Brando's KryoWatch vibrated on his wrist, emitting a sharp beep. The screen lit up, displaying a message that made him furrow his brow:

  IMMEDIATE SUMMONS. OFFICE 117.

  There was no signature and no further explanation. Just those words glowing like threatening ice on the device's screen.

  "Trouble?" Giordano asked as they left the auditorium along with the other students. The crowd around them was slowly starting to talk again after the Protector's speech.

  "Office 117," Brando replied, showing the message to his friend. "Never heard of it. You know where it is?"

  Giordano peered at the message over Brando's shoulder and nodded.

  "Office 117? It's in the administrative wing. Second floor, north corridor," he explained casually. "An anonymous place, nothing special."

  "You were there yesterday?" Brando asked as they moved toward a less crowded corner of the hallway. Giordano nodded.

  "It's the formality for the silence order. They make you sign a paper, remind you of the apocalyptic consequences if you talk, and then dismiss you with a kick in the ass and a fake 32-tooth smile. Academy bureaucracy at its finest."

  Brando nodded absentmindedly, putting away his KryoWatch. "Anyway, how are we organizing for tonight?"

  "Old Martelli, the guard I told you about, always falls asleep around 11:30. He has this armchair in the corner of the library, near the radiator. Never fails."

  "And the cameras?"

  Giordano smiled, particularly proud of his idea. "The cameras in the east sector have a blind spot near the emergency stairs. When they installed them, they didn't consider the dead angle created by the Protector's statue."

  "You've been scouting," Brando noted, surprised by the accuracy of the information.

  "Let's say I was bored," Giordano replied with a shrug, but his gaze seemed unusually determined. "And besides, if things go south, I have this." He pulled from an inner pocket a small metallic device no bigger than a coin. "Frequency disruptor. My brother uses it when he wants to sneak out of the Volpe estate."

  Brando studied the device, impressed. "You're quite the schemer."

  A group of students turned the corner heading toward them. Brando and Giordano immediately stopped their conversation.

  "Meet you at the usual place after Cryokinesis class?" Giordano asked when the others had moved away.

  "Yeah," Brando confirmed. "I want to try that thing I told you about with Rusty a few more times before tonight."

  "The Sync Ice? You sure that's a good idea?"

  "Could be useful to have a four-legged alarm," Brando replied, thinking about how Rusty's third eye always seemed to perceive things that escaped human senses.

  Giordano sighed. "Your call. But if Rusty transforms into a tentacle monster while we're in the library, I'm bolting and leaving you there."

  "Such loyalty! I'm touched," Brando wrinkled his nose.

  "Hey, first rule of survival: if you see a monster, run in the opposite direction," Giordano joked, but then his face grew more serious. "Anyway, be careful. If you're delayed more than half an hour, signal me on the KryoWatch."

  Brando nodded, appreciating the concern hidden behind the joke. "If I'm not dead, I will."

  "As you say," Giordano replied, patting him on the shoulder before walking away. "See you later, and if they offer you an ice cube, politely decline."

  Brando nodded, swallowing hard as he watched his friend disappear into the stream of students. The KryoWatch vibrated again, as if reminding him to move.

  Brando stopped in front of the door marked with the number 117. A simple dark wood panel, identical to all the others except for those three metal numbers, seemed to stare at him like accusing eyes.

  Rusty, who had followed him silently the entire way, emitted a soft questioning sound, his three eyes fixed on the door as if perceiving something beyond it.

  "Wait here," Brando murmured, briefly petting his head. "It shouldn't take long."

  Rusty looked at him with a sign of protest, but then seemed to reluctantly obey, curling up next to the door with an expression that, for an animal with three eyes and unnaturally sharp teeth, looked surprisingly like that of a sulking puppy.

  Brando then took a deep breath, trying to calm his hammering heart, then knocked.

  "Come in," a female voice responded from inside, curt and professional.

