My voice echoed in the damp air of the basement. The humming from inside the lab was the only reply. Hannah squeezed my arm, her eyes wide.

"Maybe he's not here," she whispered.

But I had to know. This was my only option. I pushed the door all the way open and stepped inside.

The lab was vast, but cramped. Server racks lined the walls from floor to ceiling, their blue and green lights blinking in the dim room. Cables snaked across the floor like vines. The air was frigid, a stark contrast to the humid hallway, and smelled of ozone and cold metal.

In the center of the room, a figure sat with his back to us. He was wearing a gray hoodie, the hood pulled up. His fingers flew across a keyboard, the clicking sound the only indication of movement.

He didn't turn around.

"Ashton Bridges?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly as I stepped closer to the glow of his monitors.

The clicking stopped. For a long moment, there was only the hum of the servers. Then, the chair swiveled around with a soft squeak.

The face looking back at me was sharp and clean. He had high cheekbones, pale skin, and eyes that were an unnerving shade of gray. They were devoid of warmth, scanning us with a clinical detachment.

"Your devices are compromised, Chloe Carrillo," Ashton Bridges said, his voice flat and mechanical. "The intrusion is sloppy, but effective. You're being watched."

It was a logical deduction, but hearing him say my name, confirming my worst fears so calmly, made my skin prickle. He hadn't been expecting me; he had simply observed the data and drawn a conclusion.

"You know about the stalker?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"I know someone is bouncing signals off your network," he said, gesturing to a screen filled with scrolling lines of code. "Show me the messages."

I pulled out my shattered phone. "I broke it."

Ashton didn't even flinch. "Smart. But useless. He's already in your cloud data. He has everything."

Hannah stepped forward, pulling out her phone. "I took screenshots ," she said, her voice surprisingly steady. "Just in case."

She handed the phone to Ashton. He plugged it into a dock and his fingers flew across the keyboard again. The code on his screens shifted and re-formed. He studied it for a few minutes, his expression unreadable.

"He's using a rotating proxy," he said finally. "It masks his IP address. It makes him untraceable to the police. But not to me."

"Can you find him?" I asked, my voice desperate.

Ashton turned his chair to face me. His gray eyes locked onto mine. "I can. But I don't work for free, and I don't work for the police."

"I have savings," I started, but he cut me off.

"I don't want your money, Chloe." He leaned forward, his gaze intense. "I want the puzzle. This guy is good. But he's not me. Finding him, exposing him... that's the payment."

It was a strange request, but I didn't care. He was offering me a way out. A way that didn't involve Dean Gibbs.

"Do it," I said. "Find him."

Ashton reached into a drawer and pulled out a small, black flash drive. He held it out to me. "Install this on your laptop and your new phone. It's a monitoring program. It will track any incoming data and trace it back to the source. It will also act as a firewall, blocking his access."

I took the drive. It was cold in my hand. "That's it?"

"For now," he said, turning back to his screens. "I'll contact you when I have something. Don't contact me. And don't tell anyone about this. Especially not the Gibbs family. They have a tendency to... complicate things."

I nodded, clutching the drive like a lifeline. I turned to leave.

"Hannah," I said, my voice low as we reached the door. "You can't tell your brother about this."

She looked at me, her eyes conflicted. "Chloe..."

"Please," I begged. "Ashton is the expert. If Dean finds out, he'll take over. He'll make it a Gibbs family project, and I'll be right back in the cage. I need to handle this on my own. Promise me."

Hannah bit her lip, glancing between me and the silent figure of Ashton. Finally, she sighed. "Okay. I promise. I won't tell him."

We left the lab and climbed the stairs back to the surface. The afternoon sun hit my face, warming my cold skin. I took a deep breath of fresh air. For the first time in days, the tightness in my chest eased slightly. I had a weapon now. I had a plan.

I didn't look back at the basement door. If I had, I wouldn't have seen anything. But I also wouldn't have known that behind that heavy, sealed door, the gray-eyed boy had turned his chair back to his main monitor. On it was a live feed from a tiny camera hidden in the ventilation grate above my desk at home. His lips, which had been a flat line, were now curved into a slow, predatory smile.

"Little Lamb," he whispered to the empty, humming room. "You walked right into my arms."

Back in the dorm room, the door clicked shut behind them, and the sound was like a starting pistol.

