The Secret in the Computer
Jax's words felt heavy and cold. They can see
what I'm seeing. That thought made me really
scared. My safe place, where I tried to figure
out their secrets, wasn't safe anymore. I was
open, easy to hurt.
I looked quickly from the blinking thing in
Jax's hand to my computer screens. The lines
of code now looked like bright lights showing
everything. Every strange thing I found, every
secret file I tried to open, they could see it. I
felt sick to my stomach. I was so busy trying
to understand how they controlled us, I didn't
think they could watch me while I did it.
"How… how can they do that?" I asked, my
voice quiet. My hands shook, and I moved
away from the computer like it could grab me.
Jax's face was serious. He held the blinking
thing still. "I don't know exactly. This… this is
something new. Something I… got." He waited
a second, looking a little sad, like he had a
story he didn't want to tell. "But it finds weird
energy coming from the werewolf chips. And
yours… yours is really strong."
My mind went fast. Weird energy. The warm
feeling, the little pulses… it wasn't just
something wrong. It was them doing
something.
"What else can it see?" I asked, my voice tight
with fear.
Jax shook his head. "I don't know everything it
can do. It's new. But the fact that it's reacting
so much to your chip, especially now that your
computer is showing… this…" He pointed to
my screens, his eyes worried and scared.
I suddenly understood something scary. The
chip was working harder, getting warmer… it
wasn't just them watching. It was them
reacting to what I was doing. They knew I was
looking for secrets.
"We need to stop it," I said quickly, taking
another step towards the computer. "Turn off
the chip. There has to be a way."
Jax shook his head again. "I don't think it's
that easy, Elara. These chips… they're part of
your body. Messing with them could… kill
you."
Kill me. The word stayed in the air, reminding
me how careful we had to be. We were
trapped in our own bodies, connected to their
technology.
I felt angry and scared. I was trapped, easy to
see. My computer place was now a place
where they watched me. The one thing I had
to fight back was now helping them.
"So what do we do?" I asked, sounding
desperate.
Jax put down the blinking thing and looked at
me, his face serious but calm. "We have to be
careful. They know you're looking. We can't let
them know what you've found."
"But they do know I'm looking!" I said loudly,
pointing at my computer. "This… this thing you
have proves it!"
"They might know you're looking at the
information," Jax said. "But they don't know
what you've read. Not yet. We need to keep it
that way."
He moved closer to my computer, looking at
the lines of code. "Show me everything you've
found. Everything that shows they're trying
to… control you."
For the next hour, we worked fast and quietly. I
showed Jax the little pieces of the puzzle I
had found. The "Make Them Angry Now," the
"Make Them Obey," the countdown to the full
moon. As I told him what it could mean, his
face got pale.
"This is… this is terrible," he whispered,
sounding like he couldn't believe it and getting
angry. "They're not just watching you. They're
planning to use what you are as a weapon."
The fear in his voice made me trust him more.
He wasn't just a police officer anymore. He
was someone who understood how bad this
was.
"The full moon…" he said, his eyes suddenly
wide. "That's when werewolves are weakest. If
they turn this… this control on then…"
"We'll be like dolls," I finished, the words
tasting bad in my mouth. "They can make us
do anything."
The countdown on my screen felt like it was
ticking loudly in the quiet room, every second
bringing us closer to something scary.
"We need to tell others," I said quickly. "Tiber…
Maya… everyone. They need to know what's
coming."
Jax shook his head. "Not yet. If they know we
know, they might do things faster. Or worse…
they might try to stop us." He looked at my
ankle again, reminding me that we were
always being watched.
"But we can't just sit here and wait!" I said,
feeling scared and angry.
"We need a plan, Elara," Jax said, his voice
steady but calm. "A way to show everyone
what they're doing without getting everyone
hurt right away. And we need more
information. We need to know everything
about their control, how they're going to turn it
on, and how we can stop it."
He looked at my computer screens, thinking
hard. "You said you found a secret place in
the information. Is there anything else there?
Anything that could give us more answers?"
I waited. There was one file I couldn't fully
read, one that was much more secret than the
others. It felt like a locked box I couldn't open.
But now, with the time running out and things
being so dangerous, I knew I had to try again.
"There was one file," I said slowly. "The secret
code was… really hard. I only saw a few
words."
"Can you try again?" Jax asked, his eyes
looking like he needed to know. "Anything
could help."
For the next hour, we worked together, the
unlikely team close to my computer. Jax, with
his police knowledge, helped me find
important words and rules. I, feeling like I had
to succeed, tried every way I knew to open the
stubborn file.
The air in the small apartment felt tight, the
only sound my fast typing and the quiet hum
of the computer. The blinking light on Jax's
thing stayed on, making me feel uneasy.
Finally, after a long time, a small part of the
file opened. Lines of code showed on the
screen, making more sense this time,
showing how things would turn on, and… a list
of computer addresses.
"What are these?" Jax asked, pointing to the
strange numbers.
I looked at them quickly, feeling scared. "They
look like computer addresses. Government
computers."
"Could they be the main places for this…
control system?" Jax asked.
That was a scary thought. If we could get into
those computers…
Suddenly, the blinking light on Jax's thing
started flashing really fast, and a quiet, high
sound started. Jax's eyes got big with worry.
"They know," he whispered, grabbing my arm.
"They know we're looking at their computers."
Before I could say anything, my computer
screen went black. The sudden quiet was
loud.
In the dark screen, I could see our worried
faces. Then, someone started banging loudly
on my apartment door. It wasn't a normal
knock. It was hard and demanding. And
through the thin door, I heard a voice, cold and
bossy, that made me feel really cold and
scared: "Police! Open up!"