HEARTS BEHIND THE GLASS

CHAPTER THREE Shadows in the Code

Maya stood in the now-empty boardroom, every muscle tight with tension. The buzzing of the fluorescent lights overhead seemed louder now that she was alone. The quiet was thick, unnatural—like something was holding its breath.

She checked her phone again. The message was still there.“They’re not who they say they are. And neither is he.” She tapped to reply, but the message vanished before she could type. Not deleted. Erased . Maya stared at the screen, her pulse quickening. She didn’t believe in coincidences. And this felt too targeted to be anything else. Her eyes drifted toward the door Wolfe had disappeared through. Something told her she should stay put like he’d said. But another voice, louder and more familiar, told her she needed answers. Now. She grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and followed. The hallway outside the boardroom was long and quiet, illuminated by a cold white light. The walls were made of frosted glass with dark steel beams framing every corner. At the far end, a security panel blinked red. She moved quickly but cautiously, trying not to let her footsteps echo. A few doors were marked with sterile names: *Operations*, *Systems*, *Archives*. She tried each one, but they were locked tight. Then she heard voices. Low. Urgent. Coming from

The stairwell just ahead, Maya ducked behind a structural column and peered around the corner. Wolfe was there, flanked by two of his security personnel. He held a tablet in one hand, scrolling through something that made his jaws clench. The other two men looked rattled—professionally composed, but sweating through their collars.“This isn’t random,” Wolfe said. “Whoever’s doing this knows what to target.”“Any sign of external intrusion?” one of the guards asked. Wolfe shook his head. “No, this came from inside, they used internal clearance codes—codes that should’ve been locked after the Geneva protocol.” The other guard blinked. “That was supposed to be deleted years ago.”“I know,” Wolfe snapped. Which means someone resurrected it. And they knew exactly what they were looking for. Maya’s stomach sank. She didn’t know what the Geneva protocol was, but it sounded serious. And Wolfe’s reaction didn’t feel rehearsed. He wasn’t performing for cameras. He was angry. And scared. She was still processing what she’d heard when Wolfe’s head snapped around. For one horrifying second, his eyes locked directly on her hiding spot. She held her breath. Didn’t move. But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned back to his team. Seal the lower servers. Isolate the AI core. "I want full access logs pulled from the last 48 hours—cross-reference every entry badge, every system touchpoint."“Yes, sir.” “And get me Evelyn. Now.” The name-dropped and like a stone in a pond. Evelyn. Maya didn’t know who she was, but the way Wolfe said it made her skin crawl. Whoever Evelyn was, she wasn’t just an employee. She waited until the trio disappeared down the next flight of stairs before she moved again. Maya headed the other way, back toward the elevator bay. If Wolfe thought someone was sabotaging from within, maybe she could find evidence. If she could prove he wasn’t just some greedy overlord, she could shift the tide of public opinion. But if he *was* hiding something darker… She found an emergency stairwell and slipped inside. Each floor of the tower had its own personality. The 45th was all glass and minimalism. The 43rd was darker, lined with display cases and server nodes. The 42nd was under construction—half of it unfinished, the lights dimmed. She stopped on 42. The hallway was empty, covered in plastic sheeting and construction dust. Tools and panels sat scattered like a worksite abandoned mid-task. A thick industrial door stood halfway down the corridor. No label. No keypad. Maya moved closer, running her fingers along the metal. To her surprise, the door wasn’t locked. She pulled it open. Inside was a roo0m that didn’t match the rest of the tower. No glass. No glamour. Just dark walls covered in wires and blinking panels. Screens glowed with raw lines of code. An old server hummed in the corner. Dust floated in the air like motes of memory. This place wasn’t supposed to exist. It felt forgotten—deliberately hidden.

She stepped inside. On the largest screen, code scrolled slowly. Maya wasn’t an expert, but she’d worked with enough grassroots tech teams to recognize anomalies. This wasn’t security software. It looked like a data pipeline—one transmitting *out*. She saw a name flash across the code: **“Evelyn_AccessNode”**A cold chill ran down her spine.

She turned toward the terminal. There was a keyboard. No mouse. Just keys and a black command-line screen waiting for input. Maya sat carefully and began typing. She didn’t try to hack—she wasn’t stupid. But she knew how to run basic queries. She typed in the command for recent log files. Nothing. She tried a second time—this time with a different syntax. A line appeared.**FILE: GEN-PROT-EX/LOCKED****ACCESS: DENIED****RESTRICTED USER: LEVEL Z**

Her breath caught. *Level Z?* That didn’t sound like standard classification. She typed another query, this time for user log-ins. More results popped up. Most were numerical codes. But one stood out.**Username: A. Wolfe****Timestamp: 09:32AM****Action: Data patch upload****File: GENESIS_CORE_ARCHIVE**Genesis. The name hit her like a jolt of electricity. She didn’t know why, but it felt important—like it belonged to something ancient and dangerous.A soft noise behind her made her spin around. A woman stood in the doorway. Tall. Pale. Eyes like ice. Dark hair with a tight twist. Gray suit. No name badge. No smile. She tilted her head.“You shouldn’t be here,” she said softly. Maya stood slowly. “Neither should this room.” The woman didn’t blink. “And yet here we both are.”“Who are you?” Maya asked. The woman stepped forward. “My name is Evelyn.” Every hair on Maya’s neck stood up.“I’ve heard of you,” Maya said. "I imagine you’ve heard many things," Evelyn replied. “Most of them are wrong.”“What is Genesis?” Evelyn gave a small, unreadable smile. “The better question is: what did you *hope* to find?” Maya didn’t answer. She backed toward the door, but Evelyn didn’t follow.“You think Alexander Wolfe is your enemy,” Evelyn said. “But you’re playing a much smaller game than you think.”“What game is that?” Maya asked. Evelyn’s eyes darkened. “The one you’ve already stepped into. The one you can’t walk away from anymore.” Suddenly, the lights in the room flickered. A high-pitched whine filled the air—like an overloaded frequency. The screen went black. Evelyn turned without another word and vanished down the hall. Maya ran after her, but the hallway was empty. She stood there, heart pounding, surrounded by silence and dust. Something was very wrong, and she had a feeling Wolfe knew more than he was letting on. Back in his office, Alexander Wolfe sat at his desk, staring at the screen. Footage from the server room blinked in front of him—grainy but clear. Maya Elora, inside the hidden lab. Hands on the keyboard. Looking at files she wasn’t meant to see. He closed the window, leaned back, and rubbed his temple. Then he picked up his phone and made the call.“She found the Genesis server,” he said quietly. A voice at the other end crackled. “Then you know what has to happen next. ”Wolfe didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was tired.“She’s not what I expected.”“None of them are,” the voice replied. “But attachments are dangerous.”

He stared out at the skyline.“I know.” Maya made it home just after midnight. The streets were quiet, but she checked over her shoulder twice. She didn’t know what she was looking for—shadows that moved? Cars without drivers? Faces that stayed too long? Inside her apartment, she locked the door and slid the bolt. Then she pulled the blinds tight. Her laptop sat on the couch where she’d left it. She opened it, fingers trembling slightly, and opened a blank document. She began to type. “Today I saw something I wasn’t supposed to. A secret buried under the tower. A name: Genesis. A woman: Evelyn. And Alexander Wolfe… he’s not the man the city thinks he is.”**She hit save. Encrypted it. Backed it up to a hidden drive. Just in case. Then she sat back and let the silence swallow her. Outside, a car idled on the street. Headlights off. The windows are dark. Inside it, Evelyn saw the building. Her fingers tapped once against her wrist, where a smooth black chip blinked softly. “We have begun,” she whispered.