Finn Lennoy - September 2120
On the drive back home I keep glancing at Noah. He's been quiet ever since we left Kai behind. At first I assume he's withdrawn into his head again, but then I notice the notebook. I'm still not sure where he pulled it from. He's already scribbling as though the world might fall apart if he stops.
Every so often he pauses, tapping the pen against his lips, eyes unfocused, thinking faster than he can write.
"What are you thinking?" I finally ask as the city lights start to creep up on us.
"Our next move," he says, barely looking my way. "We'll need multiple plans, each with a clearly defined objectives."
He turns the page and keeps going.
"First, we secure the enhancer Dr Williams referenced. Second, we trace the counterfeit network. Third, we move the nullifier into its next phase. And fourth... we dismantle GeneX"
I let out a quiet breath. "So… not much, then."
"We anticipated difficulty" he replies. "But with additional manpower, the work should proceed more efficiently."
His head dips. His eyes keep closing, then snapping open again. He's fighting it.
"You should nap," I say softly. "Today's been… a lot."
For a heartbeat I expect the argument, the stubborn insistence that he's fine. Instead, he leans his head against the window. He keeps writing a few more lines, slower now, the pen dragging. Then it slips from his fingers.
He's asleep within seconds.
A small smile tugs at me before I can stop it. His hair falls across his eyes. My hand moves on instinct to brush it away, but I hesitate and return it to the steering wheel.
We finally reach home. I park the car in the garage, then gently shake his shoulder.
"We're home."
His head jerks upright. He rubs at his eyes, confused. I laugh under my breath.
"You fell asleep."
He squints at me, and my heart trips over itself at how tired, and how soft, he looks. But I push that feeling aside.
"Come on. Bed for both of us," I say, getting out and circling around to open his door.
He nearly tumbles into my arms when I do but I steady him as he clings to the notebook like it's oxygen.
"I'm just... going to the lab for a bit," he murmurs, voice small and frayed.
"No, you're not," I say, guiding him inside. "You're going straight to bed."
"But I need to plan-"
"Tomorrow," I answer, firmer. "Sleep first."
He tries to argue, but exhaustion wins more easily than logic ever could. We're halfway up the stairs when the front gate bell rings.
Noah lifts his head, eyes sharper now with worry. "Who would come this late?"
I release him and head for the door, my hand drifting near my gun. No one should be here. Not now.
Whoever it is, I need to ensure Noah is kept safe.
I press the intercom and the camera feed lights up. I freeze.
"What is it?" Noah calls.
"It's… it's your dad."
His face falls. "Do you think he knows I have been in contact with Kai?"
The bell rings again and I shake my head. "I don't know. But he can't see us dressed like we just left the summit. He'll get suspicious."
Noah nods and bolts upstairs. I rush to my room, stripping off clothes as quickly as I can. I throw on my joggers and grab my T-shirt as the bell keeps buzzing.
I run out of my room and glance into Noah's. He's trying to tug his trousers off in a hurry, but his foot catches and he stumbles, hitting the floor. I move to help him, then the bell buzzes again, sharp and insistent.
"Just go, he'll get suspicious if we keep him waiting," Noah says, urgency cutting through his tiredness.
I pull my shirt over my head and head downstairs, forcing my breathing steady as I unlock the door.
"Dr Langford?" I say, as if he's woken me. "What brings you here so late?"
"I must speak to Noah. Immediately," he snaps.
My stomach tightens. If he's here at this hour, something's wrong or he suspects something he shouldn't.
Anger stirs within me as I look at his face. He has caused so much damage to the twins. And pretending his own son is dead, that goes beyond cruelty.
I hear footsteps approach from behind me. Noah joins me at the doorway, and just having him beside me takes the edge off the anger. Not all of it, but enough.
"Father why are you here?" Noah asks, "If this is about the Nullifier, it can wait until tomorrow."
***
Once Dr Langford finishes warning Noah not to leave the house and not to speak to anyone, he turns and walks away.
When the door shuts behind him, Noah sinks down onto the bottom step. He drags his hands through his hair in frustration, then leans back against the wall with a long sigh.
"He always has to make difficult" he mutters.
I wait until I've checked the gate and made sure it's locked before I turn back to him. It was only a short conversation, but he already looks more exhausted than before.
