The Signal

Chapter 9 — The Recording

Malick ran until he reached the staircase.

He did not look back when the laboratory lights began flashing. Whatever was inside that enclosure had learned to imitate voices, and he refused to discover what else it could do.

At the top of the stairs, he found the door open.

He stumbled into the control room and nearly fell against a desk.

For several minutes, he listened for footsteps.

Nothing followed him.

He hurried outside and continued toward his motorbike. Only after reaching the road did he stop to examine the folder he had taken from the laboratory.

Several pages were missing, but one document contained a handwritten reference to an external storage device.

ARCHIVE D — PERSONAL RECORDINGS.

Below it was a location inside the station.

Malick hesitated.

Every instinct told him to leave and never return. But the documents had raised questions he could no longer ignore. His father had not simply vanished; he had been involved in an experiment that someone had apparently tried to conceal.

Malick needed answers.

He returned the following morning, carrying a power bank, a flashlight, and a small notebook.

The station looked ordinary in daylight. Birds moved through the trees, and distant traffic reminded him that Nairobi continued beyond the fence.

He entered through the main door.

The computers remained silent.

Following the directions in Daniel's notes, he searched a cabinet behind the control desk. At the bottom, beneath a collection of damaged cables, he discovered a small metal case.

Inside was a portable storage device.

He connected it to his laptop.

Most of the files were corrupted, but one video opened.

Daniel appeared on the screen, sitting in what looked like the underground laboratory. He looked exhausted, with dark circles beneath his eyes.

“If you're watching this, I may already be gone,” Daniel said.

Malick leaned closer.

“We made a terrible mistake. The signal was never intended for us. Our transmissions attracted something that responds by copying whatever it encounters.”

Daniel paused and looked toward the camera.

“It doesn't understand us. It imitates us. Voices, memories, even personal details. That's how it convinces people to trust it.”

Malick remembered the voice that had sounded like his mother.

Daniel continued.

“We attempted to shut the system down, but every time we disconnected the equipment, the signal appeared through another device. We eventually realized the source wasn't the machinery.”

The recording distorted.

For a moment, Daniel's face became unrecognizable.

Then he spoke again.

“Malick, if you found this, you need to know something about your childhood. You were never supposed to be part of this experiment.”

The video ended.

Malick sat silently.

He remembered almost nothing about his father before the disappearance, except an old photograph and a voice that sometimes appeared in his dreams.

His laptop suddenly displayed a notification.

NEW VIDEO DETECTED.

Malick had not downloaded another file.

He opened it.

The recording showed Daniel standing outside the station, looking directly into the camera.

Behind him, a younger version of Malick stood beside the entrance.

The date on the recording was seventeen years earlier.

Malick stared at the screen.

He had been a small child when his father disappeared.

Why was he standing outside the station?

And why did the child in the video suddenly turn toward the camera and whisper something?

Malick increased the volume.

The words were unmistakable.

“I'm still inside.”

He replayed the sentence.

The child looked frightened, but there was something else in his expression—recognition.

Malick opened the video's properties and examined its creation date. The file had been modified that morning, only minutes before he entered the station.

Someone had accessed the archive.

Someone knew he was there.

He immediately shut down his laptop.

A sound came from the corridor.

Footsteps.

Slow, deliberate footsteps approaching the control room.

Malick grabbed the storage device and hid behind a cabinet.

The door opened.

A voice spoke from the entrance.

“Malick, I know you're here.”

It was Daniel's voice.

Malick remained silent.

“I need you to listen to me,” the voice continued. “The thing downstairs isn't the only copy.”

A shadow moved across the floor.

“There are two of you.”

Malick held his breath.

Then the voice whispered something that made his blood run cold.

“And only one of you is supposed to leave.”

The footsteps stopped beside the cabinet.

A hand reached around its edge.

Malick looked up.

His own face stared back at him.