Chapter 46 #2
“But it’s squeaky clean,” Grace says with a frown. She drags her finger over the surface of each desk, monitor, and even glances around the high corners of the room. “No dust, no cobwebs, and I’m assuming, no fingerprints.”
“I’m surprised they’d go to such lengths,” Aiden says, then pulls a chair out. He sits down, lifting his feet.
“Well, I highly doubt this room is legal,” Elias says, then glances up, motioning his head to the security cameras in the room. There are four in total, in each corner. “Because who knows what’s stored on the computers.”
“We could always try to take apart this thing and take the parts to someone to break into it,” Elias suggests.
“Or, we could, and just hear me out for a moment,” Kenzo drawls out, and everyone’s attention is on him. He steps to the power case of the computer and gently presses the main button, “just do this instead.”
The computers slowly start turning on, and it’s almost too quiet. It takes about half a minute for every monitor to turn on, and dread fills me while we wait. Soren’s by my side, wrapping his arm around my waist.
Kenzo sits in the main chair, and we all gather around him, staring at the wide, big screen. He grabs the mouse, and I’m shocked the computer isn’t password-protected.
“Let’s see what we have here,” Kenzo murmurs, adjusting his glasses.
Lila’s guess is proven correct as soon as the other screens turn on. Each one is a different camera angle, from the common areas of the Academy, to the classrooms, and even a dorm or two. I highly doubt those are legal.
However, it’s the main screen that grabs my attention the most.
Kenzo opens a folder, and inside the folder are many more. They’re all categorized neatly, in alphabetical order. The moment Kenzo opens the folder labeled “F”, my breath hitches in my throat. It’s filled with another handful of folders, with Astrid’s and Soren’s right there — F, for Ford.
“Fuck,” Soren grits out. “Should we open all of them?”
“I say we delete everything and move along,” Avalon shrugs. Although it does seem like the most logical thing to do right now, it’s definitely going to end badly for us.
“They have copies,” Soren says. “They’d be fools not to. So, who knows what’s within these files?”
“I don’t think we’ll have enough time to go through all of them,” Aiden says, checking his wristwatch for the time. “There’s bound to be a couple of professors patrolling.”
Lila rolls her eyes. “Not right now, this is their break. That’s why I suggested this time frame in the first place,” she sighs. “But this is insane. We just stumbled upon the main operations room of Sinners and Saints. What do we do?”
“I’m trying to find if there’s anything about Sinners and Saints specifically,” Kenzo says, opening the email tab. It’s the official email of the website, and it has a lot of new mail that’s been unopened. “But of course, they’re not keeping anything about themselves on hand.”
“The computer’s not password protected,” Grace drawls out. “So how come none of the members ever decided to snoop around? I know I would.”
Kenzo motions with his head toward the cameras in the corner, without even looking at her. “Probably because they’d get caught.”
Aiden takes his phone out and immediately starts taking pictures of the place. Lila and Grace end up being in a handful of shots, even going as far as to pose in a few of those. I roll my eyes, before turning my attention back to the screen.
“Go find my file.”
Kenzo nods, and within a few seconds, he finds the folder titled “S”, opening it swiftly. He scrolls a little down, then finds the one named Sophia Sloane. He opens it, and my eyes rise to my hairline.
There are images of me, a document filled with every piece of information on me. From my birthday and hobbies, to every single thing I wore in the academy, even media images pulled out from the events I attended back during high school.
“This is creepy as hell,” I mutter. “What do we do about this?”
“We can always expose this lair,” Grace suggests. “Then again, if they have copies, they’ll just reemerge, only ten times angrier.”
“And best-case scenario, we might have enough time to copy twenty-ish of these files. So, do we just… pretend we never saw this?” Elias asks, his face puzzled.
“You know what? I say we take a chance on this,” Kenzo says, and without consulting absolutely anyone here, he deletes everything.
As in every single folder, every single file and document.
He goes as far as to empty the trash can, too.
It all happens too quickly, and I don’t have enough time to react.
“What the fuck?” Grace groans, and even Avalon’s shoulders slump. “You realize we’re all in deep shit right now?”
Kenzo turns to face us all, leaning back in the chair. “How else do you suppose we find out who this person is?”
“No, no,” Grace scowls. “Do explain how this was the fucking answer.”
Kenzo shrugs. “I’m counting on the person making a mistake and doing something that could indicate who it is.”
“Uh, guys…” Lila’s voice shakes, and all eyes turn to her. Her own are slightly widened, shock crossing her soft features. She points with a trembling finger back to the screen, and as I turn to look, I’m left more baffled than before.
Every single folder, document, or file that Kenzo deleted not even five minutes ago, starts reappearing on the desktop. One by one, they start popping up, the cursor moving without Kenzo even touching the mouse.
Then, every single screen goes black, except the main one. It goes dark, then starts glitching. Shades of red, green, and blue start flickering all over the screen, until a message appears. It’s in a bold font, with a kissy face emoji at the end of the message.
“Better luck next time, my sinners. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”
As if on cue, the printer turns on, and the papers that I see make my breath hitch.