"What do we do now?" I ask quietly. "He clearly knows Kai turned up at GeneX"
He can't seriously still be thinking about slipping out to see Kai again so soon, not with his dad now watching him closely.
But the faint smile that curves across Noah's face tells me everything.
He's already planning something.
__________________________
"So…" I pause, taking in the shadows around us. "Why are we in this hole again?"
It's the next day. After watching Noah tear through his drawers in search of one of his notebooks, he headed straight to the back of the garden, slipped behind the lab... and now we're here.
Back in his bunker.
I haven't been down here since the day I found him in the middle of an episode and he believe someone would be after us and needed an escapre route. The memory sits heavy in my chest.
The underground storage space looks different. A wider tunnel branches off where there used to be a blank wall. He's been expanding it, quietly, secretly and somehow I never noticed.
Of course I didn't. He hides whole worlds behind locked doors and tired smiles.
Sometimes I wonder if Noah has more hours in the day than everyone else. Then I remember, he just never lets himself stop.
He flips open the notebook he was searching for earlier and studies a page, eyes darting. A moment later, he starts scribbling directly onto one of the concrete walls, lines connecting to other lines, arrows, measurements.
I move closer, slowly. Watching. Checking for signs, the tension in his jaw, the unfocused stare, that too-fast energy that usually means he's slipping. But when I see his face properly, he looks… steady. Just Noah being Noah, unable to sit still because his brain is always racing ten steps ahead.
He stops writing and glances back at me.
"I'm finishing my escape hatch," he says, calm as anything like it's obvious.
I narrow my eyes. A part of me wonders if he's simply getting better at hiding the warning signs.
He rolls his eyes and turns back to the wall. "I'm fine, Finn."
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to," he mutters. "It's written all over your face."
He's not wrong.
"Then why a tunnel, again?" I ask.
He finishes one last line, sets the pen down, and steps back. A small, satisfied smile forms as he studies the wall.
The surface is covered, grids, measurements, structural notes, angles calculated to the millimetre. It seems to be a construction plan.
When Noah smiles like that, it's because a problem has finally given him an answer.
"My father is clearly worried about Kai seeking me out and will monitor everything I do," he says calmly. "So, if the front exit isn't an option without drawing attention…" He taps the wall with his knuckle. "Then we construct our own way out."
I stare at the plans.
Of course he's already thought ahead. Of course he won't sit still and let himself be trapped.
And of course, because it's Noah, the only way out is a tunnel he's quietly been digging for months.
I rub my eyes in frustration "When have you even had the chance to continue building this?" I guester towards the tunnel that is taking form.
He looks at wear I pointed before turning towards me with an almost slightly guilty. "Well, it helped clear my mind when I couldn't sleep."
I sigh as I feel more frustrated. "Noah, when someone can't sleep they don't sneak out in the garden in the middle of the night and build a tunnel"
"I stopped building a tunnel a while back" he says "this was just to help provide additional space for storage for future projects".
He says is like it makes complete sense and that it's perfectly normal to do.
"But now" He walks towards the newly built area and opens his arms "using the note I scribbed during my episode that time, we can actually complete this tunnel".
"Don't you think building a tunnel is a bit…" I hesitate, searching for the right word. "Extreme?"
He gives a small nod, like he agrees with me, but the look in his eyes tells a different story. He's already decided. Once Noah locks onto a solution, nothing pulls him away from it.
"It may seem extreme," he says evenly, "but sometimes extreme measures are required to reduce potential risk."
I watch him as he speaks. He sees composed. His voice is calm and his posture seems controlled, but the subtle shift with his hands suggest he's worried.
Is he still afraid his father will come after us?
"And," he adds, a faint smile tugging at his mouth, "we'll need a way to transfer materials in and out of the lab without being detected if we're going to help Kai and his friends."
That part makes sense. Logically, at least.
To Noah, this tunnel is practical. Necessary for his work. He's wrapped it in reasons that sound airtight, moving supplies, avoiding surveillance, slipping past his father's watchful eye.
But I know better.
This tunnel started long before any of that. It started as a way out, a guarantee that if everything fell apart, we wouldn't be trapped.
This isn't just about logistics.
It's about control. About safety. About making sure there's always an escape route.
And standing here, watching him plan it so carefully, I realise something that tightens my chest...
Noah isn't just preparing for danger.
He's expecting it.