YOUR FUTURE EX

Chapter4

I couldn’t look away.

ACCESS DENIED: ZARA VALE.

The words glowed for another second before the screen went black, as though nothing had happened.

My pulse didn’t get the memo. “I never touched it.”

“I know.” Adrian responds even though his eyes stayed on the scanner.

He wasn’t pretending to understand and that was almost comforting.

He stepped forward and pressed his thumb against the glass.

Nothing.

He tried again with another finger.

Still nothing.

“So it only hates me?” I asked.

A corner of his mouth twitched before disappearing.“I don’t think it hates you.”

“No?” I asked

“It recognized you.” He said

Somehow, that was worse.

I crouched in front of the scanner until my reflection blurred across the dark screen.

Someone had forced a blade beneath it.

I smiled to myself. “So it is removable.”

“What?”

I pointed at the marks. “They tried to take it off.”

I reached for the edge of the frame, digging my fingernails into the gap.

It didn’t move.

I pulled harder.

Nothing.

Adrian crouched beside me. “You’re going to cut yourself.”

“I thought maybe…” I stopped because I just realized that scanner wasn’t loose.

It never had been.

Something glittered near the wall that was not part of the scanner.

A thin curl of silver metal lay against the skirting stone.

I picked it up.

Adrian watched me turn it over between my fingers.

“Not removable,” I murmured.

“Installed.” He frowned.

“What changed your mind?” I held up the shaving as if that explains everything. “If someone was trying to remove it, this would be bent.”

“It isn’t.” He said

“It’s a drilling shaving.”

His eyes shifted to the wall.

Only then did I notice the patch around the scanner and it looked different.

“I missed that,” Adrian admitted quietly.

“So did I.”

The words surprised us both.

I slipped the shaving into my pocket. “Until now.”

Silence settled between us.

“If it was installed recently,” I said, “then it needs power.”

Adrian nodded.

“Help me look.” I asked

He searched beneath the desk while I emptied the cabinet.

Broken pencils.

Yellowed stationery.

An empty leather notebook with every page sliced out.

Whoever left this room hadn’t been careless.

They’d been thorough.

“There.”

A thin black cable disappeared beneath a cracked flagstone.

Together, we lifted the stone.

A modern and new compact battery pack blinked beneath it.

Impossible.

I frowned. “So I was wrong.”

“About what?” Adrian asked

“I thought Blackthorne had been waiting for me.” I started looking at the battery, “No.”

Someone had prepared this…

for tonight.

Adrian stared at the battery pack for several seconds without saying a word then he reached into the cavity and carefully lifted it out.

It was surprisingly light.

“There’s a date,” Adrian said.

I leaned closer.

A strip of white tape had been fixed across the side.

Three words.

Installed: Yesterday.

A chill ran through me.

Someone had known exactly when we’d come looking.

“That’s impossible.” I hoped aloud

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Adrian replied quietly.

“Why?” I asked confused

“Because if you thought this made sense…”, he looked up at me, “…I’d be worried.”

Neither of us laughed.

I looked back at the battery and saw that one cable disappeared into the scanner and the other disappeared deeper beneath the floor.

“There’s another connection.”

Adrian followed the cable with his flashlight.

“It splits.”

“So the battery isn’t just powering the scanner.”

“No.”

“It never was.”

I traced the second cable until it vanished beneath the opposite wall.

Whatever it powered…was hidden on the other side.

“We need to see where it goes.” I said

Adrian hesitated. “We don’t even know what’s behind that wall.”

“We won’t if we keep guessing.” I insisted

I slipped my fingers beneath another loose stone.

It refused to move.

Again.

Nothing.

Adrian crouched beside me.

“Together.”

We pulled.

The flagstone shifted just enough to expose a narrow gap and cold fresh air rushed through it as if there were another room beyond the wall.

I shone the flashlight through the opening.

Nothing but darkness.

Then…

A tiny green light blinked once.

Twice.

Three times.

The scanner behind us answered with a soft chime.

We both froze.

The black screen brightened.

New words appeared and I was expecting anything but what I saw.

SUBJECT 27 REACTIVATED

I felt Adrian go completely still beside me.

“What does that mean?” I asked

He didn’t answer.

“Adrian.” I called out again

His eyes never left the screen.

“I’ve never seen that before.”

For once… I believed him.

A quiet mechanical click echoed inside the steel door meaning the lock had disengaged and it was now open but neither of us moved.

“Don’t,” Adrian said, his voice barely above a whisper.

I looked at the open door.

Three years of chasing Leo.

Three years of unanswered questions.

Whatever waited behind that door had been waiting for me.

I wrapped my hand around the cold metal edge but Adrian caught my wrist.

His grip wasn’t forceful but it didn’t need to be.

“If you open it now,” he said quietly, “you don’t get to choose what happens next.”

I looked at his hand.

Then at the door.

Slowly…

I pulled my wrist free.

And reached for the door anyway.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened then it swung inward with a low groan.

The room was barely bigger than a storage closet, concrete walls,single metal chair and a narrow shelf.

Nothing else.

I stepped inside before Adrian could stop me.

The air smelled like antiseptic that hospitals used.

“This wasn’t built with the tunnels,” I whispered.

“No.”Adrian stayed near the doorway, his flashlight sweeping across the walls.

“This room is newer.” I pointed out.

This room looked untouched.

I walked to the shelf.

Only one object rested on it.

A leather folder and the fact there was no dust means that someone had placed it there recently.

“For you?” Adrian asked.

“I don’t know.” I said

“You don’t have to open it.” He said

I looked at him. “You know I will.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” He responded

I lifted the folder and it was lighter than I expected.

Inside was a single sheet of paper.

Only one sentence.

Subject 27 resumed observation at 22:41. Response matched projection.

I frowned. “Projection?”

Adrian took the page from me and his expression darkened. “This wasn’t written for us.”

“No.”

“It was written about us.” He said again

Something cold settled in my stomach and I looked around the room again.

The walls.

The ceiling.

The corners.

“They were watching.”

Adrian followed my gaze and without a word, he climbed onto the chair.

His flashlight swept across the ceiling.

“There.”

A tiny black lens stared back at us.

Not hidden well enough to escape notice but Hidden well enough to delay it.

Someone wanted us to find it.

“They’re recording us.” I said

“Were.” Adrian reached up and twisted the camera free.

The red recording light stayed on.

“It has its own battery.”

He handed it to me and it was warm as if it had been running continuously.

I turned it over.

A small label had been fixed beneath it.

Property of Blackthorne Research Division.

My mouth went dry. “This school…”

“It isn’t just a school,” Adrian finished quietly.

A faint crackle echoed from somewhere above us.

Neither of us breathed.

Then a calm voice filled the room. “Good evening, Zara.”

I froze.

“You’ve arrived three years later than expected.”

Every muscle in my body locked. “Who are you?” I demanded.

Silence.

Then the voice continued. “We apologize for the delay.”

The camera clicked.

Another pause.

“We’ve been waiting for Subject Twenty-Seven to return.”

The red light went out.

Dead silence rushed back into the room.

Neither Adrian nor I moved.

Finally, he looked at me.

“I’ve spent six years trying to understand Blackthorne.”

His voice was barely audible.

“I don’t think I ever did.”

Before I could answer, a deafening alarm erupted somewhere beyond the tunnels.

Throughout the entire underground complex.

Red emergency lights flashed to life overhead, bathing the walls in crimson.

Then a mechanical announcement echoed through the corridors.

Containment protocol initiated.

Locate Subject Twenty-Seven.

Do not allow her to leave.