The 3rd Party

A blizzard howls outside the massive terminal, but the crowd inside moves like a tide, each person hunched over a ticket and a dream of the Arctic City rocket. Roger and Linda Lorin navigate the maze of tunnels, clambering into the sleek, silver needle that will lift them high above the snow‑covered fields. The launch feels like a ritual, a momentary escape from a world on edge after a series of mysterious incidents that have put two great powers into a state of emergency.

When the engines ignite, the rocket surges upward, and the couple watches the frozen landscape melt into a ribbon of clouds, then into the black velvet of space, where stars appear like pinpricks of promise. As they drift past the curve of Earth, the quiet is broken only by the pilot’s calm voice, reassuring them of an imminent landing. Yet even amid the wonder, a lingering question hovers—who really set the chemist up as bait, and what unseen third party is pulling the strings behind the crisis?