The Golden Gate Project

Chapter Four

Hannah

"What is this?" I ask as we stare at the letter in Kaylee's hands.

She just shakes her head, at a loss for words.

We lean in to read it.

Hannah and Kaylee,

If you're reading this, then I'm dead.

I'm trusting that you will keep all the information in this letter private, because if you don't, lives could be in danger.

Whatever you believe about my death is false. They will say it was a freak accident, but the truth is that someone did this to me.

I was murdered.

Sadly, I can't put many details in this letter in case it falls into the wrong hands.

"He sounds crazy. Paranoid." I say.

"Yeah. But if he predicted his death, there had to be some sort of truth to it." Kaylee counters.

I know it sounds crazy, but I'm telling the truth.

I hate to ask this of you and put you in harms way, but I need you two to find who did this and bring them down.

I've hidden clues in San Francisco to help you.

I am so sorry to put this on you two, but this person has powerful friends and cannot be allowed to continue their pursuit.

I did something. Created something that this person wants, and they will not stop until they do, as is evidenced by my death.

They will continue to kill until they get what they want, and when they do, there will be no stopping them from taking over the city.

There are a few people in San Francisco who I trust will help you find the truth. You will not be alone.

Please, I need your help to avenge my death.

I love you two so much and I wish I had come to see you more.

Your brother,
Sebastian

This doesn't make any sense. Why can't he just tell us who it was? If it even was murder.

How could he know? Maybe it was an accident? This is too damn cryptic. Did he expect us to drop our lives over a letter?

But what if he's right? If he's right, then it sounds like a lot of people could be in danger.

But what the fuck? It sounds so apocalyptic. How could one person take over the entire city of San Francisco? I thought Sebastian was working on a cure for cancer, not an end of the world machine.

What did he create?

"What are you thinking?" Kaylee asks.

"I think this is crazy. I-there's no way." I stutter.

"But what if he's right?" Kaylee suggests.

"What, we're supposed to just drop our lives, our careers, to investigate his 'murder'?"

"I know. It's crazy. I don't know what the hell he created, but it sounds dangerous." She says.

I start to pace.

"He was looking for a cure for cancer. A way to jumpstart cells into regeneration, not creating something to kill people." I spout.

"Accidents happen. That stuff is unpredicatable." Kaylee defends.

"That's exactly it. It was an unpredictable accident."

"Then how did he know that he was going to die? You can't predict accidents, Hannah." Kaylee snips.

"I know that, thank you. I'm just saying that it doesn't make any sense. How are we supposed to find anything out that everyone at his college doesn't already know?"

"I don't know, but there has to be a reason he only wanted us to know about this." Kaylee explains, "I think we should believe him. He's never been unrealistic before. About anything. You and I both know this is not like him, something is wrong."

I don't know what to think. There's definitely something weird going on, but if he's right, we could get killed if we're not careful.

"What about our safety?" I counter, "Say he is right, this could easily not end well for us. Do we want to risk dying for this?"

Kaylee is silent.

"You're right, it is dangerous. But you would do it for me wouldn't you? I mean look at us. We're perfect for this. Our jobs are to investigate. We do it every day. We can do this. We have to. It was Sebastian's last request."

Fuck.

I take a deep sigh and nod in agreement.

She smiles.

"We can't stay there forever though. Two weeks, max. If we don't find anything, we bail. Deal?"

Kaylee doesn't look happy about that, but gives a short nod anyways.

"Deal." She says.

"How are we going to explain this to Mom and Dad?" I realize.

"We don't." She states, "we have to keep this to ourselves, so we can just tell them we have to fly back out."

"True." I say mostly to myself.

"Here goes nothing, right?" She says.

Here goes nothing.

***

"Do you have to leave so soon?" Mom asks.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry." I say.

I do feel bad. She just lost her son and now her only two other kids are leaving too.

I'm glad she'll never know so she doesn't have to worry about us getting killed. She already worries enough.

"We'll miss you guys." My dad says as he pulls Kaylee in for one of his hugs.

"I love you." Kaylee says as I turn to give mom a hug.

"Be careful, okay. Stay safe." Mom chokes out.

"I will." I say, hating every word.

It's for your own good Mom.

"So what was in the letter?" Mom asks as she lets go.

"It was just some random thing he sent a while ago. An inside joke." I lie.

"Can I read it?" She asks.

"I'm sorry, Mom. We can't let you read it though. Still an inside joke." Kaylee joins in.

Mom nods hesitantly.

"I gotcha, it's fine."

"I love you." I say as me and Kaylee back out the door.

"Jesus that was hard to do." Kaylee says as we get to our cars, "see you there?" She asks.

"See you there." I say.

This can only end badly.