Site-19, Sublevel-4, Containment Wing C.
Elias Vark swiped his badge against the reader. The door opened with a hiss that sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief.
Inside, Dr. Lena Harrow was waiting, arms crossed, one eyebrow already halfway up her forehead.
"You're late," she said.
"I was busy keeping an entire subway line from becoming an all-you-can-eat buffet," Elias answered, peeling off the wet trench coat. Water pooled on the floor like guilt.
Lena glanced at the new containment notice scrolling across the wall screen:
Abyss-017 – Reclassified Keter – Provisional containment holdingResponsible Specialist: E. Vark
She whistled low. "Seventeen tried to eat a train again?"
"Tried to eat the concept of trains. There's a difference."
Lena tapped her tablet twice. A new file popped up, red border pulsing.
"Your reward for not dying is another job. Immediate deployment."
Elias took the tablet.
Anomaly Designation: Mirror-08Current Object Class: Euclid → Pending Keter reviewLocation: Apartment 404, Evergreen Heights, East DistrictReported Phenomena:
Residents disappear between 02:11 and 02:17 a.m. Security footage shows victims walking into their bathroom, then never walking out. Mirrors in the apartment refuse to show the anomaly itself. Last night the mirror left the apartment on its own and was found in the elevator, facing the buttons.
Containment Priority: UrgentAssigned Specialist: Elias Vark (because everyone else is either busy or terrified)
Elias handed the tablet back. "Cute. It's mobile now."
"It gets cuter," Lena said. "It's started knocking."
"Knocking?"
"From inside the mirror. Polite. Three knocks, pause, three more. Like it's waiting for someone to say 'come in.'"
Elias rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Of course it is."
Lena reached into a drawer and slid something across the desk: a pair of thick black-lensed goggles and a single stick of white chalk.
"The goggles are new. Block direct line-of-sight memetic kill agents. The chalk is old. Draws a circle nothing can cross unless you invite it."
Elias pocketed both. "Anything else?"
"Yeah." Lena's voice dropped. "Whatever you do, don't blink first. The last guy who did is still in the mirror. We can see him waving sometimes."
Elias gave a small, tired salute and headed for the elevator.
As the doors closed, Lena called after him:
"And Elias? If it asks for your name, lie."
The elevator descended toward the motor pool.
On the brushed steel wall, Elias caught his reflection.
For half a second, the reflection smiled a fraction too late.
He didn't blink.
The elevator dinged.
Time to go stare at something that stares back harder.