Chapter 6 - The Confiscated Drive
The screen flashed red.
TRANSFER INTERRUPTED - AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.
Leo swore under his breath, yanking the USB drive out of the port just as a blinding beam of white light cut through the gloom of the server room.
"I heard voices down here!" a gruff voice echoed off the concrete walls. It was Miller, the head night custodian, his flashlight sweeping across the rows of server racks. "Who's trespassing in the archives? Step out where I can see you, or I'm calling campus security right now!"
Sofia squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her back deeper into the corrugated cardboard of the printer boxes. Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Leo stepped out from the shadows, raising his hands slowly to catch the beam of the flashlight in his eyes.
"Relax, Mr. Miller. It's just us," Leo said, forcing his voice to remain unnervingly steady despite the cold sweat beading on the back of his neck.
The custodian lowered the flashlight slightly, his weathered face hardening into a scowl as he recognized the boy in the gray hoodie.
"Miller? What are you kids doing down in the restricted IT sub-level?" the custodian demanded, stepping forward with his heavy ring of keys clinking menacingly. "This area is off-limits to students. Hand over whatever you've got in your hand right now."
Leo instinctively curled his fingers tighter around the small USB drive hidden in his palm. "We dropped my chemistry notebook down here during after-school cleanup. We were just looking for it."
"With a flash drive in the system port?" Miller pointed a calloused finger directly at the server rack behind Leo. "I saw the terminal light flashing from the hallway. You kids are playing with things way above your pay grade."
Before Leo could invent another excuse, Sofia stepped out from the shadows beside him, her expression ice-cold and unreadable.
"My hand is still broken from what Mrs. Gable did this afternoon, Mr. Miller," Sofia said, her voice cutting through the damp basement air with chilling clarity. "Are you going to call security, or are you going to let us walk out of here so we don't have to report why the maintenance logs for this sub-level were manually wiped at four-fifteen today?"
Miller froze. The custodian's eyes darted between Sofia and Leo, a flicker of genuine panic crossing his rugged features. The threat hung heavy in the air, shifting the power dynamic instantly.
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"You're making a massive mistake," Miller muttered, lowering his flashlight and stepping aside to clear the path toward the stairwell. "Get out of here before I change my mind. And don't ever let me catch you near this rack again."
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