The room went quiet in a weird way.

Raizen watched Alteea like the words were still echoing off her teeth.

"The weapon didn't malfunction."

The Med Wing monitor breathed in green lines behind him. The window held a strip of city lights and sky that refused to show stars.

Saffi stood beside the bed with the thin folder still half hidden under her shirt. Her fingers pressed against the paper like she could stop the words inside from leaking out.

Raizen swallowed. "But then... What happened?"

Alteea dragged the chair closer with her foot and sat. She crossed one leg over the other, leaned her elbow on her knee and her chin on her knuckles like she was at a show.

"It did what it was designed to do" she simply answered.

That was not the answer he wanted.

Saffi shifted her weight, shoulders trying to look square and failing. "The report said a malfunction" she said. "No external injuries. No readings. Nothing. That is not design."

Alteea rubbed her thumb along the edge of the bed rail. Her usual easy smile tugged at one corner of her mouth and refused to show up.

"Eiden is leaving Neoshima" she said.

That, somehow, hurt Raizen more than the last sentence.

"Leaving...?" he repeated.

"Oh, but not permanently! Only for a tiny bit!" Alteea added. "Not forever. He was summoned. Echelon is holding a general convention in Ukai. All the clever rats in one room.

"Convention? What happens there?"

"They wave their data at each other, drink awful coffee, and decide which ideas are too dangerous to admit they like."

Raizen whispered. "Echelon..."

Saffi lifted her head. "The global circle? The ones trading research across continents...?"

"Those" Alteea said. "The elites of the elites. The ones who took Eiden's medical file years ago and didn't return it. The ones who now want him in the same room as their favorite toys."

"So after all... He's one of them"

"Eiden? Yeah. I don't know much. It's mostly a secret organization, because half the criminals would die for what they have. Weapons, substances, clever little gadgets..."

Raizen let the words line up. Eiden. Weapon. Fourteen dead. Echelon. Ukai. It felt like standing on moving stairs.

"What does that even have to do with us?" he asked.

Alteea leaned back a little. The chair creaked.

"Eiden will be there. The people who took his file will be there. The people who want his brain around strange devices will be there. A lot of paper moves when that many egos meet. This is the closest we will ever get to the missing pieces."

Saffi's fingers twitched against the folder. "The health report you couldn't find again" she said quietly. "The one about the arm..."

Alteea's eyes flicked to her. "Exactly."

Raizen looked between them. "So you think they will bring everything to Ukai" he said.

"Not quite. I think some of it will be in the open for a few hours instead of locked behind ten doors" Alteea answered.

"And you think that it would be rude not to take advantage of their generosity?"

"I need that file copied" she said.

The monitor beeped once, too loud in the silence that followed.

Saffi cleared her throat. "You want us to..." She trailed off, as if the word felt too big.

"Steal is such a harsh term..." Alteea sighed.

"We are simply making sure Neoshima has a complete medical archive again. Very responsible of us."

Raizen felt something warm in his lungs. Not fear. Not yet. It was the feeling he got right before a mission, when everything sharpened.

He felt excited.

"I thought I was supposed to be recovering"

"You are" Alteea said. "In Ukai."

He stared at her. "How do- Wha- That is not how recovery works."

She shrugged. "You got approval to leave the Med Wing. Ain't that enough?"

"Fair point... I'm sick of this med wing..."

"And Kenzo will drag you back if you fall over. He insisted on going anyway."

"Kenzo is going too?" Raizen asked.

"Of course" she said. "The Council asked for a security escort for Eiden. They requested Wardens. Kenzo yelled loud enough that they settled for one very annoyed guy with a huge hammer. I didn't even have to encourage him, he was determined to go!"

Saffi's eyes jumped between them. "And me?" she asked. "Why am I going?"

Alteea looked at her like that was the strangest question of the night. "You found the first file. You understand the patterns better than half the people in the Heart, including me on bad days." Her tone softened. "You see things. I need that over there."

Saffi straightened a little. Her hands still betrayed her, a small rub of thumb over knuckle, but her voice steadied. "Understood."

Raizen looked at his own hands. The scars along his knuckles, the faint tremor that still showed up when the pain medicine ran low. He thought of Obi's face when he talked about his parents. Kenzo's grip on Eiden's collar. Eiden's calm when he talked about death.

"Why me?" he asked quietly.

