“There it is,” Grace says, stepping forward.
My eyes snap to the hidden door behind the cabinet, and it looks as old as the academy itself. The wood’s thick, dark, with carved out design all over. It’s very pretty, and seemingly barely used. There’s not a single scratch on the door, and even the handle itself is old.
Soren’s the one to push the door open, and we step into pure darkness. Avalon and Lila are right behind Grace and me, with Soren and Kenzo leading the group.
In the background, Elias and Aiden are complaining—rather loudly, might I add—that they’re the ones always being left out of everything exciting. I roll my eyes, just as Lila turns to tell them they can come inside, too.
The two are like kids on Christmas morning opening presents. Excitement is written all over them, and Aiden closes the door behind him, shoving his way through us all to be amongst the first people to enter the hidden room.
My hand taps the wall on one side, Grace doing the same on the other. She’s the one to find a light switch, and in an instant, I can finally see. I’m absolutely baffled, amazed, and shell-shocked at the sight in front of me.
The room is modern, with a big desk in the middle and six chairs in total. The desk’s located in the middle of the room, each chair neatly put under it so as not to take up too much space.
Then, there are two long tables, going from one wall to the other, with twelve damned computer screens. Yes, twelve. However, there’s only one massive one, with a proper chair, a keyboard, and a mouse. There’s a printer next to it.
“What the fuck,” Avalon breathes out. “This looks like a scene from some sort of crime movie.”
“If I see that these monitors are connected to all the security cameras, I’ll get very angry,” Lila mutters under her breath.
“But it’s squeaky clean,” Grace says with a frown. She drags her finger over the surface of each desk, monitor, and even glances around the high corners of the room. “No dust, no cobwebs, and I’m assuming, no fingerprints.”
“I’m surprised they’d go to such lengths,” Aiden says, then pulls a chair out. He sits down, lifting his feet.
“Well, I highly doubt this room is legal,” Elias says, then glances up, motioning his head to the security cameras in the room. There are four in total, in each corner. “Because who knows what’s stored on the computers.”
“We could always try to take apart this thing and take the parts to someone to break into it,” Elias suggests.
“Or, we could, and just hear me out for a moment,” Kenzo drawls out, and everyone’s attention is on him. He steps to the power case of the computer and gently presses the main button, “just do this instead.”
The computers slowly start turning on, and it’s almost too quiet. It takes about half a minute for every monitor to turn on, and dread fills me while we wait. Soren’s by my side, wrapping his arm around my waist.
Kenzo sits in the main chair, and we all gather around him, staring at the wide, big screen. He grabs the mouse, and I’m shocked the computer isn’t password-protected.
“Let’s see what we have here,” Kenzo murmurs, adjusting his glasses.
Lila’s guess is proven correct as soon as the other screens turn on. Each one is a different camera angle, from the common areas of the Academy, to the classrooms, and even a dorm or two. I highly doubt those are legal.
However, it’s the main screen that grabs my attention the most.
Kenzo opens a folder, and inside the folder are many more. They’re all categorized neatly, in alphabetical order. The moment Kenzo opens the folder labeled “F”, my breath hitches in my throat. It’s filled with another handful of folders, with Astrid’s and Soren’s right there — F, for Ford.
“Fuck,” Soren grits out. “Should we open all of them?”
“I say we delete everything and move along,” Avalon shrugs. Although it does seem like the most logical thing to do right now, it’s definitely going to end badly for us.
“They have copies,” Soren says. “They’d be fools not to. So, who knows what’s within these files?”
“I don’t think we’ll have enough time to go through all of them,” Aiden says, checking his wristwatch for the time. “There’s bound to be a couple of professors patrolling.”
Lila rolls her eyes. “Not right now, this is their break. That’swhy I suggested this time frame in the first place,” she sighs. “But this is insane. We just stumbled upon the main operations room of Sinners and Saints. What do we do?”
“I’m trying to find if there’s anything about Sinners and Saints specifically,” Kenzo says, opening the email tab. It’s the official email of the website, and it has a lot of new mail that’s been unopened. “But of course, they’re not keeping anything about themselves on hand.”
“The computer’s not password protected,” Grace drawls out. “So how come none of the members ever decided to snoop around? I know I would.”
Kenzo motions with his head toward the cameras in the corner, without even looking at her. “Probably because they’d get caught.”
Aiden takes his phone out and immediately starts taking pictures of the place. Lila and Grace end up being in a handful of shots, even going as far as to pose in a few of those. I roll my eyes, before turning my attention back to the screen.
