Find me in your labyrinth (Stella and Jonathan) novel Chapter 2007

Harriet and Yulia were among the many who bombarded her with texts, all asking the same pressing question: [When are you coming back?]

She always replied with the same reassuring word: [Soon!]

After putting down her phone, Estelle slipped into her clothes and left her room. Descending into the subterranean level twelve, she found Bernard cozily nestled on the sofa with his lady, their lips locked in an endless kiss, lost in flirtation.

Upon Estelle's entrance, they didn't bother to cease their intimate display.

Fulfilling her role as a dutiful housekeeper, Estelle averted her gaze, her head bowed as she began tidying the room, avoiding intruding on her employer's private moments.

The underground was a dust-free sanctuary, leaving little for her to clean. Estelle made her way to the bedroom to gather the woman's discarded clothing.

By then, Bernard and his companion had grabbed some wine, ready to enjoy a leisurely afternoon fishing by the riverbank.

Estelle moved on to the study to clean. The computer was on, its screensaver displaying the Big Dipper against the vast night sky, with the constellation shining brightest of all.

She stared at the image, suspecting that a man like Bernard wouldn't have chosen such a screensaver without reason. Was it perhaps a longing for the stars he couldn't see from his subterranean hideaway?

Her instincts told her there was more to it. She seared the image of the Big Dipper into her memory, and while pretending to dust, she thoroughly searched the study once more.

A voice echoed in her mind, Amiee’s voice: "Could the data be inside the mouse?"

The first time Estelle had scanned the study with her invisible lenses, she'd detected an alarm within the mouse. They all assumed Bernard had installed it to prevent others from tampering with his computer – a logical precaution.

But maybe, just maybe, Raiden was the type to hide things in plain sight, right inside that mouse.

"How can we disable the alarm?" Estelle whispered.

Amiee hacked into the computer's system, her voice grave: "We can't. The alarm will trigger if anyone but Bernard's fingerprint touches the mouse."

Back at the villa, Estelle hastily sketched the Big Dipper from her memory and scrutinized it carefully. Something was off.

She compared it against the constellation on her phone and confirmed her suspicion: two stars in Bernard's version were slightly out of place.

Clearly, this was not an ordinary constellation chart. What did it represent?

What was the significance of those two displaced stars?

Furrowing her brow, a spark of insight flashed through Estelle's mind. She quickly pulled up the entire map of Tripe.

Tripe was vast, mostly uninhabited. The wealthiest area was the Mali Federation, the most militarily potent was in Gab's Silver Valley, and the most chaotic and dangerous was Citadel.

She compared the map of Tripe against the Big Dipper on Bernard's computer screen, her heart skipping a beat as her eyes widened in realization. A chill swept through her body as the pieces began to fall into place.