Chapter 71 Caught In The Open
They didn’t go back inside immediately.
The side of the building felt safer than the corridors for a moment, even if it didn’t make sense. Lenora stood still, thinking through what just happened. The timing wasn’t random. The door wasn’t locked. Someone walked in at the exact moment they were about to open the file.
That wasn’t coincidence.
“You saw how they moved?” the boy said.
Lenora looked at him. “You didn’t even see their face.”
“I didn’t need to,” he replied. “They weren’t surprised to be there.”
That part was true.
Lenora adjusted her bag. “Then we assume someone is already tracking those files.”
He nodded once. “And now they know someone else is interested.”
A door slammed somewhere behind the building.
Both of them turned.
Students coming out from another wing.
Normal movement.
Nothing connected.
“Let’s go back around,” Lenora said.
They walked toward the main path again, blending in with students leaving for the day.
Halfway through the courtyard, Kylen appeared.
Not walking. Waiting.
Like he had been there for a while.
He looked at Lenora first.
Then at the boy.
Then back at Lenora.
“You said you weren’t going alone,” he said.
“I didn’t,” she replied.
His jaw tightened slightly. “Same difference.”
The boy stepped back slightly. “You followed her?”
Kylen ignored him.
“What happened?” he asked Lenora.
She didn’t slow it down.
“Someone came in,” she said. “Right when we got inside.”
Kylen’s focus sharpened immediately. “Did they see you?”
“No,” she replied. “But they checked the desk.”
That was enough.
Kylen exhaled slowly. “So they’re already inside the same place.”
“Or watching it,” the boy added.
Kylen finally looked at him. “You’re still here?”
“I’m involved now,” he replied.
Kylen didn’t argue that.
Lilibeth’s voice cut through before anything else could build.
“Of course you are.”
They all turned.
She stood a few steps away, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
“How long were you standing there?” Lenora asked.
“Long enough,” Lilibeth replied.
She looked between all of them.
“You disappeared during last period. Then reappear from the back side of the building with him.”
She nodded slightly toward the boy.
“Not suspicious at all.”
Lenora didn’t react. “We went somewhere.”
“I can see that,” Lilibeth said. “The question is where.”
Kylen stepped slightly forward. “It doesn’t concern you.”
Lilibeth looked at him. “Everything here concerns me.”
“That’s not how this works,” he replied.
“It is when I’m already in it,” she said.
Silence followed for a second.
Then the boy spoke.
“We tried to access old archive storage,” he said.
Kylen turned to him sharply. “Why would you say that?”
“Because she already knows something is off,” the boy replied calmly.
Lilibeth’s gaze shifted to Lenora.
“Archive?” she repeated.
Lenora didn’t deny it.
“You’re actually going into storage rooms now?” Lilibeth asked.
“Yes,” Lenora said.
That was it.
No explanation.
Lilibeth let out a short breath.
“This is exactly what I meant,” she said. “You don’t slow down. You go further.”
Lenora looked at her. “And you stay watching.”
That hit.
Kylen stepped in again. “Enough. We’re not doing this here.”
But Lilibeth wasn’t finished.
“What did you find?” she asked.
Lenora held her gaze.
“We didn’t get that far.”
Lilibeth studied her for a second.
Then asked the real question.
“Who walked in?”
Lenora answered honestly.
“We didn’t see.”
That didn’t sit right with Lilibeth.
“You’re telling me someone entered a locked archive room and you didn’t even see who it was?”
“It wasn’t locked,” the boy said.
That shifted everything again.
Kylen looked at him. “You said you had a key.”
“I did,” he replied. “But the first door wasn’t locked when we got there.”
Lilibeth’s posture changed slightly.
“That means someone else used it before you,” she said.
No one corrected her.
Lenora spoke again.
“Or someone left it open on purpose.”
That possibility landed harder.
Silence stretched between them again.
Students passed by. Voices carried. Life moved around them like nothing was wrong.
Kylen finally spoke.
“We don’t go back there like that again.”
The boy nodded. “Agreed.”
Lilibeth didn’t respond.
She was thinking.
Lenora looked at her.
“You already knew something was there, didn’t you?” she asked.
Lilibeth didn’t answer immediately.
Then said, “I knew there were old records.”
“That’s not the same thing,” Lenora replied.
“No,” Lilibeth said. “But it’s enough to stay out of it.”
Kylen shook his head slightly. “That’s not happening.”
The boy looked between them.
“If someone is already watching those files,” he said, “then the next move isn’t going back inside.”
Lenora nodded once. “Then we find another way.”
Lilibeth looked at her again.
“You’re not stopping,” she said.
Lenora didn’t hesitate.
“No.”
That was the clearest answer she had given so far.
Kylen adjusted his bag again.
“Then next time, we plan it properly,” he said.
The boy nodded.
Lilibeth didn’t agree, but she didn’t walk away either.
And that was the shift.
No one was pretending this was small anymore.
No one was stepping out.
They were all in it now.
Different reasons.
Same direction.
From across the courtyard, the new hockey player stood watching again.
Lenora noticed him.
He didn’t look away.
And that was enough to confirm one thing.
Whatever they were trying to reach in that archive…
They weren’t the only ones moving toward it.