The City Of Cenopolis

Chapter 8: Alana's Confession

The tension in the room was thick, the only sound the quiet hum of the street beyond the apartment window. Luke and Eli sat across from each other, the blueprints from the Nexus heist spread out on the table between them. They hadn’t spoken much since the event, but the silence carried weight. Eli’s mind was still buzzing with questions about Alana—about why she was there, why she helped, and why she hadn’t said a word when she opened that door.

Luke leaned back in his chair, eyeing the blueprints with a mix of satisfaction and unease. “These could blow everything open,” he muttered, tapping his finger on the edge of the paper. “But I don’t like that we had help getting them.”

Eli was pacing the room, his thoughts running wild. “It’s not just that we had help,” he snapped, rubbing his temples. “It’s her. She keeps showing up. And she had access. How the hell does she have access to a secure Nexus room?”

Luke shrugged, though his jaw tightened. “Maybe she’s on our side?”

Eli stopped and stared at Luke. “You’re just going to trust her, just like that? We don’t know anything about her.”

Luke sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t say I trust her. I’m just saying we need to figure out what her deal is. She got us into the back room, we needed her then. Perhaps soon, we'll need her again?”

Eli crossed his arms, the tension in his body only increasing. “And if she’s not on our side?”

Luke didn’t answer right away, his eyes flicking toward the door. “Then we deal with it.”

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Eli’s heart jumped. Luke glanced at him, then stood, moving cautiously toward the door. He looked through the peephole, his body tensing.

“It’s her,” Luke muttered, opening the door.

Alana stepped inside, her face set with determination, but there was a nervous energy about her, the kind of tension that comes from being watched too closely for too long. She glanced over her shoulder as if making sure no one had followed her, then shut the door quickly behind her.

Eli’s eyes narrowed as he watched her enter. He didn’t trust her. Not yet. Not after the way she’d appeared at the event, slipping in and out of the shadows without a word. He crossed his arms, waiting for her to speak.

“I figured I’d find you here,” Alana said quietly, standing by the door. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you for a while now.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “How long is ‘a while’?”

Alana sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Since you hacked into Nexus. I saw the breach from my office at the FBI.”

Eli tensed. “You work for the FBI?”

“I do,” she confirmed, her voice firm. “But not in the way you think. I’ve been... operating off the books for some time now. Monitoring Nexus. Watching them.”

“And watching us,” Eli added sharply.

Alana’s gaze flicked to him. “Yes. Because I think you’re the key to taking Nexus down.”

Luke leaned forward, curiosity growing. “What do you mean?”

Alana took a deep breath, stepping further into the room, her eyes scanning the walls, the ceiling, as if searching for unseen threats. “Nexus killed my father,” she said, her voice low but steady. “He was the lead scientist on the original neural chip project. He designed it to heal people, to enhance lives, not to control them. When he realized what Nexus was planning to do—adding mind control capabilities to the chips—he tried to stop them.”