"Jerk."

I sighed as my eyes wandered over to the empty red chairs beside me. It had been two hours since the afternoon session ended. I tugged at my choker, wondering how long I'd have to keep this appearance going. The disguise was beginning to get on my nerves.

The so-called Professor Callum Wight had been holed up in his cabin for the past hour, and I'm pretty sure our eyes met on the way in.

He was the one who wanted to speak to me in the first place!

I wanted to run home and tear this punk outfit off my body. However, Verum's admin had explicitly warned me not to take him lightly. One wrong move and I could be kicked out.

I wonder what kind of guy he is. He's certainly gotten into the admin's good graces. Wait, is he a fellow theorist?

A subtle grin crept up my lips.

Like a theorist would ever work for the government.

A distant bell's ring caught my attention. The door to his office had finally opened. Wight himself stood at the entrance, beaming at me as he invited me in.

I felt my stomach churn as I got up from my seat.

Have I been discovered?

"If you're looking for someone to hold the door open, then I'm afraid you'll be let down. I don't have an assistant. They figured the 'youngest professor' wouldn't need one." His words were vibrant despite his hectic schedule.

"I was just wondering why I was kept so long." The admin said I shouldn't make a foe of him. Well, I didn't have to make him a friend either.

"Pardon me. I had to run over tomorrow's slides. Just checking for typos and what not."

"Right."

I walked into the office, looking around for a while as he kicked the door stopper into place.

Leaving the door open to make sure the 'lady' doesn't feel cornered. Quite the gentleman I see.

My gaze wandered over the room as I walked towards his table. The 'Professor's' chair had been lined with royal blue leather, matching perfectly with the black office desk in front of it. A sleek laptop had been placed on the table, accompanied by some papers, a pen, and coffee gone cold ages ago. The shelves were empty, given that this was in fact a temporary workspace given to him by the townhall for the duration of the seminars.

"Please take a seat."

"Thanks." His sense of chivalry was sickening.

"Shall we start then?"

"Sure."

Callum sat at his chair's edge, his fingers interlocked as he placed both elbows erect on the table. His chin came to rest at the tip of his locked fingers, his eyes glaring daggers into mine.

"I noticed your reactions during my speech today. You weren't in the least bit amused." The air around him had changed. This was not the light-hearted young man I saw on stage.

"I don't know what you mean." My voice had begun to falter. Something told me this man was dangerous.

"Your knowledge of Biocode is not trivial. In fact, I believe you might even be competent enough to make a few basic codes on your own, should you happen upon a TERRA module."

I have to leave. Now!

"It's getting late now. I should be heading back home," I shuddered as I rose from my seat. A metallic clank shook the room as I stepped towards the door.

"I think you should reconsider, Katelyn." His voice sheared the echo like a sharpened blade.

A glint of obsidian caught my eye as I turned back to face him. On his table was a gun, its barrel elongated by a noise suppressor. I felt a wave of goosebumps wash over my skin.

"Take a seat. And take that stupid collar off already. You'll dispose of it tonight either way."

What the hell is this guy!

I sat down, just as he wanted. It was chilling how persuasive a gun could be.

"I saw the determination in your eyes today when you spoke against the government. I want to know your reason."

" ..."

"Now!" he boomed, banging the gun on the table. It was no wonder he'd waited for everyone else to leave.

However, I didn't feel scared in the least. My feelings of helplessness had now given way to rage.

"There have been many cases with conclusive evidence against the government in the past four years. The ghost island, chimera experiments, super-soldier initiatives gone wrong, using prisoners as lab rats. I could go on all day about my reasons!" I bellowed.

"And what sort of conclusive evidence do you speak of?" he asked.

"No one could publish the evidence. The theorists who came close to the truth always wound up forgetting everything they had found. Furthermore, every trace of their investigations had been wiped from existence."

"And how exactly do you know of this?" he asked.

I'll probably get kicked out... to hell with it!

"I know because I'm a member of Verum.com! We started detecting similar patterns with literally all the theorists who came close to a discovery, so we established a system where they would update their leads at frequent intervals. Once they were brainwashed by the government, we proceeded to the backup plan. We had the rest of our theorists work on the leads."

"Brainwashed!" he chuckled. My glare was perhaps more than enough of a signal that he was in the wrong. I was stating my perspective after all.

"Just... continue."

"The leads were gone. Saying that they were now untraceable would be an understatement."

"But this time you know of the truth that awaits you, do you not?" he asked, sounding somewhat earnest with his words.

Good.

I focussed on his eyes as much as I could, trying to use my peripherals to get a gist of how far I would have to reach to snatch away his gun.

