Chapter 24 - The Mastermind

The next morning, the Observatory was unusually quiet.

The documents from the hidden laboratory were still spread across the main table. Mr.Hugo had spent most of the night going through them, while Trista had been comparing the deployment records with the locations marked by the Ghost Detector.

Flo had barely slept.

She was sitting beside the table, staring at one of the reports with tired eyes.

“They're actually doing this,” she murmured. “They're taking Lost Beings, making them scared and angry and then sending them somewhere.”

Mr.Hugo nodded. “That much is clear.”

“But who is giving them the orders?”

“That,” Trista said, looking up from her notes, “we don't know.”

A knock came from the entrance.

Everyone turned.

Amelia walked in, looking slightly confused by the strange atmosphere.

“Why does everyone look like they haven't slept?”

Flo immediately stood up.

“Amelia.”

Amelia blinked. “Yes?”

“We found something.”

That was how Amelia learned everything.

The hidden laboratory.

The Lost Being they had seen trapped inside.

The emotional amplification.

The deployment records.

The mountain incident.

The fact that someone had been deliberately turning Lost Beings into weapons.

Amelia listened without interrupting, her expression becoming more serious with every sentence.

“So you're telling me someone is doing all of this on purpose?”

Flo nodded.

“And you still don't know who?”

Another nod.

Amelia looked at the documents scattered across the table. She picked one up and read through it carefully.

For a few seconds, she said nothing.

Then she placed it back down.

“I'm helping.”

Flo's eyes widened.

“You are?”

“Obviously.”

Amelia crossed her arms. “You found people secretly weaponising Lost Beings and thought I was going to sit at home?”

Flo's eyes immediately became watery.

Amelia pointed at her.

“Don't.”

“I didn't even do anything!”

“You're about to cry.”

“I am emotionally moved!”

“You're always emotionally moved.”

Flo sniffed.

Amelia sighed.

“Fine. You're allowed one.”

“One what?”

“One cry.”

Flo immediately hugged her.

Amelia's arms went up in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“Thank you!”

“Flo!”

“You're officially part of the GPS now!”

“The what?”

“The Ghost Protection Squad.”

Amelia looked at the others.

Trista gave a small nod.

Raphael shrugged.

Mr.Hugo sighed.

Amelia slowly smiled.

“Fine.”

She looked back at the documents.

“Let's solve this.”

By evening, they had a plan.

They had already found the laboratory.

They already knew what was being done to the Lost Beings.

They already knew the process behind the emotional amplification and the locations where the creatures were being deployed.

What they didn't know was who was behind it.

Someone had to be organising everything.

Someone had to be providing the researchers with resources, information and access to ability users.

And someone had to be making sure nobody stopped them.

“We need to find whoever is giving the orders,” Mr.Hugo said.

The five of them sat around the main table.

Hugo, Flo, Amelia, Raphael and Trista were going into the city tonight.

The plan was simple.

They would sneak into the place where they believed the operation was being controlled, find evidence and get out before anyone noticed.

“We don't know exactly where the person behind this is,” Trista said.

“We don't need to,” Flo replied.

She tapped the map.

“We know where the Ability Authority headquarters are.”

Amelia looked at her.

“You think they're connected?”

“We don't know yet.”

Flo looked at the documents again.

“But whoever is doing this needs resources. They need ability users. They need records. They need places to keep people hidden.”

Raphael nodded slowly.

“And the Authority has all of those things.”

Mr.Hugo looked at the map for a long moment.

“Then we investigate.”

Trista folded the map.

“Tonight.”

[Night]

The Ability Authority headquarters looked completely different after midnight.

During the day, the enormous building was full of people. Ability users moved through its halls, officials carried documents between departments and researchers came and went constantly.

At night, it was almost silent.

The five of them moved through the shadows carefully.

Trista led the way.

Flo followed closely behind her. She raised her right hand, placing her index and middle fingers near the corner of her eye.

“[-ObserVation-]”

The familiar teal geometric crest appeared over her eye.

The world shifted.

Magical traces became visible along the walls, faint signatures revealing the presence of hidden sensors and security mechanisms.

“There,” Flo whispered, pointing toward a section of the corridor.

Trista nodded.

They avoided the sensor and continued forward.

Eventually, they reached a restricted corridor.

Trista crouched beside a locked door.

“Magical seal.”

Flo leaned closer.

“I can see the mechanism.”

“Can you open it?”

“No.”

Trista looked at her.

“But I can tell you where it is.”

“That works.”

A few seconds later, the lock clicked.

The door opened.

