Chapter 36: The Rookie's Poor, Maiden Heart
Eve woke up the next morning on the couch. She lifted her head and squinted toward the laptop still running on the coffee table, cycling through different video feeds.
A sharp cramp shot through her neck. The tension refused to let go, no matter how many times she rolled it. She pressed her fingers into the tight muscle, hissing as the ache sharpened and tears threatened to rise.
Yeah. She had definitely slept wrong.
"Good morning, Eve!" Milk chirped as he appeared on the screen. He watched her sit up and rub her neck. "I told you last night you should've slept in your bed."
Eve shot him an annoyed glare. "There's no way I would've been able to sleep in there," she muttered, working through her tangled bedhead with her fingers.
"Still no news?" she asked, already bracing herself for the answer.
Milk shook his head. "I'm sorry. I've been searching for anyone matching the criteria, but… I couldn't find anything. I'm really sorry," he said, ears drooping as he tried to cover his face with his paws.
Eve gave a bitter smile.
"It's not your fault, Milk. You can only do what you're programmed to do," she murmured, lowering her head. "I didn't do a good enough job. My skills just aren't there yet."
"You're already one of the most intelligent people in the world, Eve. Don't sell yourself short," Milk said earnestly. "We'll figure this out. We just need a little more brainpower and maybe a new direction! Who knows? Maybe after a good breakfast, you'll come up with another brilliant idea!" He waved his paws enthusiastically.
Eve gave him a small, reluctant smile and stood to make herself something to eat. She knew he'd nag her if she didn't.
She quickly poured a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table. As she chewed, fragments of a dream from the night before surfaced in her mind.
It had been a memory, one from when she and Elias were around three years old.
Though they looked very different now, back then—up until about five—they'd looked nearly identical.
Sometimes, in the past, their mother, Sylvia, thought it would be funny and cute to dress them in each other's clothes and make their father guess which twin was which.
Harold had nearly failed the challenge. He could barely tell his daughter apart from his son.
In the end, what gave it away was Elias bursting into tears.
When they were little, Eve rarely cried without a good reason. She'd always been unusually calm and observant for her age. Elias, on the other hand, cried for all the typical reasons a toddler might.
It was a memory she avoided bringing up. Elias never took it well. He'd go totally silent until people stopped teasing him. Of course he didn't want to be reminded that his own mother had once dressed him as a little girl when he was too young to know any better.
Still, the dream brought a smile to her face. As images of Elias looking ridiculously cute in a dress played through her mind, she suddenly froze mid-bite, her spoon hovering near her mouth. Her eyes widened as a sudden realization struck.
She shot up from her seat so abruptly that her bowl clattered and toppled over with a loud bang, splashing cereal and milk all over the table.
"Agh! Eve, are you okay? What was that noise?" Milk yelped, his voice tinged with worry.
Eve rushed to the laptop, excitement lighting up her face. Her sudden movement made Milk's fur stand on end as his avatar recoiled in surprise.
"W-what is it?" he asked, breathing heavily in exaggerated animation.
"Milk, I've been too narrow-minded—we all have!" Eve said, her eyes shining. "The person who took Elias is a master of disguise, right? What if the kidnapper wasn't disguised as a man… but as a woman?"
Milk's jaw dropped. "Wait, a woman? That's right! That's totally possible! See? I told you you'd figure it out!"
"Milk, search the mall's security cameras from the time Elias disappeared. Focus on women between six-foot-one and six-foot-four, especially anyone carrying something large enough to hide a person," Eve instructed, already calculating. "There aren't many women that tall, and even fewer who match the other conditions."
"On it!" Milk saluted as the screen switched to fast-scrolling lines of code.
About thirty seconds later, a video popped up. A tall, striking woman with her hair in a bun was effortlessly hauling around a giant teddy bear. She clicked a remote to unlock an SUV, opened the back door, and strapped the bear in with a seatbelt before climbing into the driver's seat and pulling away.
Eve's eyes narrowed. "Milk, find out everything you can about her. Track the vehicle too. Look for inconsistencies in her identity."
Another flurry of code scrolled across the screen before multiple files and documents appeared.
"This woman is highly suspicious," Milk reported, binary code flashing in the depths of his eyes. "Bianca Greene. There's no record of her ever living or working in Everett Falls. She was supposedly born in a remote town where hospital and documentation standards are notoriously bad. Her listed parents died ten years ago. No school records. Says she's a freelance home decorator, but I can't find any legitimate jobs—just unverifiable ones or references from people who don't exist. The job that supposedly brought her to Everett Falls? It's linked to a third-party client with no real trail."
His tone darkened as more files filled the screen.
"Even her social media is practically blank. Just a few early posts and photos. All of her listed friends are bots. It's definitely a fake account."
