Chapter 6
The metal tunnel was freezing, narrow, and choked with years of accumulated soot and dead insulation. Clara crawled on her hands and knees, ignoring the sharp edges of corrugated steel biting into her bruised palms. Behind her, Leo kept a steady pace, pushing her forward while keeping one hand on his backpack to make sure nothing fell out.
The air grew steadily warmer as they moved, smelling faintly of hot electrical wiring and ozone.
“Where does this thing lead?” Clara called back over her shoulder, her voice sounding hollow and metallic inside the tight space.
“The schematics in the library said the old HVAC system connects directly to the server room beneath the main office,” Leo panted, his chest heaving as he navigated a sharp ninety-degree bend in the pipe. “If we can drop down into the server room, we can access the master terminal and upload Maya Vance’s file to a public cloud server before they lock down the local network.”
Clara paused, looking through a small circular vent opening set into the side of the pipe. Below them, through the translucent plastic louvers, she could see the brightly lit interior of the faculty lounge.
Through the vent, Mrs. Henderson and Principal Vance stood face-to-face near the coffee machine. Their body language was tense, animated, and entirely stripped of the polished professionalism they wore in front of the students.
“Stop for a second,” Clara whispered urgently, pressing her back against the side of the metal pipe and signaling for Leo to freeze.
Leo inched forward until his head was level with hers, peering down through the plastic slats.
Down below, Principal Vance slammed a ceramic mug onto the counter, splashing dark coffee across the laminate surface.
“I told you to handle the boy quietly, Margaret!” Vance hissed, his face red with fury. “Cutting the camera feed in Room 304 was amateur hour. Now the board is asking why Sector Four went offline during third period. If they audit the hard drives, we’re all finished.”
Mrs. Henderson crossed her arms, her stern expression hardening into something genuinely ruthless.
“The boy is just a nuisance, Arthur,” Mrs. Henderson replied coldly. “He’s running on teenage melodrama. The real problem is Clara. She saw the grading logs on my desk yesterday. If she testifies at the disciplinary hearing on Friday, the state accreditation board will revoke our funding, and your little scholarship ring goes down with it.”
Vance pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling a long, shuddering sigh.
“Then we expedite the expulsion,” Vance said quietly, his voice dropping into a sinister calm. “We document a pattern of unprovoked aggression, plant the stolen exam keys in their lockers during fifth-period gym class, and let the police handle the rest.”
Above in the vent, Clara felt the blood drain entirely from her face. She looked at Leo, whose fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles had turned bone-white.
“They’re going to frame us,” Clara whispered, her voice cracking with terror.
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Before Leo could answer, a loud mechanical hum vibrated through the metal duct beneath them, followed by a sudden, blinding flash of red light pouring into the pipe from the far end.
The ventilation fan ahead of them suddenly whirred to life, its steel blades spinning up to a terrifying speed with a deafening roar.
