Orion sat at the edge of his bed, fingers hovering over his wrist-com. His mind was still tangled with what he had just learned—Leonidas' rise in the rankings, the sudden shift in competition dynamics—but there was something else gnawing at him, something deeper than the tournament itself.
He needed to talk to his father.
If anyone could make sense of this chaos, it was him.
Exhaling sharply, Orion ran a hand through his hair before initiating a secure line. His interface flickered as encrypted seals spun, cycling through verification protocols as it attempted to establish contact. Waiting for response.
And then—
"Unable to establish contact. Cassian Reyes has been out of a contact zone for 31 days."
Orion stared at the words. Thirty-one days?
His father had been unreachable for an entire month?
That wasn't normal. Cassian Reyes wasn't the type to vanish without leaving some kind of trace. Even during deep-space campaigns, even in war zones, he always left contingencies—secure relays, pre-scheduled messages, hidden channels. Even at his busiest, there was always a way to reach him.
A cold weight settled in Orion's stomach.
This wasn't just unusual. This was wrong.
He tapped his wrist-com again, scrolling through old messages. The last recorded communication from his father was over five weeks ago, a brief status update regarding Dominion activity at the edge of the Oblivion.
Orion clenched his jaw. If this were some kind of classified mission, there would still be a trail. His mother, Valeria, would have at least mentioned something. The military would have some sort of record. But this? Radio silence.
His mind raced through possibilities. A deep cover operation? A forced disappearance? A deliberate act?
Orion didn't like any of those answers.
Tapping a command, he redirected the call. If he couldn't reach his father, there was someone else he needed to talk to.
The line buzzed, and this time, it connected.
A soft click. Then, a familiar voice, steady and composed.
"Orion," Valeria Zey'ran Reyes greeted, her tone betraying no emotion.
Orion exhaled, his grip tightening slightly. "Mother."
For a moment, there was only the hum of encrypted transmissions stabilizing. He could hear the distant sound of muted conversations in the background, she was working.
"Where is he?" Orion asked, skipping any pleasantries.
Valeria didn't respond immediately. That silence alone told him she already knew what he was asking.
"I assume you mean your father." Her voice was calm.
Orion's jaw tensed. "He's been out of contact for a month."
Valeria's tone remained calm, but there was something measured beneath it. "Cassian is fully capable of handling himself, Orion. If he is unreachable, there is a reason for it."
Orion frowned. That wasn't an answer. That was avoidance.
"That's not good enough," he said. "He have always left contingencies in place. Where was he last stationed?"
A pause. Then—"Classified."
That one word sent a jolt of irritation through him. His own father's whereabouts were classified from him?
Valeria's voice softened just slightly, but her resolve didn't waver. "Orion. You must trust that if there was something you needed to know, I would tell you."
Valeria didn't deny that she knew something.
"I will handle it, you have other priorities right now." Valeria said, sighing quietly.
Orion nearly scoffed. "I don't think my father's disappearance is less important than a tournament ranking, Mother."
Something in the way she said it made Orion's pulse quicken. But he knew his mother well enough to recognize when he was speaking out of line. Pushing wouldn't get him anything.
Instead, he let out a slow breath. "If he contacts you, let me know."
Valeria hesitated. "Of course."
It wasn't a lie. But it wasn't a promise, either.
Orion clenched his fist. "Fine."
He ended the call before she could say anything else.
Orion sat back down, staring at his wrist-com.
Orion scrolled through his contacts, selecting Elya Raines—the Reyes family's cyber security specialist and one of the few people he trusted with sensitive information. He had tasked her with cracking the datachip he'd bought off the black market, but now, he needed her expertise for something else.
The connection barely buzzed twice before she answered.
A holographic image flickered to life in front of him—sharp blue eyes, an asymmetrical undercut, fingers already typing away at something off-screen.
"Took you long enough to call," she said, arching a brow.
Orion ignored the jab. "I need an update."
Elya smirked, leaning back in her chair. "Which one? You want info on someone, or the reason why your father is completely off-grid?"
His expression darkened. "So you noticed too."
Elya's fingers danced over her console, the glow of encrypted data reflecting in her lenses. "Hard not to. Every relay, every known backchannel, even deep-space pings—dead silence. He's either intentionally blocking signals, or he is somewhere that is blocking it."
Neither option was good.
Orion exhaled slowly, forcing himself to focus. One problem at a time. He needed to know if Leonidas had any links to the Codex.
Leaning forward, he met Elya's gaze. "I need you to look into some names for me."
Her expression shifted into something more serious. "Go on."
Orion pulled up the files he had compiled before. But one name kept nagging at him more than the others.
"Leonidas Lunev."
Elya frowned, fingers already flying over her console. Lines of code scrolled across her screen, fragmented files decrypting in real-time. The way she worked was almost inhuman.
Orion's jaw tightened as he waited, thoughts racing. If Leonidas was connected to the Codex, then—
"Huh."
The sound made him tense.
"What?"
Elya leaned back, crossing her arms. "It's the opposite. The Lunevs aren't working with the Codex. They fought against them."
Orion's brow furrowed. "What?"
She flicked a file onto his screen—a classified report.
"Your father personally vouched for them," she continued. "At least, the father of Lev, Viktor Lunev. He was part of a joint operation against the Codex and proved himself enough to gain early access to the Pythia System."
Orion stared at the file.
His father had given the Lunevs access to the Pythia System? That wasn't something Cassian Reyes did lightly. Now it makes since for Lev to be at fourth place.
But…
Elya hesitated.
Orion's gaze snapped back to her. "What is it?"
Elya tapped a command, eyes narrowing. "Here's where it gets weird."
The report had nothing on Leonidas Lunev.
Not just little information—nothing.
It was like he didn't exist.
Orion clenched his jaw. That was impossible. Someone that skilled, that cunning—and there was no data on him?
"That's not normal." His voice was tight.
Elya nodded. "No, it's not. Either someone wiped his records clean, or he was never supposed to be in them in the first place."
Neither explanation sat well with Orion.
He scrolled through the decrypted file again. It made no sense.
Orion exhaled sharply. "Run a deeper search."
Elya arched a brow. "You sure? If someone deliberately erased him, poking around could set off alarms."
Orion didn't hesitate. "Do it."
She smirked. "Alright." Already, her fingers were moving across the console again.
Orion pulled up another list.
"While you're at it, look into these names." He sent her the compiled data on competitors who had caught his attention so far.
Elya studied the list before letting out a low whistle. "You're really going all in, huh?"
He leaned back, arms crossed. "Something about this whole thing doesn't add up."
Elya chuckled. "Alright, Reyes. I'll see what I can dig up."
Her holographic form flickered slightly as she worked, the glow of raw data cascading across her screen.
Orion tapped his fingers against his desk, mind still tangled in unanswered questions.
Whatever he was stepping into, there was no turning back now.