Nick cut As off mid-sentence, raising a hand to stop him. His voice was firm, "Look, ident or not, I have to go. Otherwise, joining the research institute would be pointless."


    As opened his mouth, knowing all too well how stubborn Nick could be, but ended up swallowing his words. "Just be careful, okay?"


    "Yeah," Nick replied softly, leaning back on the couch with his eyes closed, ending the conversation there.


    Seeing Nick''s resolve, As quietly left the room to start organizing his team for the necessary preparations.


    *


    After hanging up with As, Mirabe sat quietly for a few moments. She booted up herptop and shot a quick message to Adler on Messenger, "Anything big going down at the med schooltely?"


    Adler, already on his phone, quickly responded, "Haven''t heard a thing. Why the sudden interest?"


    Mirabe typed back, "Just curious."


    Adler ran a hand through his messy hair, knowing Mirabe wasn''t one to ask questions without reason. "Hang tight, I''ll see what I can find out," he replied.


    Mirabe ced her phone on the table and opened a program on herptop, typing in some codes at lightning speed. The screen shifted from ck to a satellite map, and she zoomed in on the red dot marking Nick''s phone location in the industrial outskirts of town. The dot hadn''t moved.


    She leaned back in her chair, remembering that thend where Nick was currently located had been part of the Davis family''s assets in Riverdale, information As had shared before. Clearly, As had been stalling during their call.


    Her focus stayed on the screen until her phone buzzed. Picking it up, she saw Adler''s message: "I asked around, nothing''s up."


    Mirabe traced the edge of her phone with her finger, quickly replying, "Alright, thanks for checking."


    Adler texted back, "No problem at all. Just let me know if you need anything else."


    Gotta keep the boss happy, he thought.


    Mirabe sent back a smiley emoji and closed the chat. She nced at the stationary red dot on herptop, then grabbed some physics papers from a drawer and began working through them slowly.


    Time ticked by, and just as she was finishing thest paper, the red dot finally began to move. She kept writing, asionally ncing at the screen to see where Nick was headed at this hour.


    About half an hourter, near midnight, the red dot stopped. A few minutes after that, it vanishedpletely.


    Mirabe narrowed her eyes, pulling theputer closer to zoom in on the area where the dot disappeared. There were nondmarks, a sure sign it was a location designed to be off the radar.


    There were maic field interferences and signal jammers.


    She pondered for a moment, fingers tapping swiftly across the keyboard.


    A ''Hacking Failed'' message popped up on the screen.


    Mirabe''s lips curled into a sly smile. Things were getting interesting.


    She exited the program and began entering another string of codes.


    *


    Meanwhile, elsewhere...


    "It''s no good, As. They''ve got signal jammers set up here," said the technician in the car, his expression serious as he worked on hisptop. "I''ve tried a bunch of decryption methods, but none can get past the interference."