Chapter 2

"To be honest, part of this is our fault. The company has had some internal problems over the past six months. Things got disorganized, so it took us this long to notice that your records didn't match."

My mind went completely blank.

"Then are you saying the badge I used and the employee apartment I lived in were fake too?"

Without thinking, I reached into my pocket and touched my employee badge. It had the Synapse Future logo, along with my name and job title. It looked exactly the same as Juniper's and the administrative specialist's badges.

Seeing how shaken I was, the officer softened his tone.

"Mr. Clarke, please stay calm. Can you tell us the exact location of the office where you worked? We'll go there right now and verify everything."

I gave them the address. But when we got there, I was stunned.

The office in front of me was exactly where I had worked every day. My desk was there. My computer was there. Even the photocopies of my mother's medical records that I had kept in my desk drawer were still there.

But Juniper and the administrative specialist both looked completely confused.

"This isn't our office layout."

Juniper walked around my desk. "Our Engineering Department has an open office layout. There aren't any private desks by the windows. And we definitely don't have employee housing upstairs."

I ran to the window on the third floor and pointed at the cafeteria below.

"I eat lunch there every day!"

"That's the cafeteria for the office building next door," the administrative specialist explained. "Our company has its own break room, so we've never ordered food from there."

The officer turned on the computer at my desk. It was filled with project files I had worked on over the past six months.

"These files are indeed for Synapse Future projects. But we checked the company's servers, and there isn't a single record of you submitting any of them. Didn't you notice anything strange during these past six months?"

I froze for a moment before slowly shaking my head.

"No. I thought the company just had great benefits. They even provided employee housing. Our apartment is in the building across the street from the office. Two people share a two-bedroom apartment. Maverick and I live together. Sometimes when we worked late into the night, we'd just stay there instead of commuting home. It saved us a lot of travel time."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my apartment key. A small metal tag hung from it, engraved with the words "Synapse Future Employee Apartments."

"This is my apartment key. Mr. Leonard told me it was one of the company's employee benefits. Utilities were free, and we only had to pay the building maintenance fee. I've lived there for almost six months without any problems. So how could any of this be fake?"

Juniper frowned even harder.

"Mr. Clarke, that is absolutely not one of our employee benefits. Our company has never provided housing, and we've never had any 'employee apartments.' It's true that a few of our employees rent apartments in the building you mentioned, but they arranged those rentals themselves. The company has nothing to do with them. Also, that apartment building has very strict security. The front entrance is locked every night at 11:00 p.m. Visitors can't get inside after that, and employees who don't live there certainly couldn't stay overnight."

"That's impossible!"

I quickly argued back, "I stayed there just last night. I worked until midnight before going back. The front entrance was still open, and the security guard even greeted me."

The administrative specialist took out his phone while speaking and pulled up a photo.

"Then that's even less likely. I took this picture last Saturday night when I walked past that apartment building. The entrance had already been locked a little after 10:00 p.m. You can even see the notice posted on the bulletin board. It says, 'Building closed from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.' Every resident knows that rule. Are you sure you didn't mistake it for somewhere else?"

I stared at the clearly visible notice in the photo. A chill ran down my spine.

During the past six months, the apartment entrance had never been locked.

No matter how late I came home, I could always walk in without any trouble.

The security guard was always sitting in the guard booth. Sometimes he'd glance up at me, but he had never once asked me to show my ID.