Within the silence

chapter 9

The sun had barely risen when Ivy and Lance met at their small kitchen table. The apartment was quiet, save for the soft hum of the coffee machine as it brewed their morning pot. Neither of them had slept much. The adrenaline from the discoveries in Edenvale still buzzed in their veins, and now, as the light filtered through the blinds, they knew the next step had to be taken.

Ivy sipped her coffee, staring at the map spread out in front of them. The ink was faded in places, but the key locations were still legible. She ran her finger over one marked spot, then glanced up at Lance, who was rifling through the pile of papers they’d grabbed from the archive.

“So,” she began, setting her mug down carefully, “we’re both in agreement—we need help. But how do we even approach someone with this?”

Lance paused and looked up at her, his brow furrowing as he took a deep breath. “It’s not just about help—it’s about trust. Whoever we bring in needs to be someone who’s not going to blink when they realise what we’re really dealing with.”

“Right. Because the second we start telling someone what we’ve uncovered, that’s when the game changes,” Ivy agreed. She folded the map back up and set it aside. “But we can’t keep doing this alone. This thing with Dominion, it’s bigger than we thought. And we’re getting closer. Too close.”

Lance leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. “I know. But who do we bring in? We can’t just walk up to anyone and say, ‘Hey, we found proof of a shadow organisation that’s been operating for decades. Want to help?’” He let out a dry chuckle but there was no humour in it. “We need someone with skills—someone who can handle this, who can dig into these names and locations without getting scared off.”

Ivy thought for a moment. “What about Nathan?”

Lance’s face tightened at the mention of the name. Nathan was a former journalist, someone Ivy had worked with on a couple of smaller cases in the past. He was smart, resourceful, and fiercely dedicated to finding the truth. But Lance didn’t trust him, not entirely. Nathan had always been a little too eager to uncover things, sometimes for the wrong reasons.

“I’m not sure about him, Ivy,” Lance said quietly. “He’s... got a reputation. People talk. And when things get too hot, he tends to bail.”

“But he’s also one of the few people we know who has the skills to help us decipher all this,” Ivy countered. She tapped the stack of documents, eyes scanning the pages. “This is more than just research. We need someone who can handle danger, someone who won’t blink if they start seeing signs that we’re being watched.”

Lance exhaled through his nose, clearly conflicted. “And what if he’s the one watching us? What if he’s already connected to Dominion somehow?”

Ivy met his gaze, her own face grim. “Then we’ll deal with that, too. But Nathan’s our best option. We can’t go in blind anymore. If we want to make it out of this, we need someone who knows how to navigate the kinds of people Dominion has on their payroll.”

Lance didn’t respond immediately. He knew Ivy was right—he didn’t like it, but she was right. They were too deep into this, and whatever Dominion was, it wasn’t going to let them off the hook.

Finally, he nodded, though his eyes remained heavy with doubt. “Alright. We bring him in. But we don’t tell him everything at first. We can’t. If he’s gonna help us, we need to make sure he’s in this without knowing the full scope of it. That way, if he bails, we don’t lose everything.”

“I agree,” Ivy said. She leaned forward, hands resting on the table, the weight of their mission settling between them. “We show him the basics—maps, some of the records, whatever we can that will hook him. We don’t tell him about Dominion, not yet.”

“Yeah,” Lance muttered, eyes hardening. “If he’s in, then we explain. But until then, it’s just the two of us.”

Ivy picked up the map again, unfolding it slowly. “We follow the lead from Edenvale first, check out those other locations. One at a time. If we find anything that could confirm what we think, then we bring Nathan in, and we go from there.”

Lance’s eyes flickered to the map, then back to Ivy. “And if we don’t find anything?”

Ivy hesitated before speaking. “Then we keep digging. But we don’t stop, Lance. Not until we have the full picture.”

Lance met her gaze, his expression dark but determined. “We’re already in too deep.”

Ivy leaned back, her shoulders tense but resolute. “Exactly. And now it’s time to find out who’s behind this, who’s pulling the strings—and what they really want.”

A silence hung in the air between them, heavy with the understanding of just how dangerous this mission had become. They were no longer just uncovering a mystery—they were walking a tightrope, and one wrong move could send everything crashing down.

Finally, Lance stood, grabbing his jacket from the back of the chair. “Alright. Let’s go. We’ll head to the first spot on the map, see what we find.”

Ivy stood as well, grabbing the folder with the documents they’d salvaged from the archive. She slid it into her bag and met Lance at the door. “We’ll make it through this. We have to.”

They exchanged a brief, silent look, and then they were out the door, stepping into the unknown once again. The next chapter of their investigation was about to begin, and there was no turning back now.

The car hummed steadily as it rolled along the winding road, the map now folded and tucked between the two of them. The early morning fog had started to lift, revealing a stretch of empty highway ahead. Ivy’s fingers tapped lightly against the steering wheel, eyes focused on the road, but her mind was elsewhere—on the map they’d found in the archive and the first location they were about to check out. The silence between her and Lance felt familiar, but it was heavy with unspoken thoughts.

