Locke
We’re in the house. Unpacking. Repacking. Organizing supplies for when we have a plan.
I’m standing by the window staring at nothing. Outside I can hear Kree explaining something to Brent about placement intervals. His voice carries even when he’s not trying.
Inside it’s quieter. Someone’s moving things around in the kitchen. Footsteps upstairs. The house feels occupied but hollow. We all know why, we just can’t say it.
Then Beckett hits the stairs.
Fast.
I turn. Everyone else does too.
Beckett hasn’t moved with purpose since we woke up in the Community Hall yesterday morning. He’s been here but checked out, sitting with his laptop, breaking through walls that just rebuild themselves.
Now he’s taking the stairs two at a time and there’s something in his face that wasn’t there ten minutes ago.
“Guys.” He stops at the bottom. “I found something.”
Rane appears from the kitchen. “What?”
Beckett holds up a card. Plain white. Small enough to fit in a pocket.
“It was in Nova’s jacket. Inside pocket. I didn’t even know it was there.”
He hands it to Kyron.
Kyron reads it. Looks up. “Who’s Linda Luceran?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why does Nova have her card?”
“I don’t know that either.”
Vaelor comes over. Takes the card from Kyron. Reads it. Flips it over. Nothing on the back except the phone number.
“Where’d you find the jacket?” Vaelor asks.
“My bag. I grabbed it when we left the Academy. I don’t even remember taking it.”
Rane looks at the card over Vaelor’s shoulder. “Do we call?”
“That’s the question,” Kyron says.
“What if it’s a trap?” Trey’s voice from somewhere behind me.
“What if it’s not?” Rane says. “What if this is exactly what Nova wanted us to find?”
“She didn’t know we’d find it,” Beckett says. “She didn’t know we’d have the jacket.”
“So why keep the card?”
Nobody answers that.
Vaelor sets it on the table. We all stare at it.
“We need to talk to Minerva,” Kyron says. “And Brent. See if they recognize the name.”
“After the perimeter work,” Beckett says. “We finish what we told them we’d do. Then we take this to them tonight.”
“Why wait?” Rane asks.
“Because we already agreed to help Clockwork,” Kyron says. “And besides, we need to look like we have our shit together. Like we’re thinking tactically.”
“We are thinking tactically.”
“Then we can wait a few hours.”
Trey nods. “He’s right. We finish the work. Then we move.”
The conversation keeps going.
“What if the number’s monitored?” Kyron asks.
“Then we’re careful,” Beckett says.
“What if she doesn’t remember Nova?”
“You really think someone isn’t going to remember the woman without a mark?”
Rane makes a face as he leans against the counter. “What if she does remember and she’s the reason Nova ended up at the Academy in the first place?”
“Then we find out why,” Trey says.
Beckett picks up the card again. Stares at it. “We finish the perimeter work. Then we take this to Minerva and Brent tonight.”
“Agreed,” Kyron says.
They’re moving again.
That’s what this is. Forward motion. The first real piece of it since she was taken.
I stand.
Nobody looks at me.
I walk toward the door. Past Trey and up the stairs.
Nobody stops me.
I can still hear them talking as I head upstairs. Beckett’s voice. Kyron’s. The sound of planning instead of sitting.
That’s good.
That’s what they need.
I’ll go back down when I’m ready.
Right now I need something I can finish.
I head to the room at the end of the hall.
The bed frame is leaning against the wall where I left it. Unfinished. Half-sanded. I was going to stain it. Make it look like something she’d want to come home to.
I pick up the sandpaper.
Start working.
The voices downstairs fade into background noise. Planning. Strategy. Hope.
I focus on the wood.
One pass. Then another.
Smooth out the rough edges.
Make something right.
Something she deserves.