Chapter 9 - The Encrypted Ledger
The small black flash drive seemed to absorb the harsh fluorescent light of the laboratory, casting a tiny, matte shadow against Dr. Vance’s pale knuckles. Leo swallowed hard, the admission dying in his throat before he could even form the words. There was no denying it now; his brief glance at the open monitor had exposed a secret that was clearly worth killing—or at least permanently silencing—to protect.
"I saw the summary screen," Leo admitted, his voice barely above a whisper as the fight drained out of him, leaving only a hollow, aching exhaustion. "The patient IDs matched the missing persons reports filed by the local precinct over the last six months. You aren't doing neural research, Dr. Vance. You're harvesting cognitive baseline data from people who have no one looking for them."
Maya let out a sharp breath, turning her face away from Leo as if the confirmation of her father’s work was something she could no longer bear to look at. She walked over to the stainless steel sink, turning the handle just enough to let a thin trickle of water run down the drain, white noise to drown out the heavy silence of the room.
Dr. Vance didn't flinch, nor did his expression darken. Instead, a grim, melancholic sigh escaped his lips. He slipped the flash drive back into his coat pocket with slow, deliberate care.
"The medical establishment calls it unauthorized human experimentation," Dr. Vance said, his tone turning clinical, almost academic, as he walked back toward the edge of the examination table. "They call it unethical, illegal, and parasitic. But progress doesn't happen by playing within the comfortable boundaries set by ethics boards that have never held a scalpel in their lives."
"You're destroying people's minds," Leo shot back, a sudden surge of adrenaline overriding his pain. "Those aren't just data points, Dr. Vance! Those are human beings with families, with lives outside these sterile walls!"
"And my research is designed to cure neurological degeneration at its root," Dr. Vance countered sharply, stepping closer until he towered over the trapped student. "Do you have any idea how many Alzheimer's patients fade away into complete oblivion every single day while the medical community debates bureaucratic red tape? I am building a bridge between cognitive preservation and digital immortality. And you stumbled onto the foundation before it was ready to bear the weight."
Leo gritted his teeth, his mind racing desperately for an exit strategy. The plaster around his wrists was completely rigid now, holding him immobile, but his legs were free. If he could kick hard enough to knock the rolling tray into Dr. Vance’s knees, he might be able to scramble toward the heavy oak door before the older man recovered.
Before Leo could tense his legs for the strike, Maya spun around from the sink, her eyes wide with sudden panic as she stared not at them, but at the small frosted glass window set into the top of the laboratory door.
May you like
Outside in the hallway, the faint, rhythmic sound of approaching footsteps was growing louder by the second.
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