Chapter 27: The Fuse Beneath the Floor
Storms rolled in that night.
Not just thunder — but static, rumbling through the underground walls of the academy like a restless truth waiting to speak. The students barely slept. I didn't sleep at all.
By dawn, the mountain wore mist like armor. The classroom windows were fogged. The halls smelled of ozone and caution.
The students gathered early, a silent understanding between them.
Something had shifted.
I entered the room at the exact hour. No materials. Just a single message on the board:
"What is freedom worth?"
I let it sit. They read it. And then they turned to me.
"We're not safe here, are we?" Emel asked.
"No," I answered. "You never were."
Haruto stood. "Then teach us how to defend ourselves."
That made the room fall still. But no one disagreed.
I walked to the center.
"Not with weapons," I said. "Not first. You defend yourself with clarity. You fight with knowledge. You survive with intention."
I handed out nothing. No tablets. No tests.
Instead, I said: "Tell me what you know they're doing."
Tamir: "Packet-sniffing our messages. I set up a ghost server to bounce internal signals. They noticed."
Eva: "They're manipulating nutrition intake. Our food rotation has increased protein and mood stabilizers. Subtle. Tracked it since week two."
Juno: "There are two new counselors. I confronted one. Her credentials don't check out."
Haruto: "There's a break in the mountain's perimeter — a new underground cable feed. It links to a military-grade AI routing protocol."
They had been paying attention. Far more than the surveillance teams expected.
"Good," I said. "Now I want you to build a map. Of the academy. Not the one they gave you. The one you've discovered."
They moved quickly. Efficiently. Drawn by urgency and something deeper — a sense of ownership. By noon, they had it.
An entire wall became a tapestry of secrets:
Power lines rerouted.
Storage units falsely labeled.
Micro-drone charging ports hidden in stone paneling.
A map not just of location, but intent.
Cyrus entered as we stood before it. He didn't speak for a long time.
Then he said, "They'll shut us down for this."
"No," I corrected. "They'll try. But now, they're behind us. Not ahead."
The students turned toward him.
"Let us build something," Emel said. "A plan. Not rebellion. Not war. Just... a future where minds like ours aren't feared."
Cyrus looked at me. "This was your plan all along?"
"No," I said. "But I've waited five thousand years for it."
To be continued in Chapter 28.