Page 11 of Shattered Truth (Off The Grid: FBI #15)

Chapter Seven

It was just before five thirty on Friday evening when Haley pulled into the parking lot of what looked like an abandoned warehouse in North Hollywood.

The building was nondescript gray concrete with no visible signage, just a small neon sign that read "CIPHER" in electric-blue letters above a heavy metal door.

She'd found Arjun through a combination of old university records and some creative social media stalking that had suggested Arjun was now going under the name AJ Patel and ran a multiplayer video game club out of this building.

She was eager to talk to him, but she'd promised Agent Lawson that she'd wait for him.

Although she still wondered if she shouldn't have made this trip on her own.

Alanna had said that Sabrina had contacted someone at the FBI, who had blown her off. And Matt seemed to know the man Sabrina had gotten her referral from, which made her wonder how much she should trust Matt Lawson. Did he really want to find the truth, or did he want to stop her from finding it?

That dark thought made her nervous, especially now that she was sitting in a spooky, shadow-filled industrial area.

She forced herself to breathe and focus on the facts.

Matt had wanted to talk to Alanna. He'd told her he was going to speak to Sabrina's employer.

He'd certainly acted like he wanted answers, and he hadn't charged her for stealing Sabrina's phone, so that was another plus in the pro column.

She didn't completely trust him, but she could use an ally, especially one with the resources of the FBI.

She jumped when her phone rang. It was Julia, returning her call.

"Hi," she said. "Thanks for getting back to me. I wanted to fill you in on a few things."

"What's going on?"

"I found the person who sent the text to Sabrina Lin. Her name is Alanna Morris. She went to law school at Westbridge with Sabrina."

"That was fast. I thought all you had was an initial."

"I did, but I was able to figure it out from there.

Alanna and Sabrina interned at the legal aid center on campus the year Landon died.

During that time, they met with a student named Arjun Patel, who was confident my brother's death was not an accident.

Arjun was desperate to get someone to investigate and wanted to know if Sabrina could help him get the authorities to keep looking for answers.

Sabrina passed on his request, and the university and police said the matter was closed.

A few days later, Arjun dropped out of school and turned off his phone.

" She paused. "Did you ever interview Arjun? Did he ever talk to you?"

"He definitely didn't speak to me, and I don't remember anyone by that name being interviewed. But, as you know, the investigation only lasted a few weeks before the brass told us to shut it down. There was no evidence leading to anything other than an accident."

"If you and the others had been able to spend more time looking for evidence, you might have found some," she said, still bitter about that.

"I don't disagree. Did this woman tell you what Sabrina found out?"

"Unfortunately, no. All Alanna knew was that it had to do with Landon. I'm hoping Arjun will be able to tell me more."

"Do you want me to track him down?"

"I've already done that."

"Of course you have," Julia said with an amused tone in her voice. "You should be working with me as a private investigator."

"I like being a journalist. I'm about to go see Arjun now. I'll let you know what I find out."

"Please do. I know I haven't helped you at all yet, but I want to. I've been wrapping up another case today, so I haven't had time to get into what we talked about this morning. I'm sorry about that. I'll have more time tomorrow."

"No problem. I just dumped all this on you."

"I kept copies of the file from your brother's investigation, just in case. I was going to look over them tonight. I'll see if Arjun's name is in there. Where are you now? Do you want me to talk to this man with you?"

"I'm in North Hollywood at a club called Cipher, which Arjun apparently owns, although he goes by AJ Patel now.

I'm waiting for Special Agent Matt Lawson to join me.

As I mentioned earlier, he's holding my theft of Sabrina's phone over my head. If I don’t share information, he'll charge me with obstruction.

So, I'm sharing." She paused as a car pulled into the lot and parked several spots away from her.

"He's here now. I'll talk to you later."

"Be careful, Haley. I don't want you to end up like your brother or Sabrina."

"Me, either." She ended the call, then got out of the car to meet up with Matt.

He gave her a skeptical look as he took in their surroundings. "Where are we?"

"It's an interactive gaming club called Cipher. I couldn't find much information about it online. It seems to be for serious gamers."

"Was your brother into video games?"

