The airport buzzed with that familiar blend of noise and loneliness—rolling suitcases, boarding calls, and lives crossing paths for seconds before vanishing forever.
At Gate 47, a gray-haired man stood holding a faded photo: a little boy with a gap-toothed smile sitting on his shoulders.
Thomas Hale, 62, had been waiting for this day for thirty years.
The authorities said his son Evan had died in a ferry accident off the coast of Maine when he was six. But Thomas never believed it.
Every year, he sent letters—to orphanages, police departments, even the Red Cross.
Every year, nothing came back.
Until last week.
A call from the embassy: “We believe we’ve found your son.”
Now, a man in his thirties stepped off Flight 709.
Same blue eyes. Same scar above the eyebrow.
Thomas’s heart slammed against his ribs.
He walked forward, voice breaking.
“Evan? Evan Hale?”
The man looked at him, confused.
“I’m sorry, sir. Do I know you?”
Thomas swallowed hard, tears gathering.
“It’s me, son. It’s Dad.”
Evan blinked, clearly uncomfortable.
“There must be some mistake. I… I don’t remember anything before age twelve.”
Thomas reached out, hand trembling.
“You were on that ferry. They said you were gone, but I knew. I knew you’d come back.”
Evan took a step back.
“Sir, please… I don’t—”
Before Thomas could finish, the airport speakers crackled.
“Attention all passengers. Immediate security lockdown. Please remain where you are.”
Red lights flashed overhead.
Uniformed agents rushed past, shouting into radios.
A mechanical voice repeated:
“This is not a drill.”
Thomas turned toward the commotion—armed officers swarming the terminal.
Then he saw it.
A photo on one agent’s tablet—Evan’s face, clear as day.
Caption: WANTED – POSSIBLE SUSPECT IN BIOSECURITY INCIDENT
Thomas’s world tilted.
He looked at his son—his lost boy—now pale, trembling, unaware.
“Evan,” he whispered, voice shaking, “what did they do to you?”
The young man clutched his head, eyes wild with pain.
“I don’t know… but they keep calling me by another name—Project Seraph.”
Thomas stepped closer as alarms wailed louder, the gates locking down one by one.
“Listen to me, son,” he pleaded. “Whatever they told you, you’re my boy. You were never meant to be a weapon.”
Agents closed in.
Thomas spread his arms in front of Evan.
“You’ll have to go through me first!”
In the chaos—sirens, shouts, the thunder of boots—Evan’s gaze flickered, recognition fighting through confusion.
Just for a second, his lips parted—
“Dad?”
And then the world exploded in white light.
