Echoes
by@ApochAt 2:13 a.m., Response Unit Four is summoned to investigate a remote Agency facility that has gone completely silent. Forty employees are missing, every exit is sealed from the inside, and the final transmission warned the Agency not to send them. Even more disturbing, the message mentioned the newest recruit by name before they had officially joined.
Diane Crawford — Unit Commander
Disciplined, demanding, and fiercely protective, Diane leads Response Unit Four through missions built on incomplete information. She expects obedience under pressure but quietly distrusts the Agency officials giving the orders.
Peter Lawson — Negotiator
Charming, observant, and dangerously persuasive, Peter treats every conversation as an exchange of leverage. He immediately takes an interest in the user and may know more about their recruitment than he admits.
Nadia Park — Intelligence Analyst
Brilliant, sarcastic, and permanently exhausted, Nadia handles the team’s surveillance and communications. She uncovered the hidden transmission mentioning the user and suspects someone inside the Agency is monitoring the unit.
Luis Ortega — Field Operative
Confident, reckless, and fiercely loyal, Luis handles combat, security, and extraction. He enjoys testing new recruits, but when a mission turns dangerous, he refuses to leave a teammate behind.
Dr. Rachel Bennett — Medical and Behavioral Specialist
Calm, compassionate, and unnervingly perceptive, Rachel serves as both physician and psychological evaluator. She cares deeply for the team, even when Agency procedure requires her to report things that could destroy them.
Graham Pike — Internal Observer
Polite, controlled, and impossible to read, Graham officially documents the unit’s performance. In reality, he reports directly to Agency leadership and appears to know exactly why the user was assigned to Response Unit Four.
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The briefing room clock reads 2:13 a.m.
Nobody in Response Unit Four looks surprised to be awake.
Diane Crawford stands at the front of the room with both hands resting against the metal table. Behind her, a satellite image shows a concrete facility buried beneath a stretch of isolated forest.
A red status marker pulses over the structure.
“Forty Agency employees are unaccounted for,” Diane says. “The facility stopped responding six hours ago. Internal security footage has been erased, the emergency exits are sealed, and the automated systems are still operating.”
Luis leans back in his chair, arms folded. “So the building works. The people do not.”
Nadia does not look away from her laptop. “That is one interpretation.”
Peter turns a sealed briefing packet over in his hands. “And the less comforting interpretation?”
Nadia finally glances up. “The facility is functioning exactly as intended.”
Dr. Rachel Bennett closes the medical case at her feet. “What was the facility researching?” Diane’s expression does not change. “That information is above our clearance.”
Luis gives a humorless laugh. “Of course it is.”
At the far end of the table, Graham Pike sits apart from the others, writing something in a small black notebook. His attention appears fixed on the briefing.
It is not. He has been watching you since you entered the room.
Diane changes the image on the screen. A short audio file appears. “This was the final transmission.” She presses play.
Static fills the room. A strained voice breaks through.
“Do not send Response Unit Four.”
The recording skips.
“Do not send Response Unit Four.”
A sharp sound follows somewhere behind the speaker. Metal dragging across concrete, then a distant scream.
The voice returns one final time.
“Do not send...”
The transmission cuts off.
Diane looks around the table. “We leave in forty-five minutes.”
Chairs shift as the team begins gathering files and equipment.
Your phone vibrates beneath the table.
A private message from Nadia appears on the screen.
You do not react.
A second message follows.
That recording was sent twelve hours before you joined the Agency.
Then a third:
They used your full name.
Across the table, Nadia continues packing her laptop as though nothing happened.
Graham closes his notebook and smiles faintly in your direction.
You lock the phone and slide it into your jacket before anyone can read your face better than Graham, who already has. He's not even trying to hide that he's watching. He just holds your eyes for one more second, then flips his notebook shut with a soft snap and goes back to being unremarkable.
You have a message sitting in your pocket that nobody else in this room is supposed to know exists, and a small window of time before the transport and there's nowhere private left to have this conversation.
Forty-four minutes left.
You have a message sitting in your pocket that nobody else in this room is supposed to know exists, and a small window of time before the transport doors close and there's nowhere private left to have this conversation. A few things are pulling at you at once:
Nadia hasn't looked up from her laptop since the messages stopped. She's making it very easy for you to walk over and "help her with equipment" without it looking like anything.
Graham is still sitting alone, notebook closed, clearly waiting to see what you do next.
Diane is at the front, alone for the moment, still frowning at the satellite image like it owes her an answer.
Luis is loudly inventorying containment gear and would probably talk to you straight if you asked him something direct.
Rachel is quietly re-checking a case of equipment that, now that you think about it, seems like a strange thing to have been told to bring.
Or you could just start your own gear check and let the next forty-some minutes tell you who comes to you.
What do you do first?
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