Alteea held his gaze for a long second. The usual answer - the joke, the flirt, the deflect - stayed behind her teeth.

"Because I need you there" she said simply. "No objections."

He almost smiled. It was the most honest and useless answer she could have given.

"Alright" he said. The word surprised him by how easy it came. "What do we do?"

Alteea's posture shifted. Business time.

She reached into her coat and pulled out something small and black, about the size of his palm.

"Pocket scanner" she said. "Short range, silent, perfect. You aim it at a document, a slate, a data sheet, anything physical with information. It copies to this drive" - she dropped a thin, silver shard into his other hand - "and then wipes its own cache. If someone grabs you, they find nothing."

Raizen turned the scanner over. It looked painfully ordinary. "And if they find this?" he asked, lifting the shard.

"Then you swallow it" Alteea said.

His head jerked up. Her eyes were absolutely serious for three seconds, then softened.

"Kidding" she said. "Mostly. Hide it well. Saffi will decrypt it when you're back. Until then, you are two legs and pockets."

Saffi leaned closer to look at the scanner. Their shoulders almost touched before she caught herself and straightened again.

"Do we know what we are looking for exactly?" she asked. "A title? A mark? Anything?"

Alteea shook her head once. "The old health report had a tag code. Echelon stripped it. All we have now is context. Eiden. Experimental damage. Unexplained changes. Look for patterns. Look for anything labeled restricted, internal, anomaly. It is like chasing a shadow in a crowded room."

Raizen nodded. "So we walk into the top scientific circle in the world, copy something they do not want copied, and walk out."

"When you say it like that, it sounds dangerous" Alteea said. "Please stop."

Saffi let out a breath that almost became a laugh and then turned into a cough instead.

"And if we get caught?" she asked.

"Then you blame Kenzo" Alteea said without hesitation. "Look confused. You two are very good at that."

Raizen opened his mouth, offended on principle, then closed it again. She actually had a point.

"Is this Council approved?" he asked.

"No" she said.

"Is it Warden approved?"

"No."

He frowned. "Is it approved by anyone?"

Alteea smiled then, the real one that only showed up when she was being absolutely honest.

"It's Alteea approved!" she laughed. "And that is more than enough."

He looked at Saffi. She met his eyes for a second, then glanced away. He could see the questions in her, same as his, but also the light underneath.

Curiosity. The stubborn need to know.

He thought of the mountain, of how "not knowing" killed everyone there.

"Alright" he said again. His pulse had picked up. Not from pain this time.

Alteea stood. The chair sighed with her. She smoothed her coat absently, more to give her hands something to do than because it needed it.

"You both leave tomorrow" she said. "Dawn. Kenzo will collect you. Pack light. Or don't pack at all. Ukai has shops."

Saffi blinked. "Tomorrow!?"

"Did you expect a month to think it over? Hah!"

"Why is this so important, after all?" he asked, not sure if he wanted the answer.

Alteea's eyes softened, the weight in them older than her smile ever admitted. She looked at him like she was measuring what to put on his shoulders and what to keep.

"Because there is something in this world that can kill fourteen trained people in an instant without leaving a mark" she said quietly.

"And because the last time it appeared, everyone shut their eyes and called it an accident. Not out of ignorance, but out of fear. It's something we can't comprehend yet."

She looked at Saffi. "You two are the kind of trouble that does not look away."

Saffi's throat moved, but she said nothing. Her hands had stopped fidgeting.

Alteea stepped back toward the door. The automatic panel sensed her and slid a fraction open, casting a thin line of corridor light across the floor.

"Sleep if you can" she said. "You will need your heads clear. And Raizen..."

He looked up.

"Congratulations" she added. "You finally get to leave the Med Wing. Try not to destroy another mountain while you're out."

His mouth twitched. "No promises."

"Good boy" she let the door close behind her.

The room felt smaller after she left. The scanner sat warm and solid in his palm. Saffi watched it for a moment, then him.

"So..." she said. "Ukai."

"Ukai" he repeated.

He stared at the thin silver drive in his other hand. For the first time since waking in this bed, the pain in his body felt less sharp than the weight of what was ahead.

A new city. A circle of minds that played with forces they did not understand. A file that might explain too much.

He closed his fingers around the shard.

Whatever this was, it was bigger than him.

Bigger than Neoshima. Bigger than one mountain.

And at dawn, he was walking straight into it.

He hated that excitement felt so natural.

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