Chapter 12 - The Ultimatum in the Dust
The receding footsteps faded entirely into the hum of the building's central ventilation system, leaving the laboratory wrapped in a heavy, suffocating quiet. Dr. Vance pulled his hand out of his coat pocket, holding the small black encrypted flash drive between his fingers once more. He laid it gently on the stainless steel tray right beside the orange bucket of dried plaster.
"You dodged a bullet, Leo," Dr. Vance said quietly, his voice devoid of any warmth or reassurance. "Officer Miller is thorough, but he respects rank enough not to force a door when a department head gives him a direct order. Unfortunately for you, that doesn't change your current predicament."
Leo tried to flex his fingers inside the hardened grey cuffs, but the plaster was completely set now, cold and unyielding as iron. The skin beneath the rough edges throbbed with a dull, persistent ache that radiated all the way up to his elbows.
"You can't keep me here forever, Dr. Vance," Leo said, his voice raspy and strained. "Classes start in four hours. My roommate knows I came to this building. When I don't show up for our morning seminar, he’s going straight to campus security."
"Your roommate thinks you went to the library to finish your biology thesis," Dr. Vance countered smoothly, walking over to the sink to pick up a clean, dry towel. "You left your laptop open on your dorm desk with an unfinished document loaded on the screen. Maya made sure of that before she came to fetch you from the quad."
Leo whipped his head around to stare at Maya, his eyes wide with betrayal and disbelief. Maya stood by the counter, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso as if she were freezing cold. She refused to meet his gaze, keeping her eyes locked firmly on the white-tiled floor.
"You planned this?" Leo whispered, his voice cracking with genuine heartbreak. "You brought me up here on the pretense of helping me find my recommendation letter just to trap me?"
"I didn't want it to come to this, Leo," Maya finally spoke up, her voice trembling slightly as she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "If you hadn't opened that folder on my dad's desk, none of this would have happened. You saw the patient registry numbers. You saw what we’re building down in the sub-basement. My dad couldn't just let you walk out of here with that kind of knowledge."
Dr. Vance stepped between them, cutting off the line of sight. He placed both hands flat on the metal examination table, leaning in close to Leo’s face.
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"Here is your choice, son," Dr. Vance said, his voice dropping to a low, chilling whisper. "You sign the non-disclosure and research-assistant contract, agreeing to help us complete the neural integration trials... or we leave your hands encased in this concrete permanently, and let campus security find you wandering the halls with amnesia by tomorrow night."
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