00:19:42
00:19:41
00:19:40
No one spoke.
The only sounds inside the hidden operations room were the soft hum of servers and the ticking countdown displayed across every monitor.
Grace felt her pulse pounding in her ears.
“This isn’t a bluff.”
Samuel never looked away from the screens.
“No.”
“It isn’t.”
Victor stepped closer to the main console.
“Can you locate whoever is controlling the system?”
Samuel’s fingers flew across the keyboard.
Lines of code streamed across multiple monitors.
The room filled with rapid keystrokes.
Finally…
A blinking map appeared.
One signal.
Very close.
Daniel frowned.
“They’re not somewhere overseas.”
“They’re here.”
Samuel enlarged the map.
The signal originated less than three hundred feet away.
Inside the church grounds.
Grace looked toward the ceiling.
“They’re still above us.”
Samuel slowly nodded.
“They never left.”
Above Ground
The construction workers continued moving through the churchyard.
Some unloaded concrete barriers.
Others rolled heavy equipment toward the foundation.
Everything appeared routine.
Organized.
Professional.
Yet something felt wrong.
None of them spoke to each other.
No casual conversation.
No laughter.
No shouted instructions.
They worked with unsettling precision.
Almost like a rehearsed performance.
One worker quietly placed another black case beside the church wall.
He checked his watch.
Pressed a button.
A tiny green light appeared.
Then he simply walked away.
Farther across the yard, another worker repeated the same process.
Daniel’s voice became tight.
“Those aren’t demolition charges.”
Victor narrowed his eyes.
“They’re synchronized.”
Grace looked confused.
“What difference does it make?”
Samuel answered quietly.
“If they wanted to demolish the church…”
“…they wouldn’t need military-grade timing equipment.”
Everyone fell silent.
Someone wasn’t trying to tear down an abandoned building.
Someone was trying to erase evidence.
Completely.
Harold slowly walked toward one of the oldest filing cabinets.
He unlocked the bottom drawer with a brass key hanging around his neck.
Inside rested several waterproof document tubes.
He removed three.
Then turned toward Grace.
“If everything else is lost…”
“…these must survive.”
She accepted them carefully.
“What are they?”
“The original witness statements.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“There were witnesses besides you?”
Harold nodded.
“Seven.”
“What happened to them?”
Harold’s expression darkened.
“One disappeared.”
“Two changed their names.”
“One left the country.”
“One refused ever to speak again.”
Daniel hesitated.
“And the others?”
Harold looked down.
“They died before anyone believed them.”
Silence settled over the room.
Grace held the document tubes more tightly.
“So these are…”
“Their voices.”
A loud alarm suddenly echoed through the hidden office.
Samuel spun around.
Another warning flashed across every monitor.
SERVER ROOM BREACH
Victor frowned.
“Someone’s inside?”
Samuel opened the security cameras.
The first feed showed an empty hallway.
The second…
An abandoned storage room.
The third…
The hidden tunnel leading toward the archive.
Grace leaned closer.
“I don’t see anyone.”
Samuel enlarged the image.
Nothing.
Then—
A faint movement.
Near the ceiling.
A tiny mechanical device.
No larger than a hand.
Rolling silently along a steel track.
Daniel blinked.
“What is that?”
Victor recognized it immediately.
“A reconnaissance drone.”
Everyone watched as the small machine glided through the tunnel.
Its camera slowly scanned each room.
Each shelf.
Each doorway.
Then it turned directly toward the hidden office.
Its tiny red lens focused on them.
Grace whispered,
“It’s watching us.”
Samuel immediately reached for the keyboard.
Before he could disable the feed…
Every monitor suddenly displayed the drone’s live camera.
They were now watching themselves.
Standing inside the room.
The countdown continued.
00:16:11
The office telephone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
No one moved.
It rang again.
Samuel stared at it.
“It hasn’t worked in years.”
The ringing stopped.
Silence.
Then…
It rang again.
Harold slowly picked up the receiver.
“Hello?”
A familiar voice answered.
“Good evening, Harold.”
Harold’s face hardened.
“You.”
The voice chuckled softly.
“I was wondering when you’d answer.”
Grace couldn’t hear the caller.
Only Harold’s side of the conversation.
“What do you want?”
“I’ve wanted the same thing for thirty years.”
“You already have enough.”
“Not quite.”
Harold’s grip tightened.
“You’ll never get it.”
The caller laughed.
“I already did.”
Harold froze.
“What?”
“I don’t need the archive.”
“I copied it.”
The room fell completely silent.
Harold slowly lowered the receiver from his ear.
Daniel looked at him.
“What happened?”
Harold spoke almost in a whisper.
“He says…”
“…he already has everything.”
Samuel immediately shook his head.
“Impossible.”
Harold replaced the receiver.
“It gets worse.”
Everyone waited.
“He said…”
“…he copied the archive twenty years ago.”
Victor’s expression changed instantly.
“No.”
Harold nodded.
“That means all these years…”
“…we’ve only been protecting one copy.”
Grace looked around the room.
Thousands of files.
Thousands of stories.
Decades of sacrifice.
“And another copy has been out there this entire time?”
Samuel slowly leaned back in his chair.
“If that’s true…”
“…then we’ve been fighting the wrong battle.”
The countdown continued.
00:14:53
Outside…
The first rays of dawn began to appear over the distant hills.
The old church stood silently against the brightening sky.
For decades, it had guarded secrets beneath its foundations.
Now, time itself had become their greatest enemy.
And somewhere beyond the churchyard…
Someone who already possessed the archive was waiting to see whether they would save the evidence…
Or save each other.
End of Chapter 18
