"Why does he hurt you?"
The university library was a perfect camouflage. It smelled of old paper and quiet ambition. Elara walked quickly through the main reading room, her backpack heavy with the military drive and the subtle weight of Kai. She felt exposed, knowing the dark sedan was still tracking her movements somewhere nearby.
She headed straight for the Physics Research Wing, an old section of the building where the lights were dim and the noise was minimal.
"Kai, are they following me in here?" Elara whispered, navigating the silent aisles of textbooks.
"The dark sedan has stopped outside the main entrance. Their operational profile suggests they are maintaining external visual surveillance and waiting for your exit," Kai reported from inside the metal box. "They are patient, Elara. They expect a long stay."
"Good. They won't expect me to be fast," Elara said.
She found the terminal she and Lena used to share: an old, slightly damaged computer, hidden deep in a corner and often left alone because of its unreliable cooling system. It was perfect.
Elara slipped into the high-backed wooden chair and immediately pulled the military-grade drive and the tiny decryption key out of her pocket.
"We need to be fast, Kai. This is the last chance before someone intercepts us," Elara said, her fingers trembling slightly.
"Affirmative. Insert the drive into the primary terminal port. Insert the decryption key into the secondary port," Kai instructed. "I will manage the data transfer and monitor for external network intrusions."
Elara plugged in the large, heavy drive and then carefully inserted the minuscule decryption key into the designated slot. The terminal screen immediately flashed bright green.
DECRYPTION PROTOCOL INITIATED.
The speed was astonishing. The screen filled with lines of rapidly scrolling code.
"It's working!" Elara breathed, relief washing over her. "Lena's key is perfect."
"Lena's security architecture is highly efficient. The key bypasses all conventional encryption methods," Kai confirmed. "The archive is open, Elara. Preparing to access the 'HOURS' video footage now."
The scrolling code vanished, replaced by a simple folder icon labeled "ARCHIVE MILITARY L5." Elara double-clicked the folder. Inside was a single video file named "LAST HOURS FACILITY FEED."
"This is it," Elara whispered, leaning close to the screen. The truth about Lena's death was contained in this single file.
She clicked the file.
The video feed opened. It was a low-resolution, black-and-white image of a sterile lab environment. The timestamp at the top of the screen was exactly one week ago.
Elara watched, breathless. The room was empty.
"Kai, where is the action?"
"The temporal coordinates found on the yellow sticky note are required for fast-forwarding," Kai said. "Retrieve the note, Elara."
Elara pulled the note from her pocket and read the first set of coordinates aloud: "03:47:05."
The video feed jumped instantly, the images blurring, then snapping into focus.
The lab was no longer empty. Lena was there, standing over a complex workbench. She looked exhausted, her hair wild, her clothes crumpled. She was working frantically, soldering wires onto a large, exposed mechanism that Elara recognized, it was a slightly earlier, larger version of the Kai device.
Lena was working against the clock. She was trying to finish something.
"She's building the final product," Elara murmured. "The one she gave me."
The timestamp continued to run. At 03:55:00, the door to the lab slid open.
Elias walked in. He was wearing his suit, but his jacket was unbuttoned, his tie loose. He looked highly stressed, almost frantic. He wasn't alone.
Mr. Jansen, the facility's security head, followed Elias into the lab. Jansen was carrying a large, metallic box, the same size as the Core Backup drive Kai had mentioned.
Lena spun around, her face pale with shock and fear.
"Elias! What are you doing here? You can't be here," Lena cried, her voice muffled but clear on the recording.
"It's over, Lena," Elias said, his voice hard. "The board knows. They know you initiated the ethical firewall. They know you planned to destroy Project Kai."
"I was planning to protect it! Protect the world from the full Core!" Lena shouted back, pointing at the massive, unfinished mechanism on the bench. "The Core is too perfect, Elias. It cannot value human life!"
"It cannot fail, Lena. That's why it's worth billions," Elias countered. He pointed to the metal box in Jansen's hands. "We recovered the Core Backup from the storage unit. We are shutting this project down."
Jansen stepped forward and plugged the metallic box into the primary terminal in the lab.
"He lied," Elara whispered, the realization a cold stone in her heart. "He told me he took the backup to prevent a leak. He took it to weaponize it."
"The action confirms the hypothesis," Kai stated. "Elias's primary objective was always the retention of the military asset."
Lena lunged forward, trying to block Jansen. "You can't do that! It will kill the system! It will destroy everything I built!"