  Brando cast one last glance at Rusty, then turned the handle and entered.

  The office was larger than he expected. The walls were lined with dark wood that absorbed light instead of reflecting it. A massive desk dominated the room, covered with neatly stacked documents. And behind it, sitting with a back as rigid as a rod, was a woman who had to be Captain Ferretti.

  Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

  The sound hit him immediately. A woman in her forties was nervously crunching ice cubes, just as Giordano had told him. Her brown hair was pulled into a bun so tight it seemed to stretch the skin of her face, accentuating her angular cheekbones and severe features. But it was the eyes that captured attention: gray eyes surrounded by deep dark circles, like those of someone who hadn't slept for days.

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  "Cadet Casadei," she said, and her voice revealed a weariness she tried to mask with a professional tone. "Sit down."

  It was at that moment that Brando sensed another presence in the room. An aura he could never mistake, a sensation of cold, controlled power that saturated the air like invisible particles of suspended ice. He slowly turned his head.

  By the window overlooking the Alien Artifact, standing with his hands behind his back, was Amedeo De Luca. The Protector. The same man who had just spoken to the entire Academy. The same man who, according to Bianca, was one of the very few to have seen the red eye in the Artifact.

  De Luca didn't turn, continuing to stare at the horizon with an almost supernatural stillness. Brando felt an electric shock run down his spine. The Protector, here? For me? The situation was absurd, inconceivable. It was as if an elementary school student had been summoned directly by the president of the republic for a disciplinary note.

  "Sit down, please," Captain Ferretti repeated, indicating a chair in front of the desk. Her voice cracked slightly at the end of the sentence.

  Brando obeyed mechanically, keeping his eyes fixed on the woman as he settled in. Every fiber of his body screamed danger. Whatever the reason for this situation, it couldn't be anything good.

  "I'm Captain Aurora Ferretti," the woman began, frantically leafing through some documents in front of her. "I'll be taking Lieutenant Esposito's place as your Cryokinesis instructor. The first lesson will be at ten this morning, in a short while that is."

  Crunch. Crunch.

  Another ice cube disappeared between her teeth. Then, with a gesture that surprised Brando, Ferretti pushed toward him a small silver container full of perfectly formed cubes.

  "Want some?" she offered, as if proposing a rare and precious delicacy.

  "Um... no, thanks," Brando replied, trying to hide his astonishment. Giordano told me about this, but I thought he was joking.

  Ferretti seemed almost offended by the refusal. She withdrew the container with a disappointed expression.

  "As you prefer," she murmured, taking another cube for herself. "You don't know what you're missing. In any case, you're not here for this today. You're here to discuss what you saw during the sensor maintenance mission. I'm sure you already understand how certain things work, Casadei. There are events that, for the good of the community, are better not reported publicly."

  Ferretti's voice cracked again, this time more noticeably. With a gesture that seemed almost desperate, she opened a desk drawer that emitted a cloud of cold vapor, revealing a sort of freezer from which she extracted another glass full of ice cubes.

  "Excuse me," she murmured, taking a cube and immediately bringing it to her mouth.

  Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

  "Captain Ferretti is explaining the matter of the silence order to you," the Protector suddenly intervened, his voice so calm and controlled it seemed almost artificial. He hadn't turned, continuing to stare at the Alien Artifact on the horizon.

  Ferretti nodded nervously, extracting a document from the pile. "Exactly. The silence order is a standard protocol in situations involving sensitive information about the security of the Polis." She spoke rapidly now, words tumbling over each other as if fleeing from her mouth. "Violation of the order carries severe consequences: immediate expulsion from the Academy, revocation of Bearer status, and potential legal action based on the severity of the violation."

  The document trembled visibly in her hands as she pushed it toward Brando. It was a form similar to the one he had seen on Giordano's tray, but with his name already printed at the top.

