Chapter 5 - The Confession
“Maya... the door wouldn't open, the whole system just locked me out from the outside terminal!” Bryce stammered, his usual sarcastic bravado completely shattered as he stumbled forward into the freezing air, his varsity jacket offering little protection against the sudden drop in temperature. Mark and Chloe were nowhere to be seen behind him, leaving him entirely alone in the hallway with the flashing red emergency lights casting an erratic glow over his panicked face.
Maya stood motionless beside the legacy terminal, her eyes locked onto Bryce with a cold, piercing intensity that made him visibly shrink back a step. The physical chill of the server room was severe, but the frost in her demeanor was far more intimidating than the sub-zero environment. She didn't rush toward the exit or express relief at being freed; instead, she slowly walked past him toward the hallway, her boots clicking rhythmically against the concrete floor.
“Where are Mark and Chloe, Bryce?” Maya asked quietly, her voice devoid of any warmth as she stopped inches away from him, forcing the young man to look up into her unblinking gaze.
“They... they went to get campus security when the lockdown alarms started screaming through the administrative wing,” Bryce muttered, swallowing hard as he avoided her eyes, his hands trembling slightly inside his pockets. “Look, I swear I didn’t know the door would seal shut like that; someone sent me an anonymous text offering five hundred dollars just to get you locked in here for thirty minutes as part of a prank channel launch.”
Maya let out a short, bitter laugh that held no humor, shaking her head as she pulled her smartphone out of her pocket, holding up the dead, fried device for him to see. “Five hundred dollars to lock me in a high-security mainframe with a rigged environmental system and an active intruder hiding in the maintenance vents? You weren't filming a prank, Bryce; you were acting as bait for someone higher up.”
Bryce’s jaw slackened, genuine confusion mixing with his lingering fear as he stared at her outstretched phone. “Bait? What are you talking about? It was just a stupid prank app link sent to my DMs by an account called CampusGhost—everyone uses it for campus dares!”
“CampusGhost doesn't exist on the student registry, Bryce, but my father’s old administrative clearance level does, and it was activated the exact second you swiped your ID card at this door,” Maya stated sharply, grabbing him by the collar of his varsity jacket and pulling him closer. “Someone wanted me in this room to extract the master decryption key, and they used you because you’re arrogant and predictable enough to do their dirty work for free.”
Before Bryce could formulate a defense, the overhead hallway speakers let out a sharp, ear-splitting screech, followed by the sound of heavy security shutters slamming down over every exit in the building. The red digital timers above all the hallway doors synchronized, displaying a new, terrifying countdown: ten minutes until total facility purge and data wipe.
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Down the long, dim corridor, the heavy footsteps of campus security guards echoed heavily, but the figure leading them wasn't wearing a uniform—it was the dean of students himself, flanked by two men in identical dark mechanic’s jackets.
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