The Garage After Midnight
Chapter 06 - The Garage After Midnight
The engineering garage was dark when they arrived.
Professor Miriam Cole met them at a side entrance with a flashlight and an expression that suggested she had been waiting years for this exact problem. She had worked for Adrian Mercer before joining Hawthorne. Eli knew her as a demanding professor who returned assignments covered in red notes. He did not know she had helped design the archive system.
“You have his posture,” she told Eli.
Rachel almost smiled. “Unfortunately.”
Inside, the red car sat beneath emergency lights. The driver’s door was closed. No visible damage. Yet Professor Cole noticed a fresh mark near the rear panel.
“Someone tried the manual access port.”
Mara checked the garage cameras. Offline.
Eli held up the key.
Professor Cole guided him to a hidden sensor beneath the dashboard. The fob touched the panel. A soft click sounded, and a narrow compartment opened behind the passenger seat.
Empty.
Rachel’s face drained.
Mara searched the edges. “No forced entry.”
Professor Cole looked at Eli. “Start the car.”
The engine awakened.
The dashboard displayed ordinary gauges, then went dark. A single blue light pulsed near the compass emblem. Eli placed his thumb on it. The car recognized him with a low tone.
A second compartment opened beneath the center console.
Inside lay a silver data module and a folded card in Adrian’s handwriting.
Eli reached for the card.
Mara stopped him long enough to photograph everything. Then he unfolded it.
Son,
If you are reading this, I failed to return before the truth became dangerous. Do not confuse ownership with worth. The car is a door, not a crown. Open it only when you are ready to learn which people loved you and which people loved what they could take.
Eli read the lines twice.
A sound came from the rear of the garage.
Metal against concrete.
Professor Cole turned off the flashlight.
Two figures moved near the loading bay.
Mara whispered for Rachel and Eli to get into the car. Professor Cole triggered the building alarm manually. Red emergency lights began flashing as campus security sirens approached.
The figures ran.
One dropped a small electronic tool beside the bay door.
Mara picked it up with a cloth.
On its casing was a Sterling corporate inventory mark.
May you like
The courtyard humiliation had not merely exposed Eli.
It had started a race.