  Brando remained motionless, feeling like a trapped animal. This situation was completely absurd. Why was the Protector personally attending a simple administrative procedure? And why did Captain Ferretti seem on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

  He slowly turned toward De Luca, unable to hold back any longer.

  "With all due respect, sir," he said, surprising himself with his boldness, "why is the Protector of the Polis present to have me sign a form?"

  The silence that followed was as dense as solid ice. Ferretti even stopped chewing, looking at Brando with wide eyes.

  "Captain Ferretti," De Luca suddenly intervened with a calm voice but with an authority that resonated in every corner of the room, "I need to speak privately with Mr. Casadei."

  Clearly it wasn't a request but an order.

  Ferretti nodded stiffly, rising with such speed that the chair scraped against the floor. She headed toward the door with hurried steps, carefully avoiding looking at either Brando or the Protector, and quickly exited the office, closing the door behind her.

  The sound of the closing door echoed in the room like a final verdict. Brando remained motionless, trying to process what was happening. Why did the Protector want to speak with him privately?

  De Luca finally turned from the window. His movements were slow, measured, as if every gesture had been calculated in advance. He approached the desk and took the seat just vacated by Ferretti, studying Brando with a penetrating gaze that seemed to want to dig directly into his soul.

  "Do you know why you're really here, Casadei?" he asked with a calm voice, almost conversational.

  Brando didn't answer, unable to look away from those glacial eyes.

  "Because you're like her," De Luca continued, without waiting for an answer. "Like Bianca. An anomaly in the system. Your Cold Veins are different. Your ice isn't like that of the others."

  Brando's heart accelerated. How does he know? No one had ever seen his Predator Ice, he had always been careful to use it only when alone.

  "Jason's Chamber," the Protector continued, as if reading his thoughts. "AGATHA recorded everything, naturally. She's programmed for that."

  As he spoke, De Luca extracted from an inner jacket pocket a small glass vial. Inside, a dark liquid pulsed with its own life, with black veins that contracted and expanded as if breathing. It was disturbingly similar to what Brando saw in his Predator Ice.

  "Do you know what this is, Karanti?" the Protector asked, raising the vial between them.

  "K-Karanti?" Brando's voice came out uncertain, almost choked. That name resonated in his mind. The same name the entity in the Daedalus had used to call him, and the same inscription he had already seen in the laboratory.

  The Protector studied his reaction with clinical attention, like an entomologist observing a rare specimen. "Interesting," he murmured. "You don't know who you are, yet you respond to the name. This is what flows in your Cold Veins, Casadei. It's not simple cryogenic energy, it's something different. Something more." He slightly swayed the vial, then continued. "The same that flows in Bianca Ruggeri's veins. The same that causes her to transform."

  Brando felt his blood freeze. "Are you saying I could transform into a Glacial?"

  De Luca smiled. "No. For you it's different. Bianca is unstable, an uncontrollable version. You instead are..." he paused, as if carefully choosing his words, "Compatible."

  "Compatible with what?" Brando asked, feeling his throat dry.

  "With the future, Casadei." The Protector put the vial back in his inner pocket. "Sign the silence order. Continue your training. And know that that thing is not your friend. Don't trust what it whispers to you and what it might promise you."

  Brando took the pen with slightly trembling hands. As he signed, his mind whirled with unanswered questions. How did De Luca know about the name Karanti? What did he mean by saying he was compatible with the future?

  "May I go, sir?" he asked, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

  "Of course. Remember your oath of silence." De Luca returned to staring at the Alien Artifact through the window, as if Brando had already ceased to exist.

  Leaving Office 117, Rusty was still there waiting for him and Brando felt an oppressive weight on his chest. The Protector not only knew about the Predator Ice, he knew about Karanti, perhaps knew more than Brando himself about his true nature. And there was something strange about all this, something that eluded him.

  He had to talk to Giordano. He had to understand. And above all, they had to continue with their plan for the library. If there was an answer to the mysteries surrounding him, that was the place to start looking.