He grabbed a fire poker that hung beside the stone hearth, jammed it into the floor, and pried the board loose. A safe lay underneath, with a dial lock. Desmond worked faster, ripping the adjacent boards free until it was completely uncovered. He gripped the dial and began spinning it.

Peyton crouched beside him. “You know the combination?”

“Maybe,” he mumbled.

He tried the handle, but it didn’t budge.

“What did you try?”

“The combination to Orville’s safe.”

Peyton instantly realized his theory: He thinks he created all this—that it’s his research.

He glanced at her. “Ideas?”

When they had found the box in the woods, Peyton had wondered why someone would have hidden GPS coordinates there—why they were given two locations instead of just being directed straight here to the cottage. “The first location. It has to serve a purpose.”

Desmond nodded. “Yes. Maybe it was to ensure the right people found this place—and that they had the key to finding whatever’s hidden here.”

He spun the dial again, using the GPS coordinates of the first location. The handle clicked this time, and he pulled the metal door open. A stack of pages lay inside.

The top sheet had a single line of text, handwritten, in large block letters.

How the Citium Lost Its Way

Desmond flipped the page over, revealing a handwritten note below. He and Peyton read it together.

If you’re reading this, the worst has occurred. The world will soon change. The enemy we face is more capable than any government or army the world has ever seen.

I believe, however, that they can be stopped. To do so, you must understand their origins, their history, and their true intentions. The pages included here reveal those things. It is the greatest and perhaps only weapon I can offer you.

First, you should know that the Order of Citium began with good intentions. They were a noble organization. A group of faith. They had rituals and beliefs, though they recognized no deities. They worshiped at the altar of science, and in science they believed they would find answers to our deepest questions—including one in particular that they called the great question: Why do we exist?

They went to great lengths to pursue that answer. But they lost their way. In a desert in New Mexico, on a July morning in 1945, an event occurred that changed the Citium forever. I know of that transformation because my father witnessed it; I have enclosed his story, which I have rewritten based on what he told me. The remainder of the pages contain my own story. I hope it will lead you to the key to stopping the Citium. Hurry.

- William

“William,” Peyton said. “There’s no last name. Do you remember him?”

“No.” Desmond studied the pages under the letter, scanning them. “But I take it he was one of my allies. Maybe an informant.”