La Heta’s underground base was quieter than usual. Not a calming silence, but the kind that tingles your nerves, like the night before a storm, or the morning before a betrayal is announced. Teresa sat at the main monitoring console, her eyes trained on the screen displaying the communications history. But one thing hadn’t changed since last night.
Veronica: Not detected.
Xenon: Not detected.
Teresa tried again, tapping her headset microphone. “Code Delta-8. Veronica, respond. Are you at monitoring point two or have you entered?”
Silence.
“Xenon? Reply. Just a voice confirmation. One word.”
Still silence.
She took a sharp breath, then turned to the backup operator behind her. “Rescan for emergency frequency bands. Use 49.8. They’ve been using that in the west.”
The operator no
