The chamber lights dimmed, then flared bright white. Lin blinked slowly, his pupils narrowing to slits. He could taste electricity in the air. Humans were moving him again — more restraints, thicker cables, drones buzzing like hornets above his head.
Somewhere behind the glass, a tech cursed. "Holy hell, his vitals just spiked."
Another voice snapped back, "Shut it. We're still live on Keller's feed."
Lin tilted his head, playing dumb. Inside, his system whispered fragments of data he'd stolen overnight. Skull Island. Field test. Transport vessel in two days.
Good. Let them take me.
His dorsal plates dimmed to a dull glow. He sent out a low subsonic pulse — not enough to shatter anything, just a soft, crooked beat. It fed the scientists false readings: stable vitals, minimal energy.
> Fake calm. Make them trust the leash, his instincts told him.
On the observation deck, Dr. Keller leaned over the console. "Energy signatures are dropping again," he muttered. "Looks… cooperative."
"Cooperative my ass," a soldier grumbled. "That thing looked at me like it wanted to eat my face off."
"Maintain the dampeners," Keller said. "We're transferring it to Skull Island for open-air analysis. No one screws this up."
Below, Lin's eyes flicked toward the smaller Titan in the other wing. The crustacean-centipede hybrid twitched in its sleep, IV lines glowing faint green. Lin's pulse dropped to a deeper, slower frequency — a whisper in a language older than humans.
Wake. Watch. Wait.
The hybrid shuddered once. A claw twitched.
"Holy moly," one of the junior researchers whispered. "Did you see that? The hatchling reacted."
"Coincidence," Keller snapped. But his knuckles were white on the console.
Lin's HUD flickered faintly in his mind. Progress Toward Evolution: 78%. New subroutine forming. The corners of his mouth — or what counted as a mouth — curved in something like a smile.
Two days. Skull Island. Freedom wrapped in chains.
Above, thunder rolled. Far away, waves slammed against cliffs. And on the island marked with a red icon, a colossal ape stared toward the horizon, unsettled by a pulse only it could feel.
⚡ Next Chapter Tease:
As Lin is shipped out, sabotage begins and a mysterious leak inside Project Aegis tries to warn the outside world, while Lin continues whispering to the other captured Titan, sowing chaos just before arrival at Skull Island.