Chapter 98 The locked truth
Chapter 98 The locked truth
Chapter 98: The locked truth
Thomas walked ahead, boots crunching lightly against the dry earth. Scar Face followed a few steps behind him, his hands in his pockets, eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. The sky above was pale, washed out, the sun hidden behind a veil of thin clouds.
Neither of them spoke at first. The place they were headed to weighed heavily in both their minds.
Thomas slowed as they reached the patch of land near the old storage shed, the one no one paid attention to anymore. The ground looked ordinary. Crops grew nearby, the soil slightly uneven, nothing screaming secret to an untrained eye.
Thomas crouched and brushed aside some loose hay and dirt. There it was. The steel panel. Perfectly concealed.
He swallowed. “Here.”
Scar Face stepped closer, kneeling beside him. He reached out, running his fingers along the edges of the concealed door, feeling the cold metal beneath the thin layer of soil.
“Still here,” Scar Face murmured. “Good.”
Thomas frowned. “Why does that not sound reassuring?”
Scar Face didn’t answer immediately. He shifted, clearing more dirt until the keypad was fully visible. The screen was on. That alone made Thomas’s heart skip.
He leaned in, eyes narrowing. “Wait.”
Scar Face followed his gaze. The small digital display glowed faintly. But the message was wrong. It didn’t say what it used to.
Thomas’s breath hitched. “That’s not right.”
Scar Face stared at the screen, his expression tightening almost imperceptibly. No warning message. No blinking alert. No countdown.
Just the neutral interface of an active system.
Thomas felt a chill crawl up his spine. “It used to show the remaining attempts.”
Scar Face nodded slowly. “Three trials left.”
Thomas swallowed hard. “It’s not showing that anymore.”
They both straightened slightly, the same thought hitting them at the same time. Someone had opened it.
Thomas stood abruptly. “Someone cracked the code.”
Scar Face didn’t move right away. He stared at the keypad like it might confess if he watched long enough.
“Yes,” he said finally. “Someone did.”
Thomas ran a hand through his hair, panic creeping in. “Jesus… this isn’t good.”
Scar Face looked up at him sharply. “Lower your voice.”
Thomas exhaled, forcing himself to calm down. “Sorry. But think about it, who even knew this thing existed?”
Scar Face rose to his feet slowly. “Very few.”
“And now it’s been opened,” Thomas said. “That means…”
“That means whoever did it knew exactly what they were looking for,” Scar Face finished quietly.
A heavy silence settled between them.
Then Thomas said the name he’d been circling around. “Audrey.”
Scar Face’s jaw tightened.
“And Willa,” Thomas added quickly. “She’s not exactly… ordinary.”
Scar Face nodded once. “It’s possible.”
“Possible?” Thomas scoffed under his breath. “It’s insane. Audrey is in a wheelchair.”
Scar Face’s eyes flicked to him. “Don’t underestimate her.”
Thomas hesitated. “You think she did it?”
“I think,” Scar Face said carefully, “that Audrey is far more capable than anyone here wants to admit.”
Thomas looked back at the keypad, dread pooling in his stomach. “If she opened this… then she’s not just missing.”
Scar Face crouched again, studying the panel. “No.”
“She went somewhere,” Thomas said.
Scar Face didn’t respond.
Thomas clenched his fists. “Shouldn’t we tell someone?”
Scar Face’s head snapped up. “No.”
The answer was immediate. Sharp.
Thomas blinked. “What?”
“No,” Scar Face repeated. “We tell no one.”
“Are you serious?” Thomas asked incredulously. “Audrey is missing. Izo is losing his mind. Tennessee is tearing the farm apart. And we’re standing on top of a secret door that proves she went somewhere underground.”
Scar Face stood slowly, his eyes dark. “And if we tell them?”
“They’ll know where she went,” Thomas said.
“They’ll know we knew,” Scar Face countered.
Thomas hesitated.
Scar Face stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Think. This place isn’t just a hidden room. It’s something old. Something protected. If Izo or Tennessee finds out this exists, they won’t ask questions first. They’ll react.”
Thomas frowned. “React how?”
“By digging,” Scar Face replied. “By forcing it open. By exposing something that was never meant to be exposed.”
Thomas shook his head. “And that puts us at risk?”
Scar Face nodded. “At risk doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
Thomas looked away, conflicted. “But Audrey…”
“If Audrey cracked this,” Scar Face interrupted, “then she wanted to.”
Thomas stared at him. “You’re saying she chose this?”
“I’m saying she wasn’t dragged,” Scar Face replied calmly. “She didn’t stumble in. This required intent.”
Thomas’s voice dropped. “Then what if she’s trapped?”
Scar Face didn’t answer immediately. He turned back to the keypad and reached out.
Thomas tensed. “What are you doing?”
“Resetting it,” Scar Face said.
He pressed a sequence of buttons deliberately.
The screen flickered. INVALID ATTEMPT. A small number appeared: 2 TRIES LEFT.
Thomas’s eyes widened. “It’s back.”
Scar Face nodded. “The system resets after inactivity.”
“So now we have three trials again?” Thomas asked.
Scar Face pressed another random sequence.
INVALID ATTEMPT.
1 TRY LEFT.
Thomas sucked in a breath. “You’re insane.”
Scar Face finally looked up. “Now.”
The screen refreshed.
3 TRIES LEFT.
Thomas stared. “It resets fully.”
“Yes,” Scar Face said. “Which means whoever opened it already went through.”
Thomas’s chest tightened. “So Audrey and Willa are…”
“Wherever this leads,” Scar Face finished.
Thomas took a step back, overwhelmed. “We can’t keep this to ourselves.”
“Yes, we can,” Scar Face said firmly.
Thomas shook his head. “This isn’t just about us anymore.”
Scar Face’s gaze hardened. “It’s exactly about us.”
Thomas frowned. “Explain.”
“If this underground was never meant to be found,” Scar Face said slowly, “then anyone who knows about it becomes a liability.”
Thomas’s blood ran cold. “Including us.”
Scar Face nodded once. “Especially us.”
Thomas exhaled shakily. “So what do we do?”
Scar Face straightened. “We keep quiet.”
“And?” Thomas pressed.
“And we crack the code ourselves.”
Thomas stared at him. “You just said Audrey already went in.”
“Yes,” Scar Face said. “Which means there’s a way out.”
Thomas hesitated. “Or not.”
Scar Face’s voice dropped. “There’s always a way.”
Thomas looked down at the steel panel again, the earth around it innocent, unassuming.
“This changes everything,” he muttered.
Scar Face glanced toward the distant mansion, barely visible through the fields. “That’s why no one can know.”
Thomas swallowed. “Not even Tennessee?”
Scar Face shook his head. “Especially not Tennessee.”
“And Izo?” Thomas asked quietly.
Scar Face’s eyes hardened. “Never.”
Thomas ran a hand over his face. “We’re lying to everyone.”
“We’re protecting ourselves,” Scar Face replied.
Thomas looked back at the keypad one last time. “And Audrey?”
Scar Face paused.
Then, quietly, he said, “Audrey protected herself first.”
They covered the panel carefully, restoring the dirt and hay exactly the way they had found it. When they stepped away, the land looked untouched again. Like nothing had ever happened. They turned and walked back toward the mansion in silence.