The mechanical hissing outside the door grew louder, the sound of claws scraping against the floor setting Clara’s nerves on edge. She clutched the blueprints, her mind racing to piece together the fragments of information they had gathered.


    “Hensley,” she whispered, “there’s something we’re missing.”


    “I’m all ears,” he said, keeping his gun trained on the door.


    Clara flipped through the notes frantically, her flashlight illuminating Jonathan’s meticulous handwriting. Most of it was technical jargon—equations and schematics—but then her eyes landed on a single line, heavily underlined:


    “Failsafe: Temporal Encapsulation Protocol (TEP) initiated for short-term stability.”


    “What is this?” she murmured, tapping the line with her finger.


    “Care to share with the class?” Hensley asked, glancing over his shoulder.


    Clara read aloud, her voice trembling with realization. “The liquid wasn’t stable without the Node. Jonathan must have known that. This ‘Temporal Encapsulation Protocol’—it’s a way to slow down the degradation process.”


    “Slow down? For twenty years?” Hensley asked skeptically.


    Clara nodded. “It’s not perfect, but it would explain how the liquid hasn’t destabilized yet. He must have sealed it in a specialized container—a vial designed to delay the effects of resonance. But it’s temporary. If the Node isn’t restored soon, the liquid will eventually destabilize.”


    Hensley frowned. “So we’ve been living on borrowed time.”


    Clara’s stomach tightened. “Exactly. And if Wexler doesn’t know about the TEP, he might already be pushing the limits of the vial’s containment.”


    <hr>


    A Revelation from the Past


    The door rattled as the machine outside clawed at it, but Clara was too deep in thought to notice. The implications of Jonathan’s failsafe were staggering. The vial wasn’t stable—it was a ticking time bomb. And the only way to stop it was to find the Node and recalibrate it.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    She turned back to the blueprints, her fingers brushing over another note scrawled in the margins:


    “Location encoded in resonance signature. Access only via authenticated harmonic.”


    “What is it now?” Hensley asked, noticing her furrowed brow.


    “The Node,” Clara said slowly. “Jonathan didn’t just hide it—he encoded its location in the liquid itself.”


    “Come again?”


    Clara stood, her energy renewed. “The liquid and the Node are connected. Jonathan designed the liquid to resonate with the Node at a specific frequency. If we can analyze the vial’s resonance signature, we might be able to pinpoint where the Node is.”


    “Sounds great,” Hensley said.


    Clara paced the room, her mind racing.


    The door rattled again, harder this time. The machine outside was growing impatient. Hensley cocked his gun, his expression grim. “First, we need to get out of here alive.”


    Clara nodded, clutching the blueprints. “Let’s move. We’ve got what we need.”


    <hr>


    Escaping the Facility


    As the door gave way, Clara and Hensley sprang into action. The serpentine machine lunged into the room, its glowing red eyes locking onto them. Clara dove for the table, flipping it over to create a makeshift barrier.


    “Hensley, aim for the joints!” she yelled.


    Hensley fired a precise shot, striking one of the machine’s segmented limbs. Sparks flew as the limb buckled, but the machine barely slowed down. It swung a metallic claw, smashing the table and sending Clara sprawling.


    She scrambled to her feet, her eyes darting around the room for anything they could use. Her gaze landed on a rusted fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. Without hesitation, she grabbed it and hurled it at the machine. The extinguisher struck its central processor, releasing a cloud of foam and temporarily obscuring its vision.


    “Run!” Clara shouted, pulling Hensley toward the hallway.


    They sprinted back the way they had come, the machine clattering behind them. As they reached the stairwell, Clara spotted a red lever labeled “Emergency Lockdown.”


    “Cover me!” she yelled, yanking the lever with all her strength.


    A series of heavy metal doors slammed shut along the hallway, cutting off the machine’s pursuit. The rumbling stopped, and the facility fell silent once more.


    Outside, the cool night air felt like a balm against Clara’s frayed nerves. She and Hensley leaned against the car, catching their breath. The weight of the blueprints in Clara’s hands reminded her of the urgency of their mission.


    “So,” Hensley said, breaking the silence, “we know why the liquid’s stable. We know where to look for the Node. Now what?”