Eve stared at the screen, her heart pounding.
This might really be their guy.
"Milk, is there any footage of this woman entering the mall? If she's real, there should be camera records of her walking in," Eve asked, trying to confirm her hunch as she tapped her fingers on the coffee table.
"None. It's like she popped into the mall out of nowhere," Milk confirmed.
Eve didn't leap to conclusions just yet.
"Any footage of how the SUV got into the parking lot? Rewind the feed and tell me what you see."
She absentmindedly twisted a strand of hair while Milk rewound the security footage. The SUV arrived approximately fifteen minutes before the woman appeared with the teddy bear. It pulled into the lot alongside another vehicle. A man wearing a face mask stepped out of the SUV and climbed into the passenger seat of the second car, which drove away—leaving the SUV behind with the keys still inside.
"I couldn't make out the passenger, but I recognized the driver," Milk said, drawing a circle around his face on-screen. "He's got a criminal record for identity theft, fraud, and carjacking. He's probably a broker or middle man of some kind."
Milk turned to Eve, energized.
"Eve, I'm 99% sure that woman is our culprit. Or I guess, technically that's a man—but… that teddy bear has to be Elias!"
"I know. I think so, too," Eve said, glaring at the still image of the so-called woman. "Milk, send this information anonymously to the police. Make sure they see it. And track where the SUV went… or at least how far you can follow it."
"Got it! I'll make the message super clear!"
Milk suddenly appeared in a little mailman outfit and stuffed the videos, documents, and data into a virtual satchel. "Be right back!"
Eve nodded and walked to the kitchen to clean up the mess she'd made earlier. She furrowed her brow as she scrubbed the table, distracted.
'Please don't let it be too late.'
---
Meanwhile, at the Everett Falls Police Station, 11:00 a.m.—
The station buzzed with activity as officers juggled multiple tasks. The atmosphere was tense; everyone felt the pressure, but no one let themselves slow down.
Miss Kim was speaking with Chief Diaz, who looked far more haggard than usual. Though Miss Kim still appeared composed and polished, thanks in part to her bronze-tier Awakener status. Her hair and clothes stayed pristine despite staying up through the night. On the other hand, Chief Diaz, a middle-aged regular human, clearly hadn't slept. Her usual neat black hair was fraying in every direction from her bun. The dark circles under her eyes told their own story. The coffee cup in her shaking hand looked like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
"Sorry. We're trying," Chief Diaz said with a weary sigh. "But there's been zero leads. And while we want to focus on this, we can't assign every officer to one case. There's still other crime in the city."
Miss Kim nodded, arms crossed. The two were familiar. Miss Kim had shown up before, usually accompanied by people from higher government agencies. She would sometimes take over strange, brutal cases without explaining why. Diaz never knew the full scope of what those cases entailed, only that they were far above her pay grade. She knew Miss Kim was the principal of Everett Private Academy, but that clearly wasn't her only role.
"Don't worry," Miss Kim said with a calm smile, tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear. "I wouldn't ask for something that unreasonable."
Still, the growing knot in her stomach wouldn't leave.
Elias was one of her students. And while she hadn't been fond of him at first, that didn't mean she wanted anything bad to happen to him.
More than that, she risked losing two potential Awakeners in one go if things went wrong.
If Eve was right, as she often was, then Elias was likely to awaken in the future. That kind of potential was rare. And awakeners, even talented ones, died far too often. Aegis was in constant need of fresh blood to replace the ones who'd fallen.
That was the sad fact of the Awakened world: more power meant an increased risk of death.
Then there was Eve herself. Miss Kim had long since noticed the unhealthy depth of her attachment to her brother. An obsession so intense and consuming that if Elias died or was never found, Miss Kim doubted Eve would ever recover.
She wasn't just guessing either. Her instincts and intuition were sharp. The only outcomes she could imagine were grim: either Eve would spiral into despair or burn herself out pursuing revenge.
If they lost Eve, they wouldn't just be losing a potential Awakener. They'd be losing a genius that might not appear again for another hundred years.
Miss Kim didn't want to lose either of them, especially Eve. While she had initially approached the girl for recruitment purposes, she'd genuinely grown fond of her. The thought of such a bright, talented girl wasting away in depression was something she couldn't bear.
On the other side of the police station, Detective Clifford juggled the phone and a computer monitor. He had arrived around 6 a.m., only to learn what had happened to Elias.
His stomach dropped.
Hadn't he just warned the kid to be careful a few weeks ago?
But when he heard the full story—how the kidnapper had posed as a fellow student—his hands clenched at his sides. That criminal didn't play by the rules. He couldn't blame Elias for falling into a trap like that. Who would be on guard around a harmless-looking boy their own age? And to kidnap him in the middle of a public place… the bastard was too skilled. Even Clifford, a seasoned detective, doubted he would've seen through such a trick—much less a naive, innocent high schooler.
