Chapter 36
ANNIE
The low rumble of voices pulled me from sleep, my brain struggling to process where I was. The Tower. The aftermath of the rooftop disaster where I’d—
I sat bolt upright.
Cipher and Havoc stood near the window, their postures tense, voices hushed but urgent. They both turned when I moved.
“What’s happened?” My voice sounded raspy from crying.
Havoc’s face was grim, the lines around his eyes deeper than usual. “Helios is missing.”
“Missing? What do you mean, missing?”
“He’s not responding to calls. Not at his apartment. Not anywhere I can find him.” Havoc ran a hand through his silver hair. “He disappeared after what happened on the roof.”
The memory of Helios’s face when I’d used Halcyon’s power slammed into me. The shock. The fear. The way his eyes had widened when I’d commanded everyone to stop.
“Oh god.” My stomach twisted painfully. “I broke him. I did this.”
Cipher made a soothing sound, moving toward me. “You didn’t break anyone, Sparks.”
“This isn’t your fault, Annie,” Havoc said, his voice firm. “Helios has had an unusual reaction to Halcyon’s influence. That’s all.”
I pushed myself off the couch, my legs unsteady. “Unusual how? What does that mean?” My thoughts raced ahead of me, spiraling into worst-case scenarios. “Did I trigger something? Did I hurt him? What if he’s—“
“Annie.” Cipher caught me by the shoulders and pulled me against him. “Breathe.”
I tried, but my lungs felt too small, my chest too tight. “We have to find him,” I croaked out.
“I’ll find him, Annie,” Cipher said, his silver eyes locked on mine.
That stopped my spiral momentarily. “You will? Why would you do that?”
Something complicated passed over his face. “It’s my fault your cuff malfunctioned. My EMP took it out.” His thumb brushed against my wrist where the cuff was. “I want to help put your mind at ease.”
Cipher cocked his head as he received a message. “My aircraft is inbound. I plan to station myself there,” Cipher said. “I can access all the Labyrinth’s systems from onboard, and it keeps me mobile. The second I get a hit on his location, I’ll already be in the air.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said immediately.
Cipher nodded, not arguing. “We’ll find him, Annie.”
“Keep me updated. I’ll keep searching for him on my end. And Annie?” Havoc’s blue eyes softened slightly. “This isn’t on you. Remember that.”
But it felt like it was. The weight of it pressed down on my shoulders as Cipher and I hurried through the Tower.
“What if something terrible happened to him?” I asked, my voice small.
Cipher gave my hand a squeeze. “Then we’ll deal with it.”
As we stepped into the night air, I tried not to think about Helios’s face when I’d used my power. Tried not to remember the flash of fear in his eyes.
On Cipher’s aircraft, henchmen darted between workstations, their faces illuminated by blue-tinted screens. Numbers called out to each other in technical jargon that might as well have been a foreign language.
I paced behind Cipher, whose fingers were flying across several screens.
“What exactly are you doing?” I asked, peering over his shoulder at lines of code scrolling past.
“Hacking into Helios’ personal terminal at the Tower.”
I nearly choked. “You’re what?”
“Accessing his private system.” Cipher didn’t even look up, his focus absolute. “If he’s left any clues about where he might go, they’ll be there.”
“That’s illegal!” I sputtered. “There are procedures, proper channels—”
“Sparks.” He finally turned to look at me, silver eyes reflecting the screen’s glow. “I’m already breaking about fifteen different laws trying to track Helios. What’s one more?”
My mouth opened, then closed.
“Actually, it’s several more,” he amended, turning back to his work. “But the point stands.”
I resumed pacing, my anxiety building with each step. “What if we don’t find anything? What if he’s hurt? What if—“
I made it exactly one pass before Cipher caught me and pulled me back against his chest, his arm locking around my waist.
“We’ll find him,” Cipher murmured. He buried his face in the curve of my neck and inhaled deeply. “People leave digital footprints everywhere they go. Even Supers.”
“Especially Supers,” I muttered. I let my head fall back against his shoulder. Most Heroes were terrible with technology. They relied on their powers instead of passwords.
Cipher went rigid behind me. “Son of a bitch.”
I twisted in his hold to look at the display in front of us. It showed a complex technical schematic. I recognized the basic shape immediately. “That’s a personal shield generator.”
Cipher nodded, his jaw tight. “The exact design that failed the Keeper at the Nexus.”
My stomach twisted into a cold, hard knot. The image of that Keeper’s death flashed through my mind, the way the shield had failed at precisely the wrong moment, letting those metal shards tear through her.
