The bunker was wrapped in a suffocating stillness.
After the video of the little girl, after that single word mom, time itself felt fractured.
Adrian and Clara couldn't move.
The glow of the black screen still reflected in their eyes, the echo of that voice still trembling in the air.
Clara brushed her hair back, her fingers shaking.
"I can't leave this place without knowing everything," she whispered.
Adrian looked at her, the strength in her fragility, the quiet fire in her eyes.
"Then we keep searching," he said softly.
They started going through every drawer, every cabinet, every rusted file.
Each folder seemed to contain someone's stolen life, a broken memory manipulated by Rinaldi. Then, while Clara was pulling a pile of papers aside, something clinked against the metal floor. A small, shiny object.
A USB drive.
Adrian picked it up, turning it over in his hand. No label, no marks, only a faint L scratched onto its side.
"It wasn't meant to be found," Clara murmured.
"Or maybe it was," he said. "Maybe Rinaldi left it for whoever survived long enough to understand."
They found an old computer and connected it to the backup generator.
The screen flickered to life with a low electric hum, bathing their faces in cold blue light.
Adrian plugged in the drive. For a few seconds, nothing. Then, a single folder appeared: R-07LS. Adrian clicked it open.
Inside, there was only one text file.
A list of numbers and letters, arranged in columns without meaning.
43° 12' 18'' N — 11° 15' 49'' E
L-04 — Silence Sector
Access Level: Rinaldi / Priority A
Clara frowned.
"What the hell is this?"
Adrian leaned closer, his eyes scanning the screen, his mind racing. He didn't speak for several seconds, then finally looked up at her, his voice low and certain.
"Clara… these aren't random numbers. They're coordinates."
Her heart skipped. "Coordinates? Of what?"
"A location. A precise point on the map."
He hesitated. "And the code 'Silence Sector'… could be a secret facility. The place where they're keeping Aurora."
Clara's lips trembled.
"So we can find her."
Adrian nodded, though his gaze darkened.
"Yes. But not alone."
Outside, the sky had turned to lead.
They stood by the car, the smell of rain heavy in the air. Adrian pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Luca, it's me."
A pause. "Adrian? What's going on?"
"We need to meet. Now. It's urgent."
An hour later, they were sitting in a small café on the outskirts of the city.
The place was nearly empty, a flickering neon sign washing their faces in tired light.
Luca arrived last, his expression wary, haunted.
"I've been looking for you two all day," he said, sliding into the seat. "What's happened?"
Adrian placed the USB on the table.
"We found this."
Luca stared at it. "Where?"
"In the killer's bunker. There were Mnemosyne files. But this one's different."
Clara handed him a sheet of paper where she'd copied the numbers.
Luca studied it, his eyes narrowing.
"Coordinates… you think…"
"Yes," Adrian interrupted. "It could be where they're keeping Aurora."
The name cut through the air like a blade.
Luca froze.
"Aurora?"
Clara nodded slowly. "Our daughter."
He ran a hand over his mouth, stunned.
"Jesus… Rinaldi really went this far?"
"He's always gone too far," Adrian said, voice sharp as glass.
"And now we need to find out where."
Luca opened his laptop, connected the drive, and started typing rapidly. After a few tense moments, a map appeared on the screen.
A blinking red dot glowed in the middle of a mountain valley.
Clara leaned forward.
"Where is that?"
Luca zoomed in.
"Tuscany… province of Arezzo. Forest area, off-limits to civilians. Old military property. Officially decommissioned."
Adrian met Clara's eyes.
"Then it's not abandoned anymore."
The silence between them grew thick, pulsing with unspoken fear.
Finally, Luca shut the laptop slowly.
"If that's what I think it is, you can't go there alone."
Clara shook her head. "We can't trust anyone else."
Luca's jaw clenched.
"Then let me help you. If Rinaldi still has people working for him, you'll walk straight into a trap. And you," he looked at Adrian, "you're still not healed."
Adrian was about to argue, but Clara's fingers brushed his hand. That single touch silenced him. He looked at her and saw the determination burning beneath her grief.
There was no turning back now.
Luca slipped the USB into his jacket pocket.
"I'll contact you tomorrow. I still have friends in the department, people I can trust. If this location exists, I'll find a way in."
He stood up.
"And Adrian…"
"Yes?"
"This time, I won't betray you."
Adrian watched him go, his words hanging in the dim air like a promise too fragile to touch.
Clara stayed still for a moment before whispering:
"Do you really think he'll help us?"
Adrian turned toward her, voice steady.
"I don't know. But if there's even one chance in a hundred to find our daughter, we have to take it."
Outside, the rain finally began to fall.
Thin drops traced their way down the window like unspoken tears.
Adrian rested his forehead against Clara's.
"I'll bring her home, Clara. No matter what's waiting for us in that valley."
She closed her eyes.
"We'll bring her home. And when we do, nothing and no one will take her from us again."
And as thunder rolled in the distance, the city lights blurred against the glass, two reflections and one tiny, unseen shadow between them, waiting somewhere in the dark.