Chapter 7 THE PLACE I DIDN’T KNOW

ADRIAN POV

“You’re stopping me because of a door?” Rook’s voice came from behind me, sharp and filled with frustration. 

The man he wanted to run after was already long gone. 

I kept my eyes on the door, refusing to look back. 

“Yes.”

Rook came up beside me, his shoulder rested on the concrete walls. “So why are you stopping me?”

“The door is powered.” My voice low as I pointed towards the door. 

That shut him up immediately as he stared at the door. 

“You think our friend went in there?”

Our friend? That sounded funny to me. 

“I know he did.” I continued as I bent down to observe. 

“But he didn’t pass through this direction. So what are you saying,” he said as he pointed to the left direction the man followed. 

“He followed the door Rook, I know what I’m saying.” I said almost immediately. 

“Ok then we should probably follow him.”

“Not yet.” I bursted. 

He let out a tired, dramatic sigh. “Of course.”

I stood up and tried opening the door but it wasn’t opening. Rook and I hit it, but it’s still didn’t open.

Just after a few seconds, we noticed three narrow lines crossed the corner of the door. We stopped the hitting instantly. 

I knew that symbol. It was from Project Apex. Though it wasn’t the main logo but the old one used on the facility years ago before we launched the new one. 

Rook noticed my expression. “What?”

I hesitated at first. “This place is connected to Apex.”

His face lost its amusement. “Are you sure?”

“I built half the security architecture for Project Apex before now. So yes.” I said, running my thumbs against the line of the door. 

Just then, an idea came in; I tried forcing the panel of the door open with the sharp edge of the Apex core. 

At first, nothing happened. But then the door lock clicked. 

Rook stared at me, his eyes wide with terror. We  both went completely still, holding our breath. 

A second later, it opened two inches wider on its own.

Inside, the room was completely dark. No noise  or any sign of anyone working. 

Rook reached for his weapon, I quickly raised a finger at him. “Drop it low Rook, we shouldn’t attack yet. Just listen.” I said softly. 

A faint electrical hum came from the far walls of the room. 

“Ok this is it. Who will go in first?” Rook asked. 

I stared at him disbelief. “Are you scared?” My voice filled with disbelief at the strong looking Rook. 

“Of course I’m not, just asking to know who will lead the way.” He scoffed. 

I didn’t say a single word, I said nothing. I stepped inside, forcing him to follow from behind. But right again, the Apex Core beamed again and this was a sign that someone was inside the dark room. 

I pulled it out and a text appeared.

AREA SCANNING…

TARGET DETECTED

RANK: 20

THREAT LEVEL: 17%

INFLUENCE: LOW

Rook leaned forward. “I said it, someone was inside here,” his voice a low whisper across the room. 

“You didn’t say anything, Rook,” my voice sounded cold as we kept on moving forward. 

There was a chair at our front it looked like it had been moved recently.

Rook’s faint smile vanished instantly. “Someone’s been sitting here…” 

“Recently,” I agreed, keeping my flashlight beam fixed on the seat.

He looked back toward the hallway entry. “So where are they?”

A sharp, metallic click sounded directly behind us. We turned together on our heels and behold, the same man from earlier stood there but this time he stood beside another man in a dark jacket, and they spoke in low tone. 

We quickly ducked behind a corner and watched them.

The second man said something brief. The maintenance worker answered calmly. A few seconds later, the man stepped aside without hesitation. He simply obeyed.

I frowned, my brow furrowed in deep confusion immediately because something was wrong.

“That’s not right.” 

Rook glanced at me. “The machine says he’s rank twenty right?” 

“Yes it did.” 

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked. 

That wasn’t a sign of low influence as the system pointed out, unless the system was measuring something else.

I checked the lower corner of the screen again. 

DATA RELIABILITY: 43%

The same data reliability as before. 

I remembered seeing low reliability readings like this before when I first found the device. I’d casually dismissed them as glitchy damage caused by the broken Core. That assumption suddenly felt expensive. 

“The system isn’t lying,” I said, my thumb tracing the cracked display.

Rook raised an eyebrow, his tone dry. “That’s a very generous way to describe a broken machine.”

“It just giving me the wrong picture.” I corrected him. 

“So are you saying it can be wrong.”

“No! I’m saying it can be incomplete.”

“Sounds like the exact same thing to me, he said, still arguing. 

“No,” I said firmly, turning the Core over in my hand. “If I treat the information as the real fact, I become the wrong person here.”

Rook was quiet for a moment, processing my words. Then he gestured towards the hallway. “So what do we trust?” 

I looked at the man again as he disappear into the shadow. “Everything.”

He frowned. “Meaning?” 

“The system. What we see with our own eyes and what the people actually do.”

I slipped the Core into my coat. “The system is just a tool, Rook. Not a replacement for human judgment.”

Rook smiled faintly, shaking his head slightly. “Look at that. You’re learning now.” 

“I dislike how pleased you sound saying that.” 

Just as he was about to laugh, Apex's core vibrated again. 

SUPPORTING NETWORK

We looked forward, the two men were still outside because we actually thought they had left. 

Just below them, a location tag loaded:

[SITE V-17]

My tiny bit of amusement vanished completely. I took two slow steps closer to them. I knew that designation. It was the support infrastructure built for Project Apex.

But there was a massive problem staring back at me. I had never been assigned to work at Site V-17 but it has also never been here too. 

Rook came up right beside me, his eyes scanning the glowing terminal. “What does it mean?”

“I don’t know,” I said, my voice sounding flat and unnatural. The words tasted wrong in my mouth.

Then, one name appeared with absolute clarity:

ADRIAN KANE

My breathing stopped dead in my chest.

Rook looked sideways at me. “That’s your name.”

“I can see that,” I replied softly, my eyes fixed on the screen.

Another line of data loaded right beneath it:

ACCESS DATE: 3 YEARS AGO

My mind raced wildly, desperately cycling through every single assignment I had ever worked on for the corporation. Every facility I had visited. Every meeting I had attended. 

For the very first time since the Project Apex disaster had destroyed my entire life, I wasn’t standing here asking who had framed me

I was asking a completely different, terrifying question: I had never been to Site V-17 for years now. 

So why did the system say I had?