They slipped inside.

The corridor beyond was far more luxurious than the rest of the building. The walls were decorated with old portraits and official records. The further they went, the fewer ordinary offices they saw.

Eventually, they reached a large wooden door.

There was no department name.

Only the golden emblem of the Ability Authority.

Trista looked at the others.

“This looks important.”

Mr.Hugo nodded.

Flo slowly pushed the door open.

The room beyond was enormous.

A large desk stood near the centre. Bookshelves filled the walls. Official documents were arranged neatly across several cabinets.

It looked like the office of someone very important.

Someone who had access to almost everything.

Flo stepped inside.

Then she stopped.

Her eyes widened.

“Wait.”

Everyone looked at her.

She pointed toward a framed photograph on the wall.

There were several high-ranking Authority officials standing together.

And among them was a familiar face.

Mr.Wilkin.

Amelia's eyes widened.

“That's Cae's uncle.”

Mr.Hugo walked closer to the photograph.

His expression changed.

“This is the Chief's office.”

Flo looked around the room again.

“No.”

Her voice was barely audible.

“This is his office.”

Nobody moved.

The thought that had seemed impossible only hours ago suddenly became very real.

Mr.Wilkin was the Chief of the Ability Authority.

And they were standing inside his private office.

Trista immediately began searching the desk.

“There's something here.”

She pulled out a thick folder.

The cover read:

ABILITY AUTHORITY — FIELD OPERATIONS

Flo moved beside her.

They opened it.

The first few pages were ordinary Authority documents.

Field reports.

Ability user assignments.

Containment procedures.

Then Trista turned another page.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Flo.”

Flo leaned closer.

There was a list of deployment locations.

The same locations they had found in the hidden laboratory.

The mountain.

The shop.

The warehouse.

Several other places they had never even investigated.

Flo's stomach dropped.

“Those are their records.”

Mr.Hugo took the document and compared the dates.

“They match.”

Raphael looked at the pages.

“So the laboratory wasn't operating independently.”

Trista shook her head.

“Someone was receiving information from the Authority.”

Flo kept turning the pages.

Then she found another section.

Her fingers stopped.

At the bottom of the report was a signature.

Mr.Wilkin.

She stared at it.

Then looked at another document.

The same signature.

Another.

Again.

And again.

Amelia stepped closer.

“He signed all of these?”

Mr.Hugo looked through the papers carefully.

“Not just these.”

He picked up another file.

“These contain instructions.”

Flo read the notes beneath the signature.

They weren't simple approvals.

They specified where the Lost Beings were to be deployed, which areas were to be monitored and which incidents required continued observation.

Her face went pale.

“He was ordering them.”

The room became silent.

Mr.Wilkin wasn't simply aware of the operation.

He was giving them instructions.

He was behind it.

The Chief of the Ability Authority was the person controlling the weaponisation of the Lost Beings.

Flo's breathing became shallow.

“Cae doesn't know.”

Amelia immediately looked at her.

“How do you know?”

Flo looked down at the documents.

“Because if he knew his uncle was doing this...” She swallowed. “He wouldn't act like he does.”

Amelia didn't answer.

She knew Flo was right.

They continued searching.

Then Flo found another file.

Her expression changed.

“The mountain incident.”

The report described the disturbance that had happened near the Observatory.

Flo read through it quickly.

Then she found a smaller note attached to the report.

“A stray cat had frequently wandered around the area surrounding the Observatory. The mountain incident had happened close to the Observatory and the cat had wandered into the affected region that day.”

Flo's eyes widened.

“Pufft.”

Amelia looked over.

“She was there because she always wanders around here.”

Flo nodded.

“She wasn't chosen because she was important.”

Her voice became quieter.

“She was just there when it happened.”

Amelia's expression hardened.

Flo looked down at the report for another moment before putting it aside.

Then she found another file.

This one concerned one of the Lost Beings.

There was a name attached to the original human identity.

A researcher.

A solitary researcher who had apparently been conducting secret work against the Authority.

Flo read the report carefully.

“He was investigating them.”

Mr.Hugo nodded.

“And they found him.”

The researcher had eventually become one of the Lost Beings they were now tracking.

The file contained several notes about his physical body.

Flo looked confused.

“Wait.”

Raphael stepped closer.

“What?”

“This says the body was still alive.”

Raphael took the document from her.

His expression changed.

“Something was keeping it alive.”

He looked further down the page.

“DawnHeal.”

Flo's eyes widened.

Then she saw the name written beneath the retrieval record.

Her breathing stopped.

“Caecilius.”