He rubbed his temples and sighed, staring at the endless stream of emails. He'd volunteered to monitor the tip line after hearing the news. Even if the case wasn't officially his, he couldn't shake the guilt. He'd tried to help Elias, given him all the "situational awareness" advice he could—but it hadn't been enough.
It felt like a cruel joke.
'Come on,' he thought, clicking through the inbox. 'Give me something. Anything.'
Suddenly, a new email appeared with a cute cat emoji in the subject line.
"What the hell?" he muttered. "Spam?"
He moved to hit delete—only for an animated white cat in a mailman's outfit to leap onto the screen and catch the cursor in its paw. A speech bubble popped up:
"Don't! That email's important!"
"What the—? Is this a virus?" Clifford blurted, frowning as he tried to reclaim the mouse. It wouldn't move. The cat's paw held it firm. Another speech bubble appeared.
"This isn't a virus. I'm just dropping off a really important email that can save someone's life. This will help you guys with your investigation into Elias Graves. Don't make him wait any longer!"
The cartoon cat pointed dramatically at him with a stern expression. A tiny mustache twitched on its upper lip, making it all a bit hard to take seriously.
"Don't even think of deleting it. I've disabled that function. And if you don't open it, it'll appear on every screen in the building. I'm not here to cause trouble, but you have to take this seriously. Elias needs to be found before it's too late."
The cat vanished.
Clifford moved the mouse again; this time, it worked. He could control it. He chewed his cheek, staring at the email.
Someone had hacked into their system. Easily. That wasn't just suspicious—it was alarming. The station had some of the strongest cybersecurity in the country outside of military and higher level government agencies.
Could he trust a hacker who broke through those defenses? Were they connected to Elias, or just exploiting the situation to show off?
But… the cat had warned it would appear on every computer if ignored.
He sighed. If I accidentally unleash a virus on the department, I'll take full responsibility.
Still tense, he hovered the cursor and clicked the email. One eye squinted shut in anticipation for everything to go wrong— but nothing happened. It opened like a normal email.
Clifford exhaled sharply, then began to read.
It was detailed. The writer laid out a theory that the kidnapper had escaped disguised as a woman, and attached documents and surveillance footage as proof. Everything pointed to a suspicious figure using a fake identity, along with digital footprints suggesting a possible connection to Elias's disappearance.
Clifford gasped, covering his mouth.
He shot to his feet.
Without hesitation, he crossed the station and interrupted the active case meeting.
"Chief! You need to see this email. It might actually crack the case wide open!"
Before Diaz could protest, he grabbed her arm and led her toward his desk. Her brows shot up, but she followed. Clifford wasn't the type to cause a scene without reason.
He pointed to the screen the moment they arrived. "Look."
Diaz sat down, scrolling through the documents and watching snippets of video.
"This was sent anonymously?" she asked, eyes narrowing. "There's no way they got all this legally."
"Definitely not," Clifford muttered. "But Chief—we've got a lead now. We can worry about the sender later. Most kids missing more than 24 hours… don't come back." His voice cracked with unease as he dug his nails into his palm.
Diaz gave a grim nod. "You're right. Prep this for presentation. I want a meeting in ten minutes to review everything in this email."
She stood, then turned back briefly. "And don't grab me like that again. I can walk on my own."
Clifford rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yes, ma'am."
Ten minutes later, the entire department was focused on the projected email displayed on the meeting room whiteboard.
"Everyone," Chief Diaz began, "we have reason to believe that Elias Graves's kidnapper may have escaped disguised as a woman. This one right here." She pointed to the screen—an image of a tall, gorgeous woman with sharp, foxlike eyes and a hair bun.
"This is likely a man in disguise. Assume he's skilled, armed, and highly dangerous. He may have already abandoned this guise, so keep your eyes peeled."
A hesitant voice rose from the back. "Chief?"
It was one of the rookies. His face was pale.
"I—I think I've seen her. I mean… him."
Diaz blinked. "Where?"
"I stopped a woman out on the northern exit roads. I asked if she'd seen the kid. She mentioned Elias's name... I thought I might've slipped and said it first—but now I don't think I did."
Diaz immediately pulled down the large map of Everett Falls. "Show me where you were patrolling."
The rookie absentmindedly pointed at the area. She marked it with a red pin.
"Good job, rookie. This is the lead we've been waiting for."
The meeting continued, but the poor rookie sat in the back, covering his burning red face.
'God, my heart actually skipped for a damn man,' he thought, wanting to kick himself.
No one noticed his misery.