Capturing Graves

The host units were all running, the signal waveforms on the screens pulsing in the same rhythm, and the entire room was shrouded in interwoven silver white and dark-red light.

At the far end of the room, a man in dark-gray robes stood before the control console in the mainframe room, his back to the door.

His dark-gray hair was neatly combed, the lines of his shoulders hard; even from behind, the pressure radiating from him was palpable.

He did not turn around. His voice was calm and low.

"Chairman Grindelwald, you arrived faster than I expected."

Graves turned and looked at the Advance Team at the door.

There were almost no wrinkles on his face, and his deep-blue eyes were cold and sharp.

His gaze swept over Kingsley, Cassandra, Nasser, and Hagrid, finally stopping on Vivi.

"You read that person's memories on the fourth level of Node Zero. Those memories should have contained everything you wanted to know—"

"Who she was, why she built this network, what she heard in the depths underground. But you didn't finish reading them, did you? You only read part of them before my research station alerted you, and you had no choice but to leave. What you have now are only fragments, not the complete picture."

Vivi did not draw her wand. She simply stood there, silver white magic forming a thin film of light around her.

"You're wrong. I finished reading them. She built this network to remember the voice of every person who walked into it, to remember every pulse waveform when The Chain was touched, to remember every tremor coming from deep within the earth. You will never enter the fourth level of Node Zero, and you will never read those memories. Your Relay Station Host can't simulate that person's