Lance, however, broke the quiet. His voice was low, as if he was hesitant to ask, but the question had been on his mind since they’d left the apartment.

“Ivy,” he said, glancing sideways at her. “You still haven’t told me—do you know where Nathan is? Have you heard from him?”

Ivy’s grip on the wheel tightened ever so slightly, but she kept her eyes on the road. “I don’t know exactly where he’s at right now,” she said slowly, her voice calm but edged with uncertainty. “He tends to keep a low profile when he’s not working. But I know he’s been around. Last time we spoke was a few months ago, before all this started getting... complicated.”

Lance’s brow furrowed. “And you think he’ll just drop everything to help us? After everything that’s happened?”

Ivy shot him a quick look, her lips pursed. “He’ll help. If we approach him right. He trusts me.”

Lance didn’t respond immediately, but the doubt in his eyes was clear. “I hope you’re right. But I’m not going to lie, I’m not sure I trust anyone with this yet, especially not after what we saw in Edenvale.” He shifted in his seat, eyes narrowing as the landscape began to change. “But... right now, we’ve got to focus on the here and now. We’re almost at the first stop.”

Ivy nodded, pushing the conversation aside for the moment. They were both too tense to dive into their concerns about Nathan right now. The map had already taken them to an isolated, almost forgotten part of the state, where the roads had narrowed and the landscape seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction. It was the perfect kind of place for Dominion to hide something—far enough out of the way that no one would notice, yet close enough that they could use it if they needed to.

After a few more minutes, the car slowed and turned down a dirt road, the tires kicking up dust behind them. Ivy glanced at the GPS, confirming the coordinates as she turned the wheel. A small, dilapidated sign appeared ahead—barely legible but still there—marking a place that didn’t look like it had seen visitors in years.

“This is it,” Ivy muttered, pulling the car to a stop at the end of the road. The space in front of them was vast, overgrown, and eerily quiet. A cluster of buildings loomed in the distance, partially hidden behind thick vines and trees. The faint outline of what could have once been a farm or research facility stretched out before them. The map had marked this as one of the primary locations, with a cryptic note beside it: “Phase III—Archive Point.”

Lance unbuckled his seat belt and sat up, his eyes scanning the area. “What do you think? Looks like a ghost town.”

“I’m not sure,” Ivy replied, her gaze flicking between the buildings and the surrounding woods. “This could be exactly what we’re looking for. Let’s park further down. We don’t want to draw attention if someone’s still using this place.”

They both climbed out of the car and quietly moved to the rear, retrieving their bags and flashlights. The early morning light still hadn’t reached this corner of the land, leaving everything cloaked in a dull, greyish haze. As they started walking toward the ruins, the air around them felt still, like the entire place was holding its breath. Ivy kept her senses sharp, always looking over her shoulder as they stepped lightly across the uneven ground.

The buildings ahead were weathered and crumbling. Some appeared to be little more than skeletons of what they had once been. A long-abandoned barn-like structure sat on the left, its roof caving in on itself, while to the right, a row of small offices stood like silent sentinels. Ivy’s pulse quickened, a sense of familiarity creeping over her. There was something about this place—something off.

“I don’t like this,” Lance muttered, his voice low as he scanned the surroundings. “This could be a trap.”

“I know,” Ivy said, her tone matching his unease. “But we have to check it out. Let’s stick to the buildings for now—start with the main one.”

They made their way toward the largest structure at the centre of the complex. The windows were cracked, covered with dust, but Ivy noticed the faint outline of something on the glass. Someone had been here recently. There were footprints in the dirt, too—small, barely visible, but enough to suggest they weren’t the only ones who had come snooping around.

“Someone’s been here,” Ivy whispered, a cold knot forming in her stomach.

Lance nodded. “We need to move fast. Let’s see what we can find before whoever’s watching gets here.”

They reached the front door, a rusted metal frame that creaked in protest as Ivy slowly pushed it open. Inside, the air was thick with mildew and the musty scent of age. Dust settled over everything—the shelves, the old filing cabinets, and the piles of forgotten papers. But there was something else, something newer. A flash of movement caught Ivy’s eye—at the far end of the room, a file cabinet had been disturbed, its drawers ajar.

Ivy and Lance exchanged a look, both aware that they had found something.

“This is it,” Lance said, voice barely above a whisper. “Let’s see what’s inside.”

Ivy moved toward the cabinet, each step slow and deliberate, as if not to disturb the fragile silence of the place. She pulled open the nearest drawer, and as she rifled through the papers, she found something that made her blood run cold: a folder marked with the same symbol they had seen on the map—*Dominion*.

She glanced up at Lance, who was already looking over her shoulder.

“This is it,” Ivy said, her voice tight. “This is what we came here for.”

Lance nodded, but the weight of the moment hung heavy between them. They had just taken the first step into something far darker than they had ever imagined.