Chapter 5 - Beneath the Library
The oldest section of Westbridge Academy had been built in 1928.
The official blueprints showed a boiler room, two storage chambers, and a sealed coal tunnel beneath the library.
Dr. Mercer’s hand-drawn map showed a fourth room.
Jasmine returned to the school at midnight.
Daniel insisted on coming despite his injured ankle. Sofia brought tools, flashlights, and a replacement encrypted drive. They entered through a maintenance gate Daniel remembered from his years on the soccer team.
The campus felt different at night.
The elegant brick buildings became dark shapes against the moon. Security lights swept over empty paths. The windows reflected nothing.
They reached the library basement without triggering an alarm.
“That worries me,” Sofia whispered.
“What does?” Daniel asked.
“The fact that this was easy.”
The boiler room smelled of dust and hot metal.
Jasmine compared the wall to Dr. Mercer’s map.
The hidden room should have been behind a row of filing cabinets.
Daniel and Jasmine moved them aside.
There was no door.
Only old brick.
Sofia shone her flashlight across the mortar.
“These bricks are newer than the others.”
Jasmine pressed her palm against the wall.
A faint vibration ran through it.
Machinery.
Or ventilation.
Daniel found a metal plate near the floor. It carried the black-circle symbol.
Jasmine placed her father’s compass against it.
Something clicked inside the wall.
The bricks separated along invisible lines.
A narrow door swung inward.
Cold air touched Jasmine’s face.
Beyond it, a staircase descended farther underground.
“You still think the compass proves nothing?” Daniel whispered.
They followed the stairs into a concrete corridor.
The construction was modern, unlike the library basement. Thin lights activated above them as they walked.
At the end of the corridor stood a glass room filled with computer equipment.
County maps covered one wall.
Colored lines connected the school, the quarry, the abandoned railway, the hospital, and several private properties.
Jasmine recognized the geography immediately.
“These are emergency routes,” she said.
Sofia studied the screens.
“Some are. Others aren’t on any county system.”
Daniel pointed to a line running beneath Westbridge.
“Is that a tunnel?”
“It connects to the old railway.”
Jasmine found a map labeled PROJECT CROSSROAD.
The black symbol appeared in the corner.
A list of names ran beside it.
Government officials.
Business owners.
Police officers.
School-board members.
Celeste Hale’s name appeared near the top.
Dr. Adrian Mercer’s name appeared at the bottom.
Aaron Cole’s name had been crossed out in red.
Jasmine touched it.
A date was printed beside her father’s name.
October 14.
The day he disappeared.
Behind them, the hidden door closed.
The room lights turned red.
A screen activated.
Dr. Mercer appeared in a recorded video.
He looked younger, perhaps by seven years.
“If you are watching this,” he said, “then Aaron’s daughter has found the lower archive.”
Jasmine stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
“Jasmine, your father asked me to preserve evidence. I failed him once. I will not fail him again.”
Daniel looked at her.
Dr. Mercer glanced nervously off camera.
“Project Crossroad began as an emergency-routing program. During storms, fires, or civil unrest, certain roads could be opened to evacuate students and residents. But private contractors discovered those routes could be hidden from public satellite systems.”
A sound interrupted the recording.
Someone knocking on the original room’s door.
Dr. Mercer spoke faster.
“They used the routes to move money, documents, and people. Your father copied the master map. Celeste Hale learned what he had done.”
Jasmine’s knees weakened.
“Where is he?” she whispered to the screen.
As if anticipating the question, Dr. Mercer leaned closer to the camera.
“I do not know whether Aaron is alive.”
A file appeared on the screen.
AARON COLE - LAST VERIFIED LOCATION.
Sofia reached for the keyboard.
Before she could open it, the glass wall shattered.
A dark figure entered through the maintenance corridor.
Daniel pulled Jasmine behind a server cabinet.
The intruder wore black clothing and a smooth white mask.
In one hand was a device shaped like a phone.
In the other was a small pistol.
Sofia crawled toward the emergency lights.
The masked figure fired once.
The bullet struck the screen displaying Aaron’s file.
Glass exploded.
Jasmine saw the file location for less than a second.
Not the quarry.
Not the county office.
May you like
Westbridge Academy.
Her father’s last verified location had been beneath the school.