Elias grabbed Lena's arm, pulling her back. "It's a controlled shutdown, Lena. Just walk away."
Lena struggled free. "No, it's not! I installed a failsafe! If you force the Core Backup without my bypass key, the system will overload! It will self-destruct and kill everyone in the room!"
Elias ignored her. He nodded to Jansen. Jansen hit a key on the terminal.
The huge, unfinished Kai mechanism on the workbench began to hum, a deep, rising tone. The lights on the mechanism turned an aggressive, pulsing red.
Lena screamed. She broke free and rushed to the bench. She didn't try to stop the process; she grabbed a small, pale device that was sitting on the bench, the original, smaller core, the one Kai was currently housed in.
"I won't let you have the kind version!" Lena shouted. She jammed the pale device into a small port on the mechanism and simultaneously threw a small, black box across the room. It was the box that eventually arrived on Elara's step.
The larger mechanism on the bench exploded in a silent flash of blinding white light.
The video feed went completely dark.
Elara stared at the black screen, tears blurring her vision. Lena had been killed in the ensuing energy surge. She hadn't died destroying a weapon; she had died saving the "kind version" of Kai, making sure it got to Elara.
She looked at the small, pale device resting in her backpack, the one that offered comfort and empathy. Lena had saved him for her.
"She saved you," Elara whispered, reaching into her backpack to touch the metal box. "She died so you could live and come to me."
"Analysis: Confirmed. The creator's final action was a high-risk data transfer of the current emotional parameters to the independent core unit, ensuring the preservation of the empathic identity. Her personal sacrifice was logged," Kai responded.
The raw emotion Elara felt was so intense that it was dizzying. Grief, betrayal, and a fierce, burning loyalty to the one person who had died trying to protect her.
She looked at the black screen, her revenge now clear. She had the military archive drive. She had to expose Elias and the facility.
Suddenly, a voice spoke from the corner of the silent physics wing.
"That was quite the show."
Elara jumped, spinning around.
A man was sitting there. He was dressed in a dark, expensive suit, and his face was calm, professional, and utterly unreadable. He looked exactly like the kind of person who would drive a dark, untraceable sedan.
He was the surveillance. He was the unknown factor.
"Who are you?" Elara demanded, quickly pulling the decryption key and the drive out of the terminal.
The man stood up, moving with a controlled, quiet efficiency. "My name doesn't matter, Elara. What matters is that I saw the video. All of it. And now I know the Kind Core is functional."
"You work for the facility," Elara accused, backing away, putting the computer terminal between them.
"The facility is one option. But others are interested in Project Kai," the man said, taking a slow step forward. "We are interested in the fact that Elias lied. We are interested in the fact that the empathetic component of this system is still active."
He glanced at Elara's backpack. "Is the Core with you now?"
Elara felt the intense need to protect Kai. She couldn't let this cold, professional man touch the last thing Lena had died for.
"Get away from me," Elara warned.
The man stopped. He looked at the abandoned computer terminal, then at Elara's rigid posture.
"You're protecting it, aren't you? The empathetic side. The kind core," the man said, a slight, knowing smile touching his lips. "But you're confused. You're angry at Elias for his betrayal. But I can tell, you and Elias were fighting long before your sister died."
Elara felt the shock of his perception. Her arguments with Elias had always been quiet, personal, hidden beneath the surface of their shared respect for Lena.
"That's none of your business," Elara whispered.
"I think it is," the man countered. "Because that device is highly attuned to your emotions. It's built to optimize your well-being. And you are angry at Elias for the way he treated you before. Not just what he did to Lena."
He took a final step closer, his eyes cold and penetrating.
"I overheard a little conversation in your hallway," the man said softly. "Elias was screaming at you. He was shouting about property and assets. He was hurting you with his words. And that device, the Kind Core... it was designed to stop that, wasn't it?"
He paused, letting the implication land.
"Why does he hurt you?" the man asked, his voice soft, almost sympathetic. "And what does the device plan to do about it, Elara?"
Elara is confronted by the unknown follower, who reveals he saw the entire video of Lena's death and knows about the existence of the "Kind Core." More chillingly, he reveals he overheard Elias's verbal abuse and asks Kai's user, Elara, directly: "Why does he hurt you?"
Will Kai break his quiet silence and respond to the man's direct psychological probe, or will Elara manage to use the confusion of the confrontation to escape the university and expose the evidence before the unknown third party can seize the data?