(From now on... Elara is stepping into the spotlight.
Her story, her depth, her chaos - you're about to see more of her đ⨠Stay ready.)
Keifer's pov:
Edrix didn't say a word as he led me toward Yuri's car.
I saw Rory leaning against the hood, his usual playful grin completely gone.
Yuri was inside the driver's seat, the glow of a tablet illuminating his glasses, making him look more like a cold scientist than a high school student.
"Okay, I'm here," I said, my voice serious. "What's with the secret meeting? You guys look like you're plotting to move against someone."
Edrix didn't waste time with small talk. He opened his laptop, the blue light of the screen reflecting in his dark eyes. "There's still something wrong with Elara."
I didn't brush it off. If Edrix was bringing this up now, after everything we'd been through, it wasn't just paranoia. "What do you mean?"
"You remember we hacked her phone," Edrix said, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "I thought I had a total mirror of her device. Everything she sees, I see. But there's a gap."
"Tell me directly, Edrix. What's the matter?"
"I can't access all her calls and messages," Edrix said, his jaw tightening. "I mean, I can see her 'daily' life, but I feel like there's a hidden layer I'm being locked out of."
"What do you mean 'feel', Edrix?" I asked, leaning in. "In your line of work, things are either encrypted or they aren't."
Edrix looked up at me, his expression grim. "I mean I have evidence, Keifer. Think back to the day we saved Yuri. Remember? Her phone buzzed twice that day. She even stepped away and picked up the call right in front of us."
I nodded slowly, the memory clicking into place. "Yeah. I remember."
"Well, I went back into the logs," Edrix said, turning the laptop screen to show me a blank timeline. "There is no record of those calls. Not in the incoming history, not in the deleted files, not even in the network pings. It's like they never happened."
My eyes narrowed. "And tonight?"
"Same thing," Edrix muttered.
"Just ten minutes ago at the table, her phone buzzed. You saw it, Jay saw it. But my system? It stayed silent. No notification, no data spike. Whoever is calling her is using a channel that my software can't even detect."
Rory chimed in, his face shadowed. "For a device to receive a signal without triggering a mirrored hack, it requires a localized encryption key that changes every few seconds. That's high-level stuff, Keifer. Not something a random transfer student carries around."
Yuri pushed his glasses up, his eyes sharp behind the lenses. "Keifer, consider the possibility. Is it possible she is working with your father? If she is spying on us from the inside, Section E is completely exposed."
My heart did a cold drop. My father No monster.
If Elara was his plant, then every secret Jay-Jay and I had was already on his desk.
"If she's my father's spy," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, "then she's not just an 'Ice Queen.' She's a ticking time bomb."
I looked toward the dark road where Elara had disappeared. The girl who claimed she loved her sleep and had no one to talk to was a ghost in our own house.
"Where is her location showing right now?" I asked, my voice tight.
Edrix tapped a few keys, a map of the city blooming on the screen. A single, steady blue dot was pulsing in a quiet residential district. "Her home. She's been stationary for ten minutes. Likely just walked through the door."
"Yuri, Rory-get over there," I commanded, not wasting a single second.
"Check her house. Don't let her see you, but I want eyes on every entrance. If anyone goes in or out, I want to know."
Rory blinked, looking at his watch and then back at me. "At this hour? Keifer, it's nearly midnight. If she's just sleeping, we're going to look like total creeps."
I turned to him, my expression dead serious. "Yes, at this hour. If she is a threat to Section E, then we move now. My father doesn't sleep, and neither do his shadows. If she's communicating with him, she'll do it when she thinks we're all tucked in bed."
Rory saw the look in my eyes and straightened up, his playful demeanor finally vanishing.
"Understood. We're on it."
"Edrix, you're with me," I said, heading toward my car. "I want you in the passenger seat with that laptop open. If her phone so much as breathes a signal, I want you to catch it."
I floored the accelerator, the engine of my car roaring as we tore out of the amusement park lot. Beside me, Edrix was already back in the code, his face pale in the screen's glow.
"If she's working for him, Keifer..." Edrix started, his voice trailing off.
"If she is," I finished, my grip tightening on the wheel, "then she's about to find out that Section E doesn't play by the Watson family rules."
We were hunting a ghost, and the ghost lived in a house that was currently showing as 'Peaceful' on a map.
But I knew better. In my world, peace was just a cover for the next strike.
I pulled the car over into a dark alleyway a few blocks away from the coordinates on Edrix's screen.
I killed the engine, but the tension in the car was still humming louder than the motor.
"Where are we going, Keifer?"
Edrix asked, his fingers hovering over the keys. "We're three blocks away. Why are we stopping?"
"We wait," I said, my eyes fixed on the rearview mirror. "We wait until Rory and Yuri get to the house. If she's a professional, she'll notice my car. But she won't expect Rory's beat-up sedan."
I looked at Edrix. "While we wait, check the CCTV. Trace her route from the amusement park to that house. I want to see if she actually went inside or if she just threw her phone in a mailbox to distract us."
"On it," Edrix muttered.
The silence in the car was heavy.
I checked my watch. One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Finally, my phone vibrated on the dashboard. It was Rory.
"Yes? Is she home?" I demanded before he could even say hello.
"The GPS says she's right there!"
"but Neither she nor her phone are in that house."
Edrix looked at me, his face turning ghostly pale. "Is she home?"
"No," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous level.
My blood was pulsing with pure adrenaline now. This wasn't just a "hunch" anymore. This was a calculated move. Elara knew we were watching. She had led us to a decoy.
"Rory, listen to me," I barked into the phone. "Deploy the detectives. I want every professional scout we have on the payroll on the streets. Use the facial recognition from the park's exit. We have to find out who she is and where she went. Today. Not tomorrow. Now!"
I didn't stop there. I dialed Angelo. He's the only one who can navigate the underground side of the city faster than my father's men.
"Angelo," I said when he picked up. I tell him everything, he replied as expected he is on it.
I shifted the car into gear and floored the accelerator, the tires screeching against the pavement.
I started making calls-security firms, private investigators, everyone who owed the Watson family a favor.
You think you can play with Section E, Elara? You think you can hide from me? I don't care if you're my father's spy or the Queen of the Underworld. You made one mistake: you let me see you're a threat. And I never let a threat get close to Jay-Jay.