"Very much so," she said. "But I was not. I was never interested in the fake world of battles; I had enough real-life wars to fight."

"Someday, you're going to need to tell me more about you and Landon and how you grew up."

"Maybe later. Let's go."

They walked to what appeared to be the front of the building and a large door, which had no handle—just a digital keypad and a camera above it. As they approached, the screen flickered to life with text:

WELCOME TO CIPHER. TO ENTER THE SANCTUM, YOU MUST FIRST PROVE YOUR WORTH. ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN?

Two buttons appeared: YES and NO.

"Well," Haley said, pressing YES, "this should be interesting."

The screen changed to display a message: ENTER THE PREPARATION CHAMBER. YOU HAVE 45 MINUTES TO ESCAPE, OR YOU WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE. GOOD LUCK.

The heavy door clicked open, revealing a dimly lit corridor lined with exposed brick.

They stepped inside, and the door sealed behind them with an ominous thud.

She felt a shiver run down her spine. "Gotta say, I've never been big on enclosed spaces.

" Her heart was already starting to race, and her palms were beginning to sweat.

"It's an escape room. We'll be fine," Matt said.

"If we can escape," she said tightly.

He gave her a sharp look. "Are you okay?"

"I might have a little claustrophobia."

"You're going to be fine. And I have always been able to escape any situation I've been in."

She'd found his confidence arrogant and irritating before, but now it felt comforting. "What do we do?"

"Let's walk to the end of the hall."

The corridor led into a small room that looked like something between a medieval dungeon and a high-tech laboratory. Stone walls were fitted with electronic panels, and chains hung from the ceiling alongside fiber optic cables. In the center of the room sat an ornate wooden chest.

A voice came from hidden speakers: "Welcome. You seek an audience with the Architect, but first you must prove you can think beyond the obvious. Your first challenge: Unlock the chest using only what you observe."

Matt approached the chest, running his hands along its carved surface. "No keyhole," he said. "But look at these symbols." He traced his finger along a series of carved images: an eye, a hand, a mouth, an ear. "I think these represent four of the five senses."

She tried to focus on what he was saying instead of the panic slowly rising within her.

"What do you think, Haley?"

His voice broke through her anxious brain fog. "Uh, I don't know."

"Look around. I need your help," he said forcefully.

His tone snapped her out of her paralysis, and her gaze moved to wall. "Over there—a hand scanner, some kind of audio input, a camera, and..." She paused as she looked at the last device. "Is that a breathalyzer?"

"Looks like it."

"I think we need to match the symbols on the chest with the sensors, probably in order."

"Okay. You read them off; I'll push the buttons."

When they'd activated all the sensors, the chest clicked open to reveal a key and another message: Trust is the foundation of all knowledge. Proceed together.

"That seems a little on the nose," she murmured.

"You're supposed to trust me."

"Or you're supposed to trust me."

He smiled. "Let's see what the key opens."

She handed it to him. "You can lead."

"Now you want me to lead, when there's probably a trapdoor ahead," he said dryly.

"I'm just doing what you asked me to do before."

He stepped up to the lock and inserted the key, then turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open.

She felt a little trepidation, but nothing jumped out at them, and the floor did not fall away.

Instead, they walked into a closet-sized library with towering bookshelves and a large mahogany desk positioned in the center.

The desk's surface appeared to be made of dark glass or polished black stone, completely smooth and reflective, with no visible controls or markings.

It looked elegant but also mysteriously high-tech.

"What now?" she asked. "I was hoping that first part was it."

"There must be a secret door somewhere." He examined the shelves, then reached for a book titled Medieval History .

When the book left the shelf, the desk's surface came alive. A grid of twenty-five squares appeared on what she now realized was an interactive display, and one square in the upper left corner glowed green. When she took out a different book, a blue light appeared in the center of the grid.

"It's a logic puzzle," Matt said. "Each book corresponds to a specific square. We need to figure out what pattern we're supposed to create."

"There are a lot of books. Do you think we have to pull them all out?"

"I doubt it." He grabbed another book, and a light flickered, then went off. "Or maybe we do," he said, setting the book back in its place.

"This could take forever," she groaned, impatient to get out of this room and find Arjun Patel.