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Chapter 42 - The Ghosts of the Quad

The hours of the night crawled by, each one marked by the rhythmic, thudding march of the Collectors on the quad below. From their third-floor perch, Kai and Elara became students of this new, terrifying enemy. They took turns watching, sketching the patrol routes on the back of a university course catalog with a piece of charcoal from the lab's furnace.

The Collectors were nothing like the Rift-spawn. They were predictable. A patrol of five would emerge from the direction of the collapsed library every twenty-seven minutes. They would make a slow, sweeping circuit of the main quad, their movements synchronized, their single purple eyes scanning for any sign of Rift energy. They moved with the unnerving, unthinking precision of machines, which, Kai realized, was exactly what they were. They never varied their path. They never stopped to rest. They simply executed their program: patrol, harvest, repeat.

This predictability was their only weakness.

"There," Elara whispered during her watch, her voice low and tense. She pointed to a spot on their crude map. "Between the main statue and the ruined food court. For about ninety seconds, it's a blind spot. The patrol turns the corner at the humanities building, and the next one isn't visible yet. It's our window."

Kai looked over her shoulder, memorizing the path. Ninety seconds. It wasn't much time to cross a hundred yards of open, ash-covered ground. His new Agility would be crucial.

While they watched, Ben worked. The acrid smell of chemicals, sharper than before, filled the lab. He didn't look like a terrified student anymore; he was a man possessed by a singular, explosive purpose. He had assembled a small but potent arsenal on one of the black-topped benches.

There were three devices, each built into a thick, glass Erlenmeyer flask, stoppered with a rubber bung and a makeshift fuse.

"Contingency plans," he announced, gesturing to his creations as Kai and Elara finished their final watch. "Device Alpha," he said, pointing to the first flask, which was filled with a volatile-looking gray powder, "is a percussive auditory device. A flash-bang. The magnesium shavings and potassium perchlorate will create a disorienting audio-visual blast in excess of one hundred and seventy decibels. Excellent for misdirection."

He pointed to the other two flasks, which contained a thick, viscous fluid. "Devices Beta and Gamma are adhesive chemical agents. A highly endothermic reaction. They won't explode, but on impact, they will create a rapid, powerful bonding effect. Essentially, it's a high-strength glue bomb. Useful for impeding pursuit or temporarily disabling a limb."

"You made flash-bangs and glue bombs," Elara said, a hint of awe in her voice.

"I made persuasive deterrents," Ben corrected primly, carefully packing them into a padded satchel. "Let us hope we do not need to persuade anyone."

The sky outside was beginning to shift from the deep black of night to the bruised purple of pre-dawn. The Collectors' patrols continued, their rhythm unbroken. It was time.

They geared up in silence, the only sounds the scrape of Kai's saber leaving its sheath and the clink of Ben's flasks in his bag. Elara took the other saber Kai had found in the shop—a shorter, curved blade that was lighter than the cavalry sword. She now had a weapon in each hand, her Basic Swordsmanship skill applying to both. She moved with a quiet, deadly confidence that was a world away from the terrified girl in the apartment building.

Kai looked at his team, at the tools of their new trade laid out before them: swords, bombs, Echoes. They were no longer running. They were adapting. They were evolving.

"The next patrol passes the statue in five minutes," he said, his voice low. "Once they're out of sight, we move. No hesitation. We stick to the route. If we get separated, the rally point is this lab. Understood?"

Ben and Elara nodded, their faces grim and set in the dim light.

Kai walked to the heavy, barricaded door and placed his hands on the steel table. "Ready?"

He didn't need to hear their answers. He could feel their resolve, a silent, powerful current in the air. Together, they pushed the table, its legs scraping against the floor. The sound seemed deafeningly loud after hours of near silence.

They slid the table just far enough to create a gap. Kai peered out into the dark, silent hallway. He took a deep breath, the air tasting of stale chemicals and fear. He gave one last look at his sister and his friend, then slipped through the opening.

The mission to scavenge the student union had begun. They were ghosts in the quad, moving through the briefest of lulls in a war they were only just beginning to understand.

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