The rain had stopped, but the sky still looked wounded, a bruise that refused to fade.
Clara stared out the window, following the slow trail of raindrops like exhausted tears that no longer knew how to fall.
Adrian sat beside her, rolling the small key between his fingers, the same key that had opened the bunker and all the ghosts hidden inside it.
Luca drove in silence. The rhythmic sweep of the wipers filled the car, marking time like a metronome of tension.
No one spoke, until Clara finally whispered:
"Aurora is alive. But I still don't know where she is."
Adrian turned toward her.
"Maybe we can find out. If the connection is still open, even a fragment…"
He didn't finish. Clara's hands trembled slightly, and as she focused, her pupils widened. She looked dazed, as if listening to something none of them could hear.
"A rusty gate… a broken sign… an old tree bent by the wind…" she murmured.
Luca's eyes flicked up from the rearview mirror.
"You're seeing something?"
She nodded slowly.
"I think… Aurora is trying to show it to us."
Adrian grabbed his notepad and jotted everything down with the precise instinct of a criminologist.
"A gate, a sign, an old tree. It has to be somewhere remote, maybe near an industrial area, or an abandoned complex."
Clara tried to steady her breathing, fighting through the flashes of images crowding her mind.
"There's a sound too… like a siren. Slow, far away."
"She's reaching out," Adrian said softly. "We'll find her."
And then, the phone rang.
A sharp, sterile sound that sliced through the quiet like a blade.
Luca looked down. An unknown number. Just digits. He hesitated, then answered.
"Ferretti speaking."
A deep male voice echoed through the speaker, cold and metallic.
"Chief Inspector Luca Ferretti. This is the National Department of Security Affairs."
Luca immediately motioned for Adrian and Clara to stay silent. Then he turned on speaker mode.
The voice continued, detached and official:
"We are aware that you are currently with Adrian Moreau and Dr. Clara Voss. Former Director Rinaldi committed serious violations, but he did not act alone. Project Mnemosyne was part of a classified government initiative, and now it's been compromised."
Adrian froze. Clara's breath caught.
"A government program?" Luca asked, keeping his voice neutral.
"You cannot discuss this over the phone," the voice replied. "You are instructed to report to a secure location within 24 hours. Coordinates will be sent shortly. If you cooperate, you will be protected. If you don't… you will be classified as a national threat."
Click. The line went dead.
For a long moment, the only sound in the car was the rain. Then Adrian whispered:
"That wasn't a request. That was a warning."
Luca placed the phone on the dashboard, his jaw tight.
"They've traced us. They're already watching."
Clara's voice trembled, but her words were sharp: "Rinaldi wasn't the real puppet master. He was just a pawn. And we… we're what they were building."
Adrian's stare darkened.
"They want us, our minds. They want to understand what we are, how we connect. They want to weaponize it."
Luca's knuckles whitened on the wheel.
"If this is truly government-level… they have endless resources. They can find us anywhere."
Clara pressed a hand to her chest, trying to calm her racing pulse.
"I don't care what they want. I just want my daughter back. They can't have taken her too."
Adrian caught her hand, interlacing their fingers tightly.
"Then we find them first. We find her, and we end this."
Luca exhaled, then turned the key in the ignition.
"Fine. But from now on, we move like ghosts. No phones, no signals, no traces. Just instinct."
As the car rolled forward, Clara closed her eyes. For a heartbeat, she saw it again:
A white building. A faded sign. A little girl sitting on the floor, drawing a sun with a red pencil.
Her eyes flew open.
"Adrian… I think I've seen the Sanctuary."
He looked at her, stunned.
"Where?"
"I don't know… but it's real. I can feel it."
Just then, a black car appeared beside them, sliding up fast on the wet road.
No license plate. Dark windows.
"Shit," Luca hissed, tightening his grip.
Adrian turned to Clara.
"Hold on."
The roar of engines filled the air.
Somewhere behind them, another car joined in. And above the rising noise, Clara whispered, almost too quietly to hear:
"They've found us."