Chapter 82 82

Chapter 82 82
Quinn's POV

The professor in my Monday class droned on about the historical significance of the printing press, his tone so flat it felt like a cloud pressing down on the stuffy lecture hall. I was sitting at the very back of the room, my chin propped in my hand as I stared blankly at the dust motes dancing in the projector light. On my lap, my notebook was blank except for one name written over and over in the margins: SASHA MILLMAN.

"Who the hell is Sasha Millman?"

"Mhm?" I jerked slightly and looked around to find Maddie staring at me questioningly. One finger was on the name.

When I didn't respond, she nudged my elbow sharply, leaning over her own perfectly organized binder. "Quinn, seriously, stop zoning out. He's dropping hints about the mid-term essay prompts right now. You need to write this down."

I rolled my eyes and shifted in my wooden seat, tapping my pen against my knee. "The class will be over soon, Maddie. Relax. I can read the lecture slides online in five minutes. This guy has been giving the exact same speech since the nineties."

"Yeah, well, some of us actually want to maintain a decent GPA," Maddie muttered, though she didn't push it any further. She turned her attention back to the whiteboard, her fingers tapping away on her laptop keyboard.

I checked the digital clock in the corner of my screen: we had five minutes left till the end of the class. My mind instantly snapped back to the conversation I'd had with Harmony last night. Sasha was still off the grid. I needed to find a lead, any lead, to keep Harmony from doing something reckless like breaking into the university's main administration server.

The loud, definitive chime of the campus bell tower finally rang out, signaling the end of the period. The lecture hall instantly erupted into a chaotic flurry as my coursemates scrambled to leave.

I shoved my laptop into my bag without even bothering to shut it down properly and slid out of the row before the crowd could block the aisle. As I stepped out into the main hallway, I spotted exactly what I needed: a small cluster of freshmen I recognized gathering near the water fountains.

"Hey, where are you going in such a rush?" Maddie called out, scrambling to gather her things. "We were supposed to grab coffee at the student union!"

I could hear Maddie cursing behind me as she struggled to keep up.

I intercepted the group of three freshmen just as they were about to head down the stairwell toward the lower labs. I recognized them from the introductory media layout workshop I had helped supervise earlier in the semester.

"Hey, guys, hold up a second," I said, catching my breath as I blocked their path.

The three of them stopped, looking up at me with wide, curious eyes. The tallest one, a kid named Leo, gave me a quick nod. "Hey, Quinn. What's up? Is there a problem with the layout assignments?"

"No, nothing like that," I replied, keeping my voice casual, like I was just making conversation. "I'm actually working on a quick investigative piece on the freshman athletic rosters this semester, and I'm trying to track down a specific student. Do any of you know a freshman named Sasha Millman?"

The three of them looked at each other, their brows furrowing as they ran through the names in their heads.

"Sasha Millman?" the girl in the middle, Nikki, repeated slowly. "The name sounds kind of familiar, but I don't think she's in any of our core reporting blocks. Is she a journalism major?"

"I'm not sure what she's majoring in," I admitted. "But she's a freshman like you guys, and she plays for the varsity tennis team. I thought maybe she crossed paths with some of you in the general education lecture halls on the east side."

Leo shook his head. "Sorry, Quinn. I don't know her. The athletes usually stick to their own study tables in the sports complex anyway. It's hard to catch them in the regular halls."

His response was discouraging, but I didn't want to give up that easily. I needed something solid.

"Wait, think about the media assignments from the start of the year," I pressed, stepping closer. "You guys write for the school's e-magazine, right? Have any of the freshman staff done a profile on Sasha as a tennis player recently? Maybe an athlete-of-the-month feature or a newcomer spotlight?"

Nikki's eyes lit up suddenly, her hand snapping up to snap her fingers. "Oh, wait! Yes, we did!" she said, nodding quickly. "It was right after she won the state championship trophy. The sports desk did a column on her career metrics and her training routine."

"Great! Do you have the digital file or the print layout?" I asked.

"I don't have it on my personal drive," Nikki shrugged apologetically. "But the editorial keeps a physical archive binder of every single e-magazine print. You can get a copy from the editor in chief's office down on the second floor. They keep all the back issues in the glass cabinet near the main desk."

"That's perfect. Thanks, guys. You're a lifesaver," I said, giving them a quick wave as they turned and continued down the stairwell, laughing about some professor's grading rubric.

But as I turned around to leave, there was Maddie, her eyebrows pulled together in suspicion.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" she snapped. "Since when do you care about the varsity tennis roster? You hate going down to the tennis courts!"

"It's... just for a small side project I'm... y'know, helping Harmony with. You know Harmony, right? My roommate?" I stuttered, trying to shrug it off as I turned toward the south elevator bank. "It's nothing major."

"Oh, don't give me that!" Maddie growled, following me closely. "You looked terrified when they said they didn't know her. Who is Sasha Millman, and why are you hunting down her old profile files?"

"Maddie, seriously, don't worry about it," I said, keeping my tone final. "It's just some dumb administrative mix-up with one of Harmony's patients at the health center. I'm just doing her a quick favor so she doesn't get bogged down in paperwork."

And without waiting for a response, I turned the corner and walked away, leaving Maddie standing by the elevators with a confused expression on her face.

I felt guilty for doing this to my closest friend. But if Dr. Bennett was truly involved in whatever happened to Aaron, and whatever was happening to Sasha, then keeping Maddie oblivious was the safest thing for her. The profile file was just a few doors down, and it was the only real shot we had at figuring out where Sasha had gone.