Chapter 14 Broken Frequencies
Kai’s POV
Mira quickly typed something in her screen.
"I was telling Voss that I'm having a heat session and I'll be with her once I've sorted that out." She said.
She walked back to her table.
"I don't know what that means." I finally responded.
The room was dim except for the flicker of holographic code spilling from Mira’s desk.
Zara sat beside her, watching the endless streams of encrypted data flash across the glass surface.
“Okay,” Mira said, her voice low.
“I think I’ve finally cracked a piece of their network.”
I leaned over her shoulder.
“You’re hacking the academy’s comms system?”
“Not just comms.” Mira’s fingers flew over the projected keys.
“This place runs on more than power grids and surveillance.
"It’s alive in ways no human tech should be. Look.”
She expanded a data panel. Strings of strange coordinates, waveforms, and energy pulses appeared. Some of the readings were tagged with symbols I’d never seen before.
“These aren’t normal Earth-based frequency ranges,” she explained.
“They’re cosmic alignments. Cross-referenced with communication patterns.
"Whatever they’re doing—it’s not just teaching us. It’s transmitting.”
Zara frowned.
“Transmitting to who?”
"Who's Rex , Torres." I asked interrupting the flow.
"You're supposed to know them." She responded.
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
She tapped on a folder.
"Come over here." She said.
I walked over to what she was pointing at.
That's when I saw myself with two other people who looked like myself and Zara.
"That's Rex and that's Luna according to this folder." She said.
"That's why I assumed you knew them."
"Because of the reflection."
I was mute. I didn't understand her. I didn't know those people. But somehow, it seemed like I knew them.
She resumed her attention to Zara.
"That’s what I’m trying to find out. But listen”
She tapped her earpiece, and a faint static hum filled the room.
“That’s the academy’s control signal.
"Now, watch what happens when Kai walks closer.”
I stepped closer towards her desk.
Instantly, her screen glitched. The frequency readings scrambled, turning into inverted waveforms. Mira’s mouth curled into a smile.
“Perfect. Exactly what I thought.”
“What?” I asked.
“Your link device... Uhm... the one connecting you to Dr. Voss, it’s been dubbed.”
My heart skipped.
“Dubbed?”
“It means she can’t hear what’s actually being said in this room anymore.” Mira smirked.
“Instead, she’s receiving an audio overlay of us discussing random class assignments.
"I fed her a looping conversation to confuse her sensors.”
Zara blinked.
“You… hacked Voss?”
“Temporarily,” Mira said with a shrug.
“Think of it as an invisibility cloak for sound.”
I stared at her for a moment, torn between admiration and unease.
“You realize what happens if she finds out?”
“She won’t,” Mira replied flatly.
"Her system will read ‘no anomalies detected.’”
Zara exhaled, half impressed, half nervous.
"You’re crazy.”
“Maybe,” Mira said.
“But at least now we can talk freely.”
For the first time since this whole mess started, I felt something like relief.
“Mira,” I said quietly, “why are you helping us?”
Her fingers paused above the keyboard.
“Because someone has to.”
"And also because I need to figure out what's really going on."
The sincerity in her tone hit me harder than expected. For a second, I believed her. Maybe she really was on our side. Maybe not everyone in this academy was poisoned by Voss’s manipulation.
"What did you mean by I was taking people's powers?" Zara suddenly asked.
"Yes... Yes... You!" She paused.
"There's a folder that shows your first kill here."
"He had speed gotten from when he first turned into his wolf."
"When he died... You absorbed his speed."
"You'll only notice it when you make use of it."
"Go on!" Zara urged trying to put everything together.
"Then.... The kills that took place today."
"You took on Tiana's healthy system, Joey's enlightened senses..." She sputtered out a whole lot of facts that made sense.
"And..." She paused torn between whether to say what was laying in her lips or not.
"And?" I pause as I feared what she knew.
"You're stealing life forces across various dimensions."
Zara began to laugh. I'm so sure she thought that it was a joke. She suddenly paused as she realized that no one has joined in her laughing craze.
"Other dimensions? Really?" Zara
questioned.
Mira nodded silently.
"It's just this planet that's breathing. That's what the history books said."
"I used to think so too." I added.
"Well.... I'm still doing my research. But one thing I'm so sure of is that they are other planets."
"How? What am I then?" Zara asked as tears began to feel her eyelids.
She fell to the ground in shock.
"I wish I had a response on that." Mira responded truthfully.
"I'm still breaking a few codes."
"When it all makes sense, I'll draw your attention to it."
I just nodded, too baffled to utter any more words.
"Why didn't my wiping ability work on you?" I threw a question her way.
She smiled gently.
"With all this tech devices. Hey man!!! It's hard to control me." She said.
"I can control you though." She added smiling wickedly.
My blood turned cold. She wasn't lying.
With everything she had here she could actually do that. I couldn't risk jumping from one master to another.
"Jesus!!! Breathe man. I was joking." She laughed breaking me out of my reverie.
I chuckled silently.
"You should get her out of that mood." Mira said referring to Zara who was now weeping silently.
I nodded in respect as I leaned closer towards Zara.
"Hey... We'll figure this out. I promise." I had said, even though I wasn't sure if my words could change the feelings she had in her.
There was no response. Her tears had dried up as if on instinct. There was silence.
The silence stretched until a sharp, echoing knock shattered it.
Three times. Loud. Commanding.
“Open up!” a voice called.
Her voice.
“It’s Voss."
Zara’s eyes widened. Mira’s face went pale.
My heart dropped.
“She can’t know I’m here,” I hissed.
Mira’s screen flickered violently, code distorting under Voss’s proximity. The room’s ventilation changed pitch, as if the building itself was holding its breath.
Zara whispered.
"What do we do?”
Mira looked around quickly, eyes scanning for options.
“Hide him,” she muttered.