The snowstorm screamed like a living thing, burying the truck under a shroud of white snow. Jack Mercer hunched over the steering wheel, squinting through the blizzard. Vega slumped in the passenger seat, her scarred arm wrapped in bloodied gauze. In the back, Finch shivered under a foil emergency blanket while typing one-handed on a cracked tablet. Jax stared out the window, her breath fogging the glass.
"We're lost," Jax muttered.
"We're not lost," Jack snapped. The truck skidded, and the tyres spun on the ice. "We're following the coordinates from Lin's files."
"To what? Another death trap?"
Finch held up the tablet to the camera. A map flickered with red dots marking bunkers across the globe. "Ironhaven was just the start. There's a network. If we find the main hub—"
"If," Jax said.
Vega's scars pulsed faint blue. "Quiet."
"What?"
"I said quiet." Vega pressed her palm to the fogged window. "Something's out there."
The headlights pierced the storm, revealing a figure standing on the road—a man in a tattered parka, his face hidden under a hood. Jack slammed the brakes. The truck fishtailed and stopped a few inches away from him.
The man didn't flinch.
"Stay here," Jack said, grabbing his shotgun as he spoke.
The wind tore at his jacket as he stepped outside. "You alive?"
The man lowered his hood. Frost clung to his beard, and his eyes were sharp and electric blue. "Depends on your definition." He nodded to the truck. "You have a frequency scar. Let me guess—Ironhaven?"
Jack stiffened. "Who are you?"
"Eli. Used to work with Lin. Heard the Revenant's been busy." He glanced at the glowing scars of Vega through the windshield. "She is a live wire now. Bet it itches."
Jax rolled down his window. "You gonna help or just creep us out?"
Eli grinned, his teeth yellowed. "Oh, I'll help. But you're not gonna like it."
The Safe House
Eli's "safe house" was a shack perched on a cliff with walls papered with maps and equations. A ham radio crackled with the static. He tossed a can of beans at Finch. "Eat. You look like roadkill."
Vega eyed the radio. "You're listening to it."
"Monitoring," Eli corrected the report. "The Revenant's not just in the static anymore. It's in the patterns—fractals, radio waves, even snowflakes." He tapped a map that was red circled. "There is a bunker ten miles north. Frequency Prime. Lin's magnum opus. Built on a… let's call it a thin spot between worlds."
Jack leaned forward. "How do we seal it?"
"We don't. We use it." Eli tossed him the rusted key. "Lin left a weapon there. But the Revenant's guarding it with its new pets."
Finch paled. "The things from the pit?"
"Worse. Forged. Humans have twisted it into static. They're hunting you."
A howl cut through the storm.
Eli sighed. "Speak of the devil."
The Hunted
They fled on foot, and the truck was buried in the snow. The Forged moved like smoke—shapeless until they struck them. Jax fired EMP bursts, their light revealing skeletal figures with glowing veins in the dark.
"They're herding us!" Vega yelled, her scars flaring as a Forged lunged. She grabbed its arm, static surging in. The creature screamed itas and dissolved into ash.
Eli whistled. "Nice trick."
"Focus!" Jack shoved him forward.
The bunker loomed ahead—a concrete slab that was half swallowed by ice. Eli fumbled with his key. "Hurry!"
A Forged tackled Finch. Jax zapped it, but three more emerged from the storm.
"Open the damn door!" Jack fired his shotgun, the blast tearing through a Forged's chest.
The lock clicked. They tumbled inside, sealing the door as their claws screeched against the metal floor.
Frequency Prime
The bunker hummed with energy, and the walls were lined with obsidian panels. A glass cell dominated the room, filled with swirling, static air. Inside floated a teenage girl, hooked to IVs, her eyes glowing green.
"Subject Nine," Eli whispered as he looked at "Lin's last experiment. A human antenna."
Finch pressed his hands against the glass. "She's alive?"
"Barely." Eli tapped a terminal. "Lin tried to merge her with the Frequency. Didn't stick."
Vega's scars pulsed in sync with the static. "She's… talking to it."
Jack glared at Eli. "Where's the weapon?"
Eli nodded at Subject Nine. "She is the weapon. The Revenant is scared of her. That's why it sent the Forged."
Jax scoffed. "A half-dead kid?"
The terminal blared: WARNING: BREACH DETECTED.
The Forged were inside.
The Choice
Eli then shoved Jack toward the cell. "Wake her up!"
"How?!"
"Your blood. You are tied to the Revenant. Do it!"
Jack slashed his palm, pressing it to the glass. Blood smeared, the static inside thrashes.
Subject Nine's eyes snapped wide open.
The bunker shook. The Forged froze, writhing as the static peeled off them, funneling into the girl. She absorbed it, and her glow was blinding.
The Revenant's voice roared through the speakers: …TRAITOR…
Eli grinned. "Miss me?"
Subject Nine rose, and IVs snapped. "It's in the towers… the old ones… it's building a new bridge."
Jack grabbed Eli. "You knew this would happen!"
"Knew she could hurt it? Yeah." Eli pulled free. "But you wanna win? Find the first tower. The one that started it all."
The girl collapsed and faded. The Forged were gone.
Eli tossed Jack a slip with the coordinates. "Alaska. Bring the kid."
He vanished in the storm.
The Aftermath
Subject Nine—Lena—slept in the truck with shallow breathing. Vega drove, her scars dim.
Finch decoded these coordinates. "It's not a tower. It's a town. New Haven, Alaska. Population: zero."
Jax cleaned the EMP launcher. "Ghost town. Perfect."
Jack stared at Lena. "What's she doing to the Revenant?"
"Balancing the Frequency," Vega said. "For now."
The radio crackled. A familiar laugh.
…see you in the snow…