lost chapter
SHE SITS at her desk, her computer in front of her. She has an open notebook on her right, a pen sitting delicately on top of it.
She reaches for the glass of water to the left of her computer, taking a small sip.
Her shift started a little over an hour ago and she's been doing some minor tasks assigned by her supervisor. Now, though, she wants to do some research.
Her mouse hovers over the new tab option.
She's about to click when someone walks up to her desk from the side.
"Hey, Teagan."
She looks up and smiles at Seunghoon, who's giving her a large grin.
"Just got off, so I'm gonna head to the training room," Seunghoon tells her. "Are you doing alright?"
"Yeah," she answers quickly. "Just doing some work and stuff."
"Any research?"
Teagan nods. "I'm finishing up some things and then I'll be doing some research, yes."
"You'll let me know if you find anything?"
"Yes."
Seunghoon smiles. "Alright. Good luck."
Teagan gives Seunghoon a small smile and then he leaves, heading for the training room.
She takes a deep breath, opening a new tab.
She begins her work by researching any information regarding the Cobras, Malums, and Alliance. She writes every mention down in her notebook and completes other small tasks on the side.
A couple hours pass and she's finished with her assignments. Now, she's just researching.
But there's not much on the Cobras, Malums, and Alliance. So instead, she searches for labs.
She can't search for labs who are experimenting on humans directly. A lab wouldn't voluntarily give that information out on a website.
But she knows exactly what to look for.
Quickly, she gets caught up in her work, moving from site to site in search for answers. She's trying to find answers to questions that she did not even come up with herself.
But she knows Yoon is going to want answers soon. And she needs to be the one to give those answers to him. Because she also wants to know the answers.
Now that the questions were posed to her, she wants to figure out the answers.
There aren't too many labs in Kraephis. Most of them are used for simple things like creating medicines or vaccines, or more deeply discovering the biology of things.
But as Teagan gets lost in her research, she finds a lab that studies the biology of humans and the difference between humans and Nocturas.
Stanek Lab.
The lab isn't affiliated with the AAN, yet they do research on the biology of humans and Nocturas.
Teagan keeps the tab of Stanek Lab open and searches through some other things.
But she goes back to Stanek Lab, digging a little deeper with her research.
Of course, a lab wouldn't voluntarily advertise that they are experimenting on humans and turning them into Nocturas. The only way to figure out if this Stanek Lab is doing more than they should be doing is to go to the lab and download their encrypted files.
Luckily, Teagan knows how to do just that.
She glances at the clock as she gathers her things into her bag and sees that it's almost eight thirty. Her supervisor probably won't say anything if she leaves a little early. And even if he does, she'll just say she had an emergency.
She quickly leaves the building and heads through the streets until she gets to her apartment building. She goes up to her apartment, unlocks the door, and goes inside.
Immediately, she throws her things down and goes into her bedroom. She changes out of her work clothes into some jeans and an old long-sleeved shirt. She grabs earbuds and hangs them around her neck as she goes into the supply closet and begins rummaging through her things.
She takes out a spray bottle full of cleaning liquid and then puts some rubber gloves in her back pocket. She grabs a small flash drive and an old rag and stuffs those in with the rubber gloves.
After she has everything she thinks she'll need, she connects her earbuds into her phone and then puts the left earbud in, without any music playing. She quickly looks at the address of Stanek Lab and then pockets her phone as she heads out onto the street.
She moves through the familiar streets until she gets to a bus stop. Once she's there, she sits down on the bench and waits.
Seunghoon isn't going to be very happy when he finds out she went to this lab alone. He'll probably tell Teagan she's crazy for going alone and not telling him. He'll probably be upset, but only because "he wants to keep her safe" or something.
Teagan can't help but smile a little bit at the thought.
But then the bus rolls up to the stop and she remembers what she's about to go do.
Along with her spray bottle, she boards the bus and sits down somewhat close to the front. The bus starts moving and Teagan takes her phone out, checking the address again of Stanek Lab.
It's right on the border of the fifth and sixth sectors, a few dozen miles down from the fourth sector.
Teagan is really going out of her way to get this information, so she better make this trip worth it.
She can't go to Yoon empty handed.
She needs to find answers.
The bus rumbles to her stop and Teagan quickly gets out and starts moving down the streets toward Stanek Lab.
She really hopes her plan works.
Once she reaches the lab, she sees there is a gate around the lab itself.
She takes a deep breath and moves toward the front gate, where a man sits in a small booth.
"Hello?" She says politely, with a slight smile.
The man looks up from his phone, a glare settling on his face. "Who are you?"
Teagan smiles a little brighter. "I'm here for the cleaning."
"Cleaning?" The man raises his eyebrows. "At this time of night?"
