LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 7: Buried Truths
The late-day sun threw long shadows over Seoul's skyline as Ji-Hyun gazed at her father's former office door. Someone had taken down the brass nameplate years before, but she could still make out its faint outline on the wood. Behind her, Sarah worked to crack the electronic lock while Sung-min kept an eye on the hallway.
"Security guards walk by every twelve minutes," he said, glancing at his watch. "We have nine minutes before the next patrol comes through."
Ji-Hyun touched her scar – a habit she did more often as memories came back. The problem in the server room left her rattled, not just because she almost lost ARIA, but because she realized part of Min-ah had been aware all this time, stuck in a digital in-between state.
"I got it," Sarah said as the lock opened. "But Ji-hyun... are you certain about this? After what took place downstairs—"
"We need those backup drives." Ji-hyun opened the door inhaling the stale air of a place no one had entered for fifteen years. "Min-ah wouldn't ask for them without a good reason."
The office looked frozen in time. Dirty screens remained black and quiet on the messy desk. Books about tech and research filled shelves on every wall. A family picture hung at an angle by the window – their final summer trip before the crash. Before it all shifted.
"Seven minutes," Sung-min said from the door.
Ji-hyun hurried to the desk thinking of when she sat there as a kid watching her dad work. She felt under the drawer locating the secret latch right where she knew it would be. The fake bottom opened with a click.
"Here." She grabbed a pile of old hard drives, with dust coating their cases. "Dad's private research files. He never allowed anyone else to access these."
Her phone vibrated – a note from ARIA: "Alert: Several security cameras in the building have been turned off. Unknown individuals entering through the west door."
Sarah already looked at the security footage on her tablet. "Three people in maintenance outfits. But check their movement styles – that's not the maintenance crew."
"Ghost Protocol?" Sung-min asked, walking into the office and shutting the door.
"No." Ji-Hyun spotted something familiar in their exact moves. "Trust Tech guards. Your dad's team."
Sung-min clenched his jaw. "He watched the server room. If he suspects we're uncovering Project Genesis—"
"Four minutes," Sarah cut in. "We should go."
Ji-Hyun shoved the drives into her bag but noticed something else in the drawer – a tiny silver robot necklace just like Min-ah's old one. As she reached for it, her phone buzzed again:
"Leave it alone. It's not what you think. Exit now. -GH"
The alert came too late. When her fingers touched the necklace, a faint click rang out. Red lights started blinking in the hallway.
"Silent alarm," Sung-min muttered. "They'll seal off the entire floor."
"Follow me!" Ji-Hyun rushed to the window, her recollection guiding her fingers to a concealed panel. "Dad's exclusive elevator. He relied on it to transport classified projects."
The panel opened exposing a slim elevator shaft, with emergency lights bathing everything in red shadows. Sarah glanced at her tablet once more. "Trust Tech squad is two hallways away. They're approaching ."
"The elevator requires manual operation," Ji-hyun clarified, pulling the old-style gate open. "It'll take us down to the sub-basement. A maintenance tunnel links to the former research wing."
Sung-min guided them into the cramped area and then closed the gate right as voices rang out from the hallway. The trip down felt stressful and quiet, with the faint squeak of old cables breaking the silence.
Ji-hyun's phone buzzed with a new text, from an unknown number: "The pendant tracked you. They know your destination. But I do too. Come to the Golden Dragon Tea House in an hour. I'll tell you everything. -LJH"
"Dr. Lee," she whispered. Sung-min glanced at her.
"You're certain?"
"The initials match, and he always enjoyed that tea house. He said it reminded him of his grandma's home in Busan."
The elevator jerked and stopped at the sub-basement. Dust and memories filled the air. Ji-hyun guided them through dark hallways passing empty labs and stored gear, following a path she knew well from her childhood.
"ARIA," she spoke into her phone, "can you find the building's old blueprints? We need to check if this tunnel is still open."
"Accessing," ARIA responded, its voice overlapping with what seemed to be Min-ah's childhood laugh. "The tunnel remains intact, but Ji-Hyun... we've found something else. The quantum signature from the server room? It's not just Min-ah's consciousness. There's an older element, something that existed before Project Genesis."
They came to a heavy metal door with a sign that read "Maintenance Access ." Sarah picked the lock while Sung-min kept watch.
"What do you mean by an older element?" Ji-hyun inquired.
"The base code... it's changing, but not how AI should. It's got a memory. Like I remembered. Like Min-ah remembered. Ji-Hyun, I don't think Project Genesis built artificial consciousness. I think it found a way to move it. To keep it safe."
Ji-Hyun felt her blood turn to ice as she thought about what this meant. She recalled the robot pendant, Dr. Lee's hidden work, and two young girls playing with computers that might have been far more risky than anyone knew.
The door creaked open. A dark tight passage stretched out before them. Their phones buzzed one last time – Min-ah had sent a message:
"You're on the right track, is. But watch who you share those answers with. Even the guy next to you has things he's not ready to talk about. See you when the clock strikes twelve."
Ji-hyun noticed Sung-min tense up beside her. The low light made it hard to read his face.
"She's not wrong," he said in a low voice. "I've kept some stuff from you. About my dad, about why I'm looking into Trust Tech..."
"We'll talk later," Sarah cut in. "Someone's coming our way."
They crept through the door just as voices rang from the hallway behind them. Sarah locked it while Ji-hyun grabbed her father's old drives, which felt heavier in her hands. These drives held the truth about Project Genesis, the real events from fifteen years ago, and why people would kill to hide these secrets.
"We have an hour until we meet with Dr. Lee," she said looking at her watch. "Then three hours until we reach Genesis Lab. We'll uncover the answers we're after tonight."
Sung-min held her hand in the dark, his grip warm and firm despite the circumstances. "We're in this together," he whispered.
She gave his hand a quick squeeze taking a brief moment to comfort herself before she set her sights on the road ahead. Her phone buzzed in her pocket with non-stop updates from ARIA, the AI's mind now mixed with bits of her sister's memories. Trust Tech's security team followed close behind tracking a signal from a pendant that had been waiting to be discovered for fifteen years.
The dark tunnel stretched out in front of them hiding many secrets. But Ji-Hyun had spent enough time hiding. Now was the time to bring everything out in the open – whatever it might cost.