was going to his friend’s house to pick him up. Next thing he knew, he was waking up in a sweat, lying in his bed, with the worried face of his wife hovering above him. She’d told him he’d had fainted on the way home. How was that possible? He had no known health problems. The next day, he’d checked in with his doctor, just to be on the safe side, but the man hadn’t found anything wrong.

  And where was Halden now?

  Marthus had tried to call him a few times, but he never answered. He thought he remembered his friend saying he was going on a mission for the visor, but it all was a blur in his head.

  As he stepped out of the house and headed for his glider, he felt the familiar tingle signaling an incoming call. Pressing two fingers against his temple, he used his other hand to slide the vehicle’s door open and slipped in.

  Rees Cole’s frowning face appeared against his retinas.

  “Something strange just happened.”

  A bitter laugh escaped Marthus’ lips unbidden.

  “Sorry,” he said, as he quickly stifled it. “Had my share of strange lately. What’s up?”

  “A man came here asking all sorts of questions about the Drill.”

  That sobered Marthus up fast.

  “No one you knew?” he asked.

  “I’d never seen him before. Didn’t think much of it at first. I mean, it’s not like anyone could just come in waltzing. He’d have to have had authorization, right?”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “True. So why are you concerned now?”

  Rees grimaced. “Anyone who knows about this place should have access to all my reports. They would arguably already know everything there is to know about this. He said Khorah had sent him to check on my progress, but the more I think about it the less sense it makes.”

  “Have you tried reaching out to Khorah?”

  “She isn’t answering my calls.”

  Marthus was reminded again of Halden and shook his head.

  “Alright. I’ll do some digging.” He lifted his wristpad. “What’s the name of the guy?”

  The younger man looked away, embarrassed.

  “I... I don’t know.”

  “What?”

  “He never mentioned his name.”

  “And you didn’t think to ask?”

  “You had to be there,” Rees grumbled. “It just never came up.”

  Zax sighed. “Alright. I’ll tap into the security footage, see if I can at least find some visuals of the guy. How long ago did this happen?”

  “He left about ten minutes ago.”

  The glider was halfway to the IAS when they hung up. He tapped on his wristpad and entered his clearance code to access the Global Safety Network.

  “Hello, Mr. Wirdej,” came a mechanical voice. “How may I help you?”

  “Bring up the security footage for Base GD1. Last half hour.” An image of the drill appeared, with some scientists going about their business. He spotted Rees on the left side. “Fast forward until someone new arrives on the scene, then pause.”

  Within seconds, a man in a white uniform appeared, coming from the main hall. The image froze.

  “Can you zoom in on his face?”

  “Of course.”

  He took a snapshot of the man, then cut off the call.

  It was not a familiar face. He couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but something was off.

  The glider landed at the IAS. He stepped out and headed into the building. As he walked, he tried to call Khorah. But, like Rees, he got no response.

  He pondered on the matter until he reached his office. Sitting at his desk, he made another call.

  “I hope this is important, Wirdej, I have my hands full right now.”

  “Sorry to bother you, Rash, but someone claiming to work for Khorah went to GD1 and asked a lot of questions about the Drill. We don’t—”

  The visor raised a hand, squinting.

  “Khorah is dead.”

  “What?”

  “Killed in her office. She had a visitor, but there are no traces of him leaving the building—let alone her office.”

  Marthus’ eyes went wide. “You think that’s the same man who went to GD1?”

  Rash clicked his tongue. “She had a hidden gateway in her office. No one knew about it, so no one went checking there.”

  “But how could the killer have known about it?”

  “Possibly he extracted the information from Khorah.”

  “And that would have led him to GD1, I assume?” The visor nodded. “I have a picture of the man, I’ll send it to you.”

  “We’ll compare it to what we have here, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t the same person. Won’t help much though—according to the guards, the man was using a vision scrambler. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Wirdej.”

  A scrambler. Well, that explained why that picture felt off.

  It was only after the visor terminated the call that Marthus realized he had missed an opportunity to ask about Halden.

  Then again, Rash had seemed in a foul mood and might not have taken it well.