The Summons
Kasper's mouth went dry as they approached Headmistress Vega's office. Something crawled beneath his skin—his body's unwelcome passengers responding to danger before his brain could process it.
Sean usually couldn't shut up, but now he walked in silence, jaw working overtime on a piece of gum that had lost its flavor hours ago. Maria kept flexing her fingers, the same way she did before surgery simulations. Lucas muttered under his breath, fingers dancing across an invisible keyboard, probably running probability calculations in his head. Valerian just watched everything, his pale eyes missing nothing.
The door loomed ahead. Whatever waited behind it had them all on edge.
Vega's Lair
The temperature dropped ten degrees the moment they stepped inside. Vega didn't bother looking up from her desk, her pen scratching across paper with mechanical precision.
"Your performance was... intriguing." Her voice made Kasper's technological parasites buzz harder, like angry wasps trapped in his veins.
She finally raised her eyes, and Kasper wished she hadn't. That stare could freeze magma.
"But now?" The pen clicked shut. "Now comes the real test."
The Mission Revealed
"We have a mole in the academy."
Sean's gum-chewing stopped mid-smack. Maria's hand flew to her throat. Lucas dropped his datapad with a clatter that echoed like a gunshot.
Kasper forced himself to breathe normally, even as his internal modifications threatened to give him away with their agitated humming. A traitor? Among them?
He caught himself studying his teammates' reactions. Which one was faking their surprise?
"Your mission," Vega continued, each word precise as a scalpel, "is to uncover this traitor. You have until the end of the academic year."
Stakes and Rewards
Vega's smile reminded Kasper of a shark circling wounded prey. "Succeed, and you'll be fast-tracked for elite training. You'll gain access to classified information about incidents like..." Her eyes locked onto Kasper. "...Mirage City."
His heart stuttered. The microscopic machines in his blood surged, and he had to clench his fists to keep them from manifesting visibly.
"Fail?" Her smile vanished. "Expulsion will be the least of your concerns."
She didn't elaborate. She didn't need to.
Team Reactions
Maria recovered first, her medical training kicking in. "What's our starting point? There are over two thousand students in the academy."
Lucas was already tapping at his datapad again, his panic channeled into familiar patterns. "I'll need access to attendance records, surveillance logs, communication intercepts—"
"Slow down, genius," Sean cut in, his cocky grin back but not reaching his eyes. "First rule of spy games: act normal. Right, boss lady?"
Vega's silence was answer enough.
Valerian hadn't moved, hadn't spoken. His stillness was more unnerving than any outburst would have been.
Kasper felt the weight of suspicion already settling between them like poisoned fog. How could they work together when any of them could be the enemy?
A Private Word
"Cadet de la Fuente." Vega's voice stopped him at the door. "A moment."
The others filed out, their backward glances heavy with questions. The door clicked shut with finality.
Kasper stood alone before the Headmistress, warning signals firing through his enhanced nervous system.
"That duel was reckless," Vega began, standing now. She moved around her desk with predatory grace. "And those... modifications of yours." She was close enough that he could smell her perfume—something sharp and metallic. "They make you a target."
His blood turned to ice. She knew. Of course she knew.
"Use them discreetly," she continued, circling him like a wolf evaluating prey. "The last thing we need is questions about why a first-year cadet has military-grade enhancements."
The Truth Dangled
Vega stopped directly in front of him, close enough that he could see the flecks of gold in her gray eyes. "Complete this mission, Kasper, and I'll tell you everything. About Mirage City. About what really happened to your brother."
Even his augmentations seemed shocked into silence.
"You're the only one I can be certain isn't the mole," she added, returning to her desk. "The intelligence we received about the infiltration predates your arrival by six months. Simple timeline analysis."
As he turned to leave, head spinning, her final words hit him like a physical blow:
"Trust no one in this investigation. Not your teammates. Not your instructors." She paused. "Not even me. After all, I could be feeding you false information to protect the real mole."
Uneasy Alliance
His team waited in the corridor, a tableau of barely contained tension. Sean pounced first.
"What was that about, wonder boy? Getting special instructions from mommy?"
Kasper's hand twitched—his body's enhancements responding to his spike of anger. He forced them down, forced a casual shrug. "Just a warning about my abilities. Told me to keep them under wraps."
The lie tasted like copper on his tongue.
Valerian's eyes narrowed, catching something in Kasper's tone. "Secrets already? That's not how teams work."
"Says the guy who never shares anything," Maria muttered, but her eyes were on Kasper too.
"No secrets," Kasper agreed, the words ash in his mouth. "We're all in this together."
Lucas looked up from his datapad. "Statistically speaking, one of us is lying right now."
The silence that followed was deafening.
The Hunt Begins
They dispersed into the academy's maze of corridors, each lost in their own calculations.
Maria headed for the medical wing, already planning to check staff records for anomalies. Every heartbeat she monitored might hide a traitor's guilt.
Lucas disappeared into the tech labs, his fingers itching to breach firewalls. Data never lied—unlike people.
Sean sauntered toward the training grounds, his easy stride masking the way his eyes cataloged every shadow, every whispered conversation.
Valerian simply vanished, as he often did, leaving no trace of his intentions.
And Kasper walked alone, the weight of secrets and silicon heavy in his blood. Vega's promise echoed in his mind: answers about his brother, finally within reach. All he had to do was betray the fragile trust of his team.
The game had begun. But as shadows lengthened across the academy grounds, one question burned in Kasper's mind:
In a nest of vipers, who was really the snake?
Night fell, and with it came the certainty that nothing would ever be the same. Trust was a luxury none of them could afford anymore.
In the administrative wing, Vega watched their dispersal on her monitors, her expression unreadable. One hand absently traced a file marked "Mirage City Incident - CLASSIFIED."
The game was more complex than any of them realized.