Chapter 125| What a Day

Chapter 125: Chapter 125| What a Day

The words sat in his vision with a weight they hadn’t carried thirty seconds ago.

’Harbor Collapse,’ he thought. ’That’s how Garrett Calloway died. Incomplete NSA intelligence. A field assignment that produced the wrong outcome because someone’s information wasn’t right.’

’And this artificial Sigil operation — whatever it is, whatever Nova Steele busted before trials, it’s classified as adjacent to that case,’ he thought. ’Not the same case. Adjacent. Operational overlap.’

’Which means the same actors,’ he added. ’Or the same intelligence failures. Or both.’

He looked at the bulletin again.

’They’re watching hero academies on the west coast,’ he thought. ’Watching Aldren specifically.’

’Watching this building,’.

The system surfaced.

『 System Note: Harbor Collapse Adjacent is an NSA classification indicating operational overlap between two separate case files. Adjacent means the same actors, resources or intelligence failures appear in both without being identical cases. 』

『 The system notes the original Harbor Collapse file has not been reclassified. Only this bulletin has been made available for student distribution. The system notes what the NSA is sharing and what it is not sharing are two different things. 』

’They shared enough to warn students,’ he thought. ’Not enough to explain why the Harbor Collapse connection exists.’

’Not enough to say what they’re actually looking for,’

He kept walking. Slower now. The suit bag was still over his shoulder.

’Garrett Calloway,’ he thought. ’S-rank hero. Codename Sovereign. Died in the Harbor Collapse because the NSA intelligence was incomplete.’ He looked at the campus around him. ’And now something connected to that case is watching Aldren Academy.’

’Watching me,’ he thought.

’Or watching what I might become,’ he thought.

The system surfaced again.

『 System Note: The system notes the host has arrived at the same connection the system flagged earlier when the bulletin was posted. The system also notes — Kael. His father knew Garrett Calloway. He closed a file after trials that wasn’t the only file he was running. He has information about the Harbor Collapse that he hasn’t shared yet. 』

『 The system recommends making that conversation happen before the NSA assessment. 』

’Events after events,’ he thought.

_ _

Zane arrived at Room 714 at 5:35 PM.

Dex was at his desk when Zane came through the door. Laptop open. Torre on the bed, present for once during actual waking hours. Gerald wheezed.

Dex looked up.

His eyes went to the suit bag immediately. Sat up slightly from his chair.

"Hero suit?" he said.

"Finally collected it," Zane said.

Dex looked at the bag for a moment with the specific expression of someone who understood what it represented without needing it explained.

"Dark green right," he said. "Saw the blog entry when Mori posted the colour update."

"Dark green," Zane confirmed.

Dex looked at the bag for a moment with the specific expression of someone who understood what it represented without needing it explained. The second year who had been carrying Ironclap since before Zane arrived at this building looking at a first year’s first hero suit bag with something that wasn’t quite envy and wasn’t quite pride but sat somewhere between both.

"Congrats man". Dex nodded once. Went back to his laptop in accordance.

Torre looked at the bag from Dex’s bed.

"Code Zero," Torre said. The specific tone of someone who had read the academy blog and had filed the name accordingly. "I looked you up after trials."

Zane looked at him.

"And?" he said.

Torre shrugged. "Interesting name for someone registered as sigilless." He went back to whatever he’d been eating. "Now less interesting."

’Less interesting,’ Zane thought. ’Because now there’s a suit with a name on it and whatever he saw in the drill is sitting in his file on me.’

He set the suit bag on his bed.

Sat beside it.

Pulled out his communicator.

Read the bulletin one more time.

Harbor Collapse Adjacent.

’Kael,’ he thought. ’Tomorrow. I need to find Kael.’

He put the communicator face down.

Looked at the suit bag.

Finally he’s presumed suit sitting on his bed in room 714 on a Monday evening while somewhere outside this building something connected to his father’s death was watching hero academies on the west coast.

’What a day,’ he thought.

Gerald wheezed.

_ _

The next day came.

Tuesday. 12:45 PM.

The training grounds had been his first stop at 6:20 AM, he had completed the daily quest before breakfast.

『 DAILY QUEST COMPLETE 』

『 Overdrive activation window: 0.67 → 0.64 seconds 』

『 Progress to milestone: 0.64 / 0.50 seconds 』

『 Milestone reward: HIDDEN 』

But the quest wasn’t what was sitting in his head.

The bulletin was.

Harbor Collapse Adjacent.

He’d been turning it over since Monday evening and by Tuesday morning he already knew what he needed to do about it.

Zane found Kael at the second year common area on the fifth floor.

Not the squad hangout spot, the actual common area. The one with the study tables and the vending machine that charged twice. What the ground floor one did and somehow always had a queue anyway. Kael was alone at a corner table with a tablet and a cup of something that had stopped steaming twenty minutes ago.

He looked up when Zane pulled out the chair across from him.

Didn’t look surprised.

Just looked at him for a moment with the specific expression of someone who had been expecting this conversation and had decided when it arrived he wasn’t going to make it difficult.

"Calloway," he said.

"Kael," Zane replied.

He sat down.

Put his communicator on the table between them. The NSA bulletin still open on the screen. Harbor Collapse Adjacent visible in the last line.

Kael looked at it.

Then at Zane.

"How long have you known," Zane said.

Kael picked up his cold cup. Looked at it. Set it back down.

"Since before trials," he said. "My father was in Garrett Calloway’s field unit during the Harbor Collapse operation. Not the same assignment — support position. But he was there when the intelligence came through and he was there when it turned out to be wrong."

Zane looked at him.

"What was wrong about it," he said.

Kael was quiet for a moment.

The fifth floor common area running its Tuesday lunch hour energy around them. Two students at the far table. Someone at the vending machine. The ambient noise of a building that had no idea what was being said in this corner.