Chloe felt a surge of adrenaline, a feeling she hadn't recognized in days: hope. It was a fragile, unfamiliar thing, but it was there, warming the pit of her stomach. She held the small, black flash drive in her palm. It felt heavy, solid. A weapon.

"I feel like I can finally breathe," Chloe said, the words coming out on a shaky exhale. She walked over to her desk, her movements deliberate.

Hannah watched her, a genuine smile spreading across her face. "He seemed really smart. Like, scary smart."

"He is," Chloe agreed. She looked at the flash drive, then at Hannah. "This is going to work. I can feel it."

She sat down and opened her laptop. The screen flickered to life, and for the first time in a week, she didn't flinch at the sight of the small, dark circle of the webcam. It was just a piece of hardware. Soon, it would be a blind eye.

With a sense of ceremony, she slid the USB drive into the port. The click was satisfyingly firm.

A simple installation window popped up on the screen. The program was called "Aegis Protocol." A shield.

Chloe's finger hovered over the trackpad. This was it. This was the moment she took back control. She clicked "Install."

A blue progress bar appeared and began to crawl steadily across the screen. Chloe watched it, her breath held tight in her chest. It was more than just software; it was a digital wall being built around her, brick by invisible brick.

Hannah came and stood behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Is it working?"

"I think so," Chloe whispered.

The progress bar reached the end. A small, cheerful chime sounded from the laptop's speakers. Installation Complete.

The relief that washed over Chloe was so intense it made her dizzy. The tension in her shoulders, a constant companion for days, finally released. The air in the room felt lighter, cleaner. She had done it. She had found a way.

She was safe.

Just as a real, genuine smile touched her lips, her phone, lying face-up on the desk, lit up.

Ding.

The sound, so similar to the one from the laptop, made her heart stutter. She glanced at it, a flicker of the old fear returning, but she pushed it down. It was probably the Aegis program, blocking some spam message. It was a sign that it was working.

She reached for the phone, her movements confident again. She unlocked the screen.

The message was from an Unknown Number.

Her blood went cold.

"Cute little program. Did the Phantom tell you it would protect you?"

Chloe's breath hitched. The screen seemed to blur. He knew. He knew she had installed a program. And he knew Ashton's nickname. A name only a handful of people on campus even whispered.

Before she could process it, a second message buzzed through.

"You shouldn't have dragged your friend into this, Little Lamb."

A wave of nausea rolled through her. Her friend. He meant Hannah.

Then came the third message. It wasn't text. It was a picture.

Chloe's vision tunneled. The photo was of Hannah's profile. She was standing by the mini-fridge, a bottle of water in her hand, a look of concern on her face as she watched Chloe at the desk. It had been taken seconds ago.

The angle was unmistakable. It was from the laptop. From the webcam.

Chloe's head snapped up. She stared at the tiny black dot above her screen. It wasn't a blind eye. It was a gaping maw. A black hole that had just swallowed her last shred of hope.

He was watching them. Right now. Through her computer.

She hadn't installed a shield. She had opened the gates and welcomed in the Trojan horse.

Hannah was in danger. Because of her. The thought was a physical blow, knocking the air from her lungs more violently than any threat against herself.

"Chloe? What is it?" Hannah asked, her voice laced with worry. She had seen the color drain from Chloe's face. "You look like you're going to be sick."

Chloe couldn't speak. Her throat was closed tight with terror. She shakily turned the phone and held it out for Hannah to see.

Hannah's eyes scanned the messages, then landed on the photo of herself. A small gasp escaped her lips, and she slapped a hand over her mouth, her own face turning pale.

Something inside Chloe snapped. The fear, the helplessness, it all curdled into a hot, violent rage. She reached out and slammed the laptop shut with a loud crack. It wasn't enough. She wanted to smash it, to grind it into dust.

She snatched her phone, her fingers fumbling on the screen, slick with a cold sweat. She found Ashton's number in her recent calls. She didn't hesitate.

The phone on the other end rang once.

"I need a video call," she hissed into the phone, a raw, ragged thing torn from her throat. "Now!"

There was a beat of silence from the other end. Then, his voice, as calm and steady as ever, replied.

"Okay. I'm connecting."

The calm in his voice was the most terrifying thing she had ever heard. Her only hope was now the source of her deepest fear.