Chapter 2 - The Sound of Three-Six-Three
The Harbor View complex was a decaying monolith of brick and rusted iron. As Vincent and his men stepped into the lobby, the air felt thick, charged with a metallic static that made the hair on their arms stand up. The building had been vacated for months in anticipation of the demolition, leaving it a hollow shell of broken lightbulbs and peeling wallpaper.
They reached the third floor. The hallway was silent, save for the hum of the city outside.
"Apartment 309," Marcus whispered, drawing his sidearm.
Vincent held up a hand. He heard it. A faint, rhythmic sound against the wall of the elevator shaft.
Knock. Knock. Knock. (Short) Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. (Long) Knock. Knock. Knock. (Short)
It wasn't a pipe. It was a cry for help.
Vincent gestured to his men. They breached the door. The apartment was exactly as it had been left in March. A film of gray dust covered everything. The bathroom door was wide open. The tub was dry, but the floor was covered in deep, jagged gouges.
"Vincent," one of the guards called out from the closet. "Look at the floorboards."
The man had pried back a section of the wood. Beneath it lay a sprawling, intricate network of wires—not standard electrical wiring, but heavy-duty data cables leading deep into the foundation. And there, buried in the dark, was a small, high-frequency transmitter still pulsing with a faint blue light.
"This isn't a haunt," Vincent realized, his blood turning cold. "This is a surveillance hub. Someone has been using this empty building to tap into the city’s secure infrastructure. The vibrations Ellie heard? That’s the sound of servers running beneath the basement, cooled by the building’s old industrial HVAC system."
"But who?" Marcus asked.
"Someone who knew this building was slated for demolition," Vincent replied, eyeing the transmitter. "Someone who needed a temporary, untraceable data-sink before the building was reduced to rubble."
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Suddenly, the transmitter emitted a sharp, high-pitched chirp. The building began to groan—a deep, metallic vibration that rattled the windowpanes.
"They know we're here," Vincent said. "Get the girl. Now."
