CHAPTER 142: FOLLOWING THE TRAIL

The psychic stain on the empty lab floor was a painful mark that only Jonah and Vanessa could see. It was the one clue the Bureau couldn’t erase.

"So, they made one," Draven’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble from the driver’s seat. "And they moved it. The trail is gone."

"Maybe not," Jonah said, his eyes still closed, his mind connected to the tiny, invisible Progeny floating in the sterile chamber miles away.

Seraph turned, her expression hard. "What are you thinking, Jonah? They scrubbed that place. Physically, magically, there’s nothing left."

"But they left a digital ghost," Jonah countered, opening his eyes. "They had to have records. Shipping manifests, transfer orders, project notes. They’re professionals, which means they keep logs. And even if they deleted them..."

He looked at Vanessa, who was already nodding, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "Even deleted files leave fragments," she finished for him. "Little pieces left behind in the deep code of the servers. If we could find those fragments..."

"It’s too risky," Seraph cut in, her voice sharp. "You were in their system for less than a minute. They’ll be on high alert now. Their security programs will be actively hunting for any sign of breach. Going back in is a suicide mission."

"It’s the only shot we have," Jonah insisted. This wasn’t a debate. It was a fact. "They think they’re safe. They think because the room is clean, they’re in the clear. They won’t expect us to hit the servers again, not this soon."

He took a deep breath. "This time, it won’t be a quiet look-around. It’ll be a smash and grab. A deep-data dive. I’m going to tell Cipher to dig for anything related to transport, logistics, or relocation, and grab whatever it can before they shut us down."

Seraph stared at him for a long, tense moment, weighing the risk against the reward. Finally, she gave a sharp nod. "Vanessa. How much time can you give him?"

Vanessa’s fingers were already moving fast across her console. "Not much. Their security will be like digital antibodies, hunting for anything that doesn’t belong. The moment Cipher touches the mainframe, they’ll know. I can probably run interference, throw up some false data to confuse them. Best guess? Sixty seconds. Maybe."

Sixty seconds to find a file in a system holding a century’s worth of data.

"It’s enough," Jonah said. He closed his eyes again, sinking back into the link.

Cipher. Back to the mainframe. Fast.

Jonah’s view returned to the cold, whirring server room. No more quiet sneaking now. It was a race. Cipher flew across the room like a bullet, its stinger shining.

WHOOSH!

The huge amount of data hit him again, but this time he was ready for it. He pushed past the noise, his will a focused spear.

"He’s in!" Vanessa announced in the van. A new screen popped up on her console, a timer starting to count down from sixty. "Security protocols are already responding! They’re trying to isolate the breach!"

55... 54... 53...

Jonah ignored the chaos. Search! he screamed in his mind. Deleted files! Transport manifest! Transport logs!

He could feel the system fighting back. Walls of red code rose up, trying to block him. Security programs, looking like glowing scorpions, swarmed toward his position in the network. Vanessa was working her magic; he could see her interference as flashing blue shields that would pop up and distract the scorpions for a few seconds.

45... 44... 43...

"They’re adapting!" Vanessa grunted, sweat showing on her forehead. "They’re locking down the archives! Jonah, you’re running out of time!"

He pushed deeper, his mind shifting through layers of digital garbage. He found deleted emails, shredded financial reports, a thousand dead ends. It was like trying to find one specific grain of sand on a beach.

30... 29... 28...

The digital scorpions were getting closer. Vanessa’s shields were starting to break under the pressure. The walls of code were closing in. He could feel the system preparing to purge the entire sector, to delete Cipher along with everything else.

Come on, come on, where are you?

15... 14... 13...

BING!

There.

It wasn’t a clean file. It was a broken piece of a file, heavily encrypted and broken into a dozen fragments. But the file name was still faintly visible.

[TRANSPORT MANIFEST: PROJECT P - ASSET RELOCATION]

Deleted just three hours ago.

10... 9... 8...

"Jonah, get out of there NOW!" Seraph yelled. "They’ve found you!"

He could feel it. The whole system was shrinking, directing all its power to Cipher’s spot, preparing to destroy it.

Download! Jonah commanded.

A stream of corrupted, nonsensical data flooded into Cipher. It was only one fragment of the file, but it was all he could get.

3... 2...

Download complete.

Recall!

Jonah pulled his mind back with all his strength. In the server room, Cipher’s stinger tore free from the mainframe.

1...

WARNING! WARNING!

Even from inside the soundproofed van, they could hear the distant noise of alarms blaring to life inside the Aethelred tower. Lights began to flash on the upper floors.

"Got it," Jonah gasped, opening his eyes, his heart beating hard.

Vanessa didn’t say a word. The downloaded data was already on her screen. It was a messy mix of symbols and trash code. "It’s a mess," she said. "And heavily encrypted. it’s only a piece of the original file. But the location data should be here somewhere..."

She worked, her genius on full display. Glowing runic circles appeared on the screen, spinning and clicking as she forced the Bureau’s code to give up its secrets. The seconds stretched into an agonizing minute.

Then, the trash on the screen resolved into a clean line of text.

It was a set of coordinates.

Vanessa pulled up a map and put in the numbers. The map zoomed out, past Cinderfall, past the surrounding territories, and settled on a familiar mountain range.

"No way," Draven whispered from the front seat, his voice filled with a new kind of dread.

On the map, a red dot pulsed dangerously. It pointed to an old mine, hidden in the nation’s farthest and harshest corner.

The Dragon’s Tooth mountains.

The team stared at the blinking red dot. Their new target.

They were going back to the place where the Bureau had tried to kill them once before.