The lights in the training hall dropped to a harsh red glow. Twenty students stood in a loose circle, wrists cuffed behind their backs with plastic ties. Voss walked the perimeter like a shark, voice calm and clinical.
"Tonight is simple," she said. "Simulated interrogation. You are resistance members hiding information. We are Thorne security. Break or be broken. Begin."
A tall instructor stepped forward first. He grabbed the nearest boy by the collar.
"Tell me where the leak came from. Now."
The boy's voice shook. "I don't know anything."
"Wrong answer." The instructor slammed him against the wall.
Kai stood rigid, jaw tight. This isn't training.
Students had been arranged in a rough circle when they entered, and somewhere in the shuffle Lena had ended up two spots to Kai's left, Theo beside her, both of them facing the same stretch of red-lit floor. Nobody had assigned positions. Kai noticed that. Voss never did anything without a reason.
The instructor moved down the line. A girl with short black hair started crying after thirty seconds.
"Stop," she begged. "Please. I'll tell you whatever you want."
"Then talk," the instructor said, voice flat.
The girl's eyes darted sideways. Her voice dropped to a whisper, cracked and desperate. "Maya Rivera. She passed the note in laundry. I saw her. I swear I saw her."
The room went dead quiet.
Voss tilted her head. "Interesting."
Two security officers appeared from the shadows. They walked past the girl who had spoken entirely, moved through the circle without hesitation, and uncuffed Maya. She hadn't said a word. Hadn't moved. She just looked at the girl who had named her with an expression that wasn't anger. They marched Maya toward the side door without explanation. She didn't fight. She just looked small and terrified as the door hissed shut behind her.
She was gone.
The silence that followed was a different kind of silence than before. Kai felt it move through the circle like a current. Students who had been breathing steadily were now very still. Someone swallowed audibly. A boy near the back shifted his weight and immediately stopped, like the movement had embarrassed him. Nobody looked at the girl who had spoken. Nobody looked at the door Maya had gone through. They all stared straight ahead at nothing.
Just like that, Kai thought. One name and you vanish.
The drill continued. Another student broke in under a minute, spilling fake names, fake locations. Each time the instructors nodded like they were grading a math test.
Lena's turn came. The instructor leaned in close.
"Where is the resistance cell?"
Lena stared straight ahead, voice ice-cold. "I have nothing to say."
He raised his hand like he might strike her. Lena didn't flinch.
"Try harder," she said flatly. "That threat only works on people who still believe you care."
The instructor paused, then stepped back with a small nod of approval.
Theo went next. The instructor tried three different angles, threats, false sympathy, a sudden aggressive step forward meant to startle. Theo answered each one with the same measured, emotionless precision. Kai watched him and felt something he couldn't quite name. Too clean. Like someone who had done this before.
The instructor gave up after ninety seconds and moved on.
Then it was Kai's turn.
The same tall instructor grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him forward.
"Talk. Who helped you in the staff room last night?"
Kai's heart slammed against his ribs. He kept his face blank. He felt the instructor's exhaustion, the small flicker of doubt that the man hated this job as much as anyone.
Kai spoke softly. "You don't have to do this. I can see you're tired. We all are. This doesn't have to break anyone else tonight."
The instructor blinked. For half a second his grip loosened.
Voss stepped forward immediately. "Enough."
She waved the instructor back and studied Kai with narrowed eyes.
The rest of the students shifted uncomfortably.
Lena muttered under her breath, "What the hell was that?"
Theo said nothing, but his gaze sharpened.
Voss motioned for the drill to continue with the remaining students, then walked over and took Kai by the arm. Her fingers were surprisingly strong.
"Come with me."
She pulled him into a small side room and closed the door. The red light followed them, painting everything bloody.
Voss turned to face him, arms crossed. "You see too much, Kai."
Kai swallowed. "I was just trying to—"
"No." She cut him off. "You weren't trying to survive the drill. You were trying to save the instructor from himself. That's empathy. Dangerous empathy."
She stepped closer, voice dropping low.
"Someone named Maya tonight and she walked out that door without making a sound. You held for two full minutes without giving them anything they wanted. And you did it by reaching inside someone's head and pulling on the one soft spot they still had left."
Kai met her eyes. "Is that a crime here?"
Voss gave a small, humorless laugh. "In this building? It might as well be."
She studied him for a long moment, the red light making her face look sharper than usual.
"You see fractures no one else notices. That gift makes you useful." Her voice hardened. "But it also makes you a problem."
She leaned in until he could feel her breath.
"And problems in Apex don't get fixed, Kai. They get eliminated… or they get weaponized."
Voss stepped back, eyes still locked on his.
"Choose quickly which one you want to be. Because next time, I might not be the one pulling you aside."
She opened the door and gestured for him to leave.
Kai stepped back into the main hall. The drill was over. Students stood in loose clusters, wrists finally free, rubbing the red marks the plastic ties had left. Nobody was talking. Nobody was looking at anyone else directly.
Lena caught his eye across the room. Held it for a second.
Theo was already gone.
Kai stood there in the red glow, pulse still settling, and thought about the girl who had spoken Maya's name. She hadn't cracked under the pressure of her own interrogation. She had cracked under the pressure of watching someone else's.
Behind him, the side door stayed shut.
And somewhere deeper in the mountain, Maya Rivera had already disappeared.