"Hmm?" Teagan gives a confused look. "This is the time they told me to come in. Is it the wrong schedule?"
The man sighs. "No, no, it's fine. Just go inside and ask Marie where you should go."
Teagan nods and gives another polite smile as the man opens the gate for her to get through.
She quickly moves toward the front doors of the building, opening them cautiously and stepping inside.
The walls are a creme color and the tile on the floor is a brown color. It doesn't seem much like a lab, more like an office building or something.
There's a woman sitting at a front desk who looks up as soon as Teagan walks inside.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes, I am here for a cleaning shift," Teagan responds.
The woman gives her a confused look. "Cleaning shift? Are you sure? It's kind of late."
Teagan sighs. "Did they give me the wrong time? I'm sorry, this happened once before."
"It's fine," the woman says with a slight smile. "We need cleaning done anyway, so it's fine that you're here. The bathrooms are just down this hall on the right, you can start there. And then you can empty the trash bins and that should be all."
"Okay, thank you!" Teagan says with a smile, heading off in the direction of the bathrooms.
She moves down the hallway, passing the bathrooms on her right.
She continues down the hall until she sees an elevator lobby on the left.
She presses the button for up.
The elevator on the right lights up and the doors open. Teagan quickly steps inside and her eyes scan over the different levels.
Which level would they keep computers?
There are only three levels, but there is a button for a sublevel.
She tries the sublevel but it requires a badge for identification. Instead, she presses the button for the third level and starts going up.
Once the elevator doors open, she steps out into the carpeted hall and sees multiple doors on either side of the hallway.
It looks like offices.
Bingo.
She goes into one office that looks dark and empty.
Wasting no time, she moves over to the computer and powers it on.
Her desk work comes in handy as she's able to get logged into the computer and pull up all the encrypted files on Stanek Lab. It takes longer than she'd like and she's starting to break a sweat, but she finally gets in.
She works quickly, plugging in the flash drive and beginning to download all the files from the computer.
Her fingers tap anxiously against the desk as the files download onto the flash drive.
The second the files are done downloading, she closes everything out and stashes the flash drive in her back pocket.
Before she's about to leave, she spots something lying on the desk.
A badge.
She grabs the badge and goes back into the elevators. She takes a deep breath before pressing the button for the sublevel.
When it prompts her to scan her badge, she holds the badge out that she took from the desk. The elevator begins moving downward.
When the doors open, she sees that there is no longer a doctor office feel to the hallways in front of her. These walls are blank white and there is white tile under her feet.
She moves down the hallway, passing multiple doors.
It isn't quiet down here. It sounds like an air conditioning unit is on and there are other simple machinery noises.
This place seems to have an endless amount of space. Teagan tries to keep track of all her steps, remembering where the elevators are, hoping she won't get lost in here.
Suddenly, a loud shriek pierces the air.
Teagan can feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up slightly at the sound of the blood-curdling shriek. She stops dead in her tracks and then slowly turns around, looking down the hall where she heard the scream come from.
Before she can take a step forward, she hears the sound of a door opening behind her.
She whips around and her eyes land on those of a man in a white lab coat.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asks, narrowing his eyes. "How did you get access down here?"
Teagan gives up her act of cleaning and immediately spins on her heel, sprinting toward the elevators.
"Hey! Get back here!"
She frantically presses the button for up. The elevator doors open and she steps inside, hitting the button for level one a dozen times.
"Come on!" She pleads.
The doors finally shut as the man in the white lab coat comes into view.
The elevator goes up and Teagan takes a deep breath.
Her plan for coming in and getting the intel was good, but she didn't really think about getting out of here.
She reaches the first level and calmly heads toward the front, moving directly to the front doors.
"I'm sorry, an emergency came up," Teagan says to the lady at the front desk.
The phone begins to ring, but before the lady can answer, Teagan immediately moves through the front doors, jogging toward the gate.
The man in the booth opens the gate for her and she quickly moves by.
"Hey," the man starts. "Did you already finish?"
The sound of a walkie-talkie in the booth comes on, then Teagan hears muffled words. She can make out just enough of it to know that someone is telling the man not to let her leave.
She immediately breaks into a sprint before the man can even comprehend what is going on.
Teagan weaves her way through the streets, getting far away from Stanek Lab before she can duck into an alley and catch her breath.
It doesn't seem like anyone is following or trying to come after her, so she thinks she should be safe.
That wasn't the best plan, but at least she got the information.
She walks to the closest bus stop and sits down on the bench. Her breathing is more even now, and her heart rate is slowly decreasing.
Now, she has to go home and see exactly what is on this flash drive.
But even without looking at the files on there, she has a feeling that she found exactly what Yoon is looking for.
And now she'll have the answers he wants.