All Chapters of my girlfriend's Dad: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The silence inside the relay station felt heavier than the storm outside. The screens were blank now, the air thick with static and smoke from the dying circuits. Cole had locked down every terminal, sealed every comm channel, and yet the faint hum in the walls still felt wrong—like the whole building was listening.Eli stood by the narrow window, staring at the charred remains of the safe-house on the monitor’s final frozen image. That had been their refuge, their command post, their last illusion of safety. Now it was nothing but a memory and a crater.Damian stood behind him, arms crossed, eyes on the faint flicker of light still crawling through one of the backup monitors. “He wants us afraid,” he said quietly. “He wants us second-guessing every move.”Cole came back into the room, wiping his hands on a rag. “Well, congratulations to him—mission accomplished. We’re ghosts now. No comms, no allies, no supply chain. You wanted dark, boss? We’re blind, too.”Damian ignored the jab. “

The storm outside had finally broken, but the rain didn’t stop—it just softened into a steady rhythm, tapping against the warped metal of the relay station. The sky was bruised and low, the kind of gray that swallowed the horizon whole. Inside, the air smelled of smoke and burnt circuits. Eli crouched beside the wrecked transmitter, his hands trembling as he picked through the tangle of melted wires. The emergency lights painted the room a deep, suffocating red, casting long shadows across the floor. Every few seconds, the lights flickered, and each flicker felt like a heartbeat skipping. Damian stood behind him, silent. He hadn’t said much since the explosion that took the generator offline. His clothes were soaked, his hair plastered to his forehead. He looked half-alive—like a man walking a thin line between sanity and something darker. Eli exhaled shakily. “We’re done, Damian. The system’s fried. The relay’s dead.” “Not dead,” Damian said quietly. “Just sleeping.” Eli turned

By the time they reached the edge of the city, dawn had already surrendered to a colorless haze. The skyline loomed like the skeleton of some enormous machine—wires dangling from shattered towers, lights flickering in chaotic waves. Eli leaned forward, peering through the cracked windshield of the battered car they’d stolen an hour earlier. His voice was barely above a whisper. “Is it just me, or is the air… vibrating?” Damian didn’t answer right away. He was gripping the steering wheel too tightly, every nerve locked on the rhythmic hum that pulsed through the world around them. It was faint but constant, like the heartbeat of something buried deep under the city. “It’s not your imagination,” he said finally. “He’s spread the waveform through every frequency—power lines, radio signals, even the atmospheric layer. The entire city’s a transmitter now.” The car rattled as they passed under a flickering streetlight. The bulb above them flashed red for an instant, then dimmed to whi

The tower didn’t look like it was built. It looked like it had grown. From a distance, its shape bent the skyline—an impossible silhouette of black steel and light that pulsed with a rhythm too organic to be mechanical. The cables running into its base stretched across the ruins like veins, feeding it. The city around it was dead: no movement, no traffic, only the faint hum of the tower breathing in the smog. Eli tightened his scarf and glanced at Damian. They’d been walking for hours, cutting through alleyways of shattered glass and burned-out drones. Damian’s steps were slower now. Each movement looked measured, deliberate—like he was counting seconds. “You holding together?” Eli asked. Damian nodded, though his voice sounded thin. “The signal’s stronger here. Every meter we move, it feels like static under my skin.” Eli checked the handheld scanner, its screen flickering with noise. “S

The lift groaned beneath them, sliding downward instead of up this time. The glow of the upper layers faded behind them, leaving the narrow shaft bathed in shadows. Only the faint pulse of blue from Damian’s arm illuminated the walls—thin, rhythmic, like a heartbeat echoing through steel. Eli gripped the railing tightly. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Damian’s jaw tightened. His red-and-blue eye flickered faintly. “I don’t have a choice. The tower isn’t done yet. There’s one last layer—the core itself.” Eli swallowed hard. “And Carter?” Damian’s gaze hardened. “Fragments remain. But this is where we finish it. Or… die trying.” The shaft descended further than Eli imagined possible. The hum of the tower deepened into a low rumble, vibrating through the metal walls, through their bones. The closer they got, the more the pulse of light along Damian’s veins grew, syncing with the machinery aroun