The infiltration of Soma's Secondary Healthcare Facility in Sector Three didn't begin with an explosion, but with a crushing silence.
Beneath a downpour of toxic fog and drizzle seeping through cracks in the concrete, Kaelen, Aira, and the small Dead-Bytes team led by Mara Quell made their way through the exhaust ventilation shaft. Unlike the filthy, rust-ridden Under-Grid, the facility's cooling corridors were lined with sterile white steel—so clean that the stench of antiseptic and chemical antifungal fluid stabbed at their noses.
Aira led the way. Her sensitive fingers detected the motion-sensor frequencies embedded in the walls, guiding the group through blind spots beyond the reach of patrol cameras.
"Up ahead," Aira whispered, stopping behind an iron grate overlooking the main corridor. "The pediatric health-screening facility."
Kaelen pressed his eye to the grate. Beyond the thick soundproof glass, a gigantic room stretched out before them. Its walls were painted bright pastel colors—some cheap attempt to imitate the cheerfulness of the outside world—but the atmosphere inside was cold and soulless.
Dozens of lower-class children, between five and twelve years old, sat in rows on cold metal benches. They wore thin white clothes, waiting their turns with innocent faces and weary eyes.
In the center of the room, several Soma technicians in sterile medical uniforms directed a giant helmet-shaped scanner at the children's heads one by one.
*BZZZZT.*
Every time the scanner activated, a green light blinked above a terminal screen. But Kaelen, with the eyes of a trained investigator, immediately caught something wrong in the data appearing on the technicians' monitors: the scans weren't recording health indicators, lung function, or nutrition.
The monitors displayed a **Neural Resonance Map**, memory-capacity indexes, and the viability rating of the *Consciousness Source*.
"They're not treating these children," Mara whispered beside Kaelen, her voice trembling with barely restrained fury. "They're measuring their brain capacity... marking which children are best suited to become 'fuel' when Elysium launches."
"The 'Free Vaccination Program,'" Kaelen said coldly. "Soma's been collecting their data since they were little, waiting until their bodies mature enough to be harvested."
Aira clenched her fists at her sides. The blue lines on her neck trembled faintly. "I... I remember this place."
Kaelen turned sharply. "You've been here before?"
Aira didn't answer with words. She reached for the airlock panel beside the grate. With one delicate flick of her network-connected fingers, the door's magnetic lock slid open without a sound.
They slipped into the secondary data archive behind the screening room. The chamber was packed with racks of old physical servers—the storage site for biological data imprints before they were uploaded to the Summit Tower.
"Mara, download all of today's scan logs," Kaelen ordered as he stood guard at the door. "Use the primary terminal."
While Mara hacked into the data console, Aira moved as if bewitched toward one of the physical filing cabinets in the corner. The cabinet held sample files from ten years earlier, before the system was fully digitized.
Aira's fingers stopped at a drawer labeled **SECTOR 04 — CLASS A-2181**.
She pulled it open. Dozens of sheets of physical records lay scattered inside. Aira took out a thin brown folder with yellowed edges and opened it.
On the first page was a small printed photograph.
A seven-year-old girl with her hair tied into two pigtails smiled awkwardly at the camera, her shoulders slightly raised.
*Mira Vance.*
Beneath the photograph, a thick red stamp read: **SUBJECT WITH HIGH RESONANCE CAPACITY — PRIORITIZED FOR CORE EXTRACTION.**
Kaelen stepped closer when he saw Aira freeze. The moment his eyes fell on the photograph and the red stamp, his breath caught. The hand gripping his pistol began to shake violently.
"Mira..." Kaelen whispered, his voice breaking in the silence of the archive room.
It hadn't been a random kidnapping. It hadn't merely been an unfortunate casualty.
Soma's plan to make Mira the foundation of Elysium had been designed and marked in this room—long before Kaelen realized that his little daughter was in danger.
Aira stared at Mira's photograph, then looked up at Kaelen with eyes filled with deep anguish.
"They marked her from the beginning, Kaelen," Aira rasped. "They chose her... and they brought her here."