“And it was sitting on Helios’ computer.” Cipher’s fingers danced across the interface, swiping through file after file. “And it’s not just that one.”
More schematics appeared. Each one familiar. Each one connected to a suspicious death.
“These are all the modified pieces used in the murders.” My voice sounded distant.
Cipher nodded grimly. “Look at the metadata.”
He pulled up a panel of information beside each schematic. My eyes caught on a name that appeared again and again: Alexander Mercer. “They all have Mercer’s name on them.”
“What does that have to do with Helios?” I asked, though I was beginning to feel sick with the implications.
Cipher moved through several more screens at lightening speed, bringing up a series of receipts and communications. “Look at these. Payment transactions, communications—all pointing to Helios acting as Mercer.”
The room felt like it was spinning and I leaned against Cipher harder. “No,” I shook my head firmly. “That can’t be. Not Helios. He’s one of the good ones. There has to be another explanation.”
“Are you really sure he’s one of the good ones, Annie?” Cipher asked, his voice low as his fingers continued to fly across the keyboard.
“Yes! I know Helios. He’s kind, he’s genuine. He radiates goodness like it’s part of his power set.”
Cipher glanced at me, his expression unreadable. “The evidence—”
“Has to be wrong,” I insisted. “Or there’s something we’re missing. Helios wouldn’t kill people. He wouldn’t be involved in this.” I shook my head.
Cipher didn’t argue, but I could feel his skepticism as he dove deeper into whatever trail he’d found.
“Interesting,” he muttered after a few minutes of silence.
I moved closer. “What is?”
“There are files connected to Helios’s profile that have been locked down.” He straightened up, a familiar gleam in his eyes, the look he got when facing a worthy challenge.
My stomach twisted with both hope and dread. “What does that mean?”
“It means we’re going to find out who Helios really is. But it’s going to take some time to break through these encryptions.”
“Helios is good,” I said again, my voice softer but no less certain. “Whatever we find, remember that.”
Cipher didn’t respond, his focus entirely on the challenge before him.
I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking as I read through the files for what must have been the twentieth time. The words blurred together, but the truth they revealed remained crystal clear and sickening.
“The subject exhibited catastrophic power destabilization during controlled exercise #47...”
“...casualties deemed acceptable given the research value...”
“...neural suppression protocols implemented to ensure compliance...”
“...Council informed of equipment malfunction as cause of incident...”
Helios, the golden retriever of a man who brought coffee to everyone during late shifts, who volunteered at children’s hospitals on his days off, had been systematically broken by the very organization he now served with unwavering loyalty.
Behind me, Cipher and Havoc were deep in conversation, their voices a distant hum as I remained locked in my own horror.
Cipher had brought the aircraft around to dock briefly off the roof of the Tower so we could share what he’d found with Havoc in person. Havoc was officially on call tonight even while he searched for Helios, tying him to his own base of operations.
I had no idea what the citizens of Chroma Bay thought of a massive aircraft parked in plain sight alongside the city’s most iconic building. I couldn’t bring myself to care. My eyes stayed glued to the sickening files filling the screen.
“The power signatures match perfectly,” Cipher was saying. “The modifications are designed to amplify and redirect—”
“But why?” Havoc interrupted.
I tuned them out again, my fingers tracing over a grainy photo included in the file. A younger Helios, William Evans. His cohort surrounded him in the picture, smiling faces of people who would later testify against him, claiming his power surge was deliberate.
Given the information in the files, everyone that had spoken against Helios was dead. The rest of the group he’d been a member of were safe and the murders would have stopped. Helios probably never would have been found out if Cipher hadn’t caused my cuff to go offline.
I couldn’t reconcile the man I knew with someone capable of calculated murder. But then again, I couldn’t reconcile the Alliance I’d dedicated my life to with an organization that would torture and gaslight a traumatized young man just to cover their own mistakes while experimenting on him.
“What are they doing to you now, William?” I whispered. Was this all him?
As I sat locked in my own horror, the voices behind me grew increasingly heated. Cipher and Havoc had moved from discussion to argument, their tones sharp enough to finally pierce through my shocked haze.
“That’s not possible,” Havoc growled, his voice carrying that dangerous edge I rarely heard outside of combat.
“The evidence is right there,” Cipher snapped back. “I don’t make mistakes with this kind of analysis.”
I turned around, finding them standing nearly toe-to-toe. “What are you two arguing about?” I asked.