CODENAME: A.D.A

Chapter 43

Around 10am the next morning, we went down for breakfast. We all did our best not to sleep off. We came back from our operation by 5am this morning so we didn't get enough sleep. After breakfast, Anita took us on another brief tour round the grounds. She took us to another pathway of buildings and told us what went on in there. After the tour, she turned to us and said;

"It's been lovely having you people here. Charles' birthday is tomorrow. You'll be given the opportunity to celebrate with him after his conference tomorrow. Any questions?"

We shook our heads, too tired to speak. After the tour, we were allowed to go back to the game room.

My thoughts were all over the place. We've been here for one day, we've found out clues but we still don't know what Charles is up to? What can I do? Who are those people? We have less than 24 hours before the materials will be distributed.

My teammates and I gathered round each other. We were too tired to explain what happened to Choi and Mike yesterday. While Chen and Victoria explained, I tried to gather all the clues. Maybe I could make some sense out of it. I laid out the blueprint of Charles' factory on the table. Where could Charles be hiding his secret operations?

W7

My friend worked on mind control. He made a lot of progress but I burnt it all down due to how unethical it was.

I remembered what my dad said in his book. I snapped my fingers. That's it! Why didn't I think of it before? Charles is obviously the friend he was talking about. I'm so stupid to not have thought of this before.

Of course, Charles is working on mind control. That explains the androids and the blindfolded people. They were probably the lab rats. I got it!

"Guys!" I called "In the conversation Anita and the man had yesterday, he spoke of trying out things on the patients"

"So, the patients could be the blindfolded people?" Choi asked.

"Exactly" I snapped my fingers "Remember in my dad's book of conspiracies, he said Charles was working on mind control. It makes sense. That's why he has androids. It's been his experiment for years"

"So, what does this have to do with the pens?" Chen asked "Now, we know he's planning something evil"

"We need to get to his secret lair. Those pens probably have mind control properties"

"But how?"

"I don't know but we have to find out. In my dad's book, it said something about W7 and The Council mentioned it too"

We all looked at the map. The lair could be anywhere. How can we even find it?

"It's just a thought" Victoria said "But 'W' could stand for West as a cardinal point"

She calculated the center of the map and circled the West region. "The 7 could mean the 7th angle" she tried to find it with a longitude and latitude method but it was a dead end.

"We should go check it out" I said "It might be a dead end on the map but it could be a building or something on grounds. If he's experimenting on people, it has to be somewhere hidden"

"Ada, it was just an assumption. I'm not even sure"

"But you could be correct. That's the only sensible explanation. See, we don't have enough time. Let's split up and go. If the rest of you don't hear from us in a while, try to call or come look for us. It could be a dead end but we just have to try"

My instincts were telling me that Victoria might be correct. W7 might not just be a person. It could be a coordinate on the map or something- the location of where the experiments were taking place. Why else will my dad have it in his book?