Just a little closer. Better keep the flow...

"Knowing the truth and proving it to the world are two entirely different things Professor."

"You can stop with the pleasantries Katelyn. Callum will do just fine."

Says the guy with the gun!

"Well then you can call me Kate. You should've figured out the fake name by now."

"Actually, I hadn't. Well anyway, how can you be so sure that everything on that website was true? What if it's all just a bluff? People do all sorts of things to get attention these days."

"It's true."

His smile was laced with sarcasm.

"There you go again! Let's consider this, Ghost Island you speak of. How do you know it even exists."

"Do you know what this 'Ghost Island' is professor?"

Sarcastic much? Dickhead.

"Feel free to elaborate."

"You got a password for that?"

"Nope."

I snatched his laptop, using it to access Verum.com. He didn't seem to mind anyway. I opened the files that were available to the general public, one that didn't require an account login. The first image that popped up under the banner Ghost Island was a section of the world map. I turned the laptop sideways so that both of us could see it clearly.

"An island in the vicinity of the Caribbean belt that was formerly abandoned was chosen as the ground for the initial test runs of Biocode. Reports say that thousands of animals and plants died in the tests, leaving the stench of rotting flesh hanging all around the island's borders. Faulty synthesis of radioactive compounds also led to the death of a majority of the staff behind the tests, leaving the island completely uninhabited."

"Meaning that finding any conclusive evidence in this case could be a gold mine for your stand against Biocode."

"Exactly."

His fingers were now back on his chin, leaving the gun unguarded. He could reach for it in the snap of a finger though.

I need grab more of his attention.

"So, did you find any evidence then."

"Some of our hackers got access to satellite images that show-"

"That could be forged. And what if an island exists there? Satellites don't show nuclear radiation."

"Our theorists took a private boat to the location, but they were stopped by Government forces."

"That's quite a fancy word for Coast Guard Kate," he sniggered.

I scrolled down, selecting a photo that showed two heavily armed SEALS in a boat that had been mounted with a machine gun.

"I wonder when the coast guard started prepping for warfare, Callum," I snapped back. The rebuttal was childish, but I did get my point across.

"That's actually a solid point," he said, "If these theorists were going to the island that is. This photo could have been taken anywhere. And who knows if the island even exist-"

"Seismic activity. And tidal data that backs up the graphs."

"What?"

"The satellite imagery showed the presence of an active volcano in the island. The seismic graphs and associated wave patterns here support that fact," I said, pointing towards the graphs on the screen.

"And who knows if those weren't fabricat-"

"I'm the one who came up with this data."

A deadly silence loomed over the cabin. Callum's fingers wrapped around his edge of the table as he leaned forward.

His face was inches from mine.

I could see the light creases on his forehead, his dark silky bangs of hair hanging over the small bend of his nose. His wheatish skin looked somewhat rough, a sign that showed he was not your average bookworm of a professor. The nostalgic scent of aging books was the only thing that stood in line with his profession. His eyes however, sold it off. A pair of deadly, intimidating green eyes, a gaze that meant he wasn't a man to be messed with.

"You're far too driven for a young theorist. It's personal, isn't it?" he whispered.

I drew back from his face, shoving the table towards him as I grabbed his gun. Callum shot up like a spring the moment I aimed the weapon at his head.

"I know why you waited for everyone to leave professor. If you could be that sure about no one finding my body, then I can have the same liberty, can't I?" I couldn't help but grin. The adrenaline rush was too much to contain.

Callum however, seemed to be unfazed. He walked over to the front of the table, leaning onto it casually as he smiled.

"Stop! I'll shoot!" I screamed.

A sudden wave of dread washed over my fingers. The gun's weight was off.

"This isn't loaded is it?" I hissed, throwing the gun to the floor.

Callum's face shrivelled at the clatter of the gun, his eyes slowly focussing on me again once the noise died down.

My knees were trembling. I think felt far more comfortable at gunpoint.

"I'd like to hear what your motivations are regarding this venture, but it's getting late now. You probably have a curfew to keep."

"Huh?"

What the hell is going on?

"You pass, Riptide99," he said with a deadly grin plastered to his features.

"What? That's my username in Verum... how did you..."

My mind was a mess. I felt as if I had been in the dark this whole time, despite having dedicated more than half my life to this cause. All my thoughts kept coming to one single coordinate.

"Who the hell are you?"

I shuddered as I leaned against the door frame. I felt as though the blood had been drained from my body.

Callum closed the distance between us, his fingers tracing my jawline as he guided my gaze to meet his.

"Me? I'm the admin of course."