The night after the announcement of Project Providence, Queen's Crest buzzed like a beehive kicked by fate itself. Rumors bred more rumors, students whispered in the halls like fugitives, and even teachers began to walk in pairs.
Amara had barely slept. The photo from the archives sat under her pillow, like a restless ghost. Her phone buzzed at 4:16 a.m. It was a one-line message from Toni:
"Meet me behind the west greenhouse. Come alone."
Amara was dressed and out within three minutes.
---
Toni was waiting beside the cracked marble statue of Queen Althea I, her breath visible in the cold air. Her royal poise was intact, but her eyes were now wilder than Amara had ever seen.
"You saw the file," she said.
Amara nodded. "And the photograph."
"My mother was one of the first participants. She didn't survive the trials."
There was a pause. A pause filled with things too big to say.
Toni looked away. "They promised the daughters of powerful families would become future leaders. Groomed in silence. Raised with discipline. Purified by fear."
"Is that what we are to them? Projects?"
"Pawns," Toni corrected. "Useful ones. Until we start asking questions."
Amara felt the heaviness in her chest. "So what now?"
Toni pulled a tiny device from her jacket, a USB stick shaped like a violin bow. "Ralene decrypted this from the admin server. It contains names. Schedules. Interviews. Even test results."
"Of who?"
"Of us. Every student who was ever marked."
Amara stared at it like it might explode. "How do we know it's real?"
"Because mine's on it. And so is yours."
---
Meanwhile, Adrian was at the headmaster's office, he was not invited but was forced. He'd stormed in at sunrise and demanded answers.
The headmaster, Mr. Farouk, sat stiffly behind his desk, eyes guarded.
"You uploaded classified files," he said coldly.
"Classified torture programs," Adrian replied. "Big difference."
"You put the entire school in danger."
"You put the entire school in chains. I just rattled them."
Farouk sighed, but there was a twitch in his jaw. "Do you know what Project Providence actually is?"
"Do you? Or are you just a puppet with a well-tailored suit?"
The headmaster stood.
"You think you're fighting some noble war, boy. But you're out of your depth. This school is older than your rebellion. Older than your father's politics. It survives because it adapts."
Adrian clenched his fists. "Not this time. This time, we expose it."
"Be careful," Farouk warned. "When you expose a rot, the whole tree can fall."
---
At noon, the first list was leaked.
Twenty-seven names.
Students currently enrolled at Queen's Crest. All marked as part of Phase IV of Project Providence.
Two girls were pulled out of class by their parents within the hour. One tried to jump from the East Tower and had to be restrained.
The school went into soft lockdown.
And still, the truth flowed.
---
Author's Note (in between):
Queen's Crest is no longer just a school. it's a chessboard soaked in gasoline. Every piece, from the royal heiresses to the silent watchers, is being pushed to the edge of sanity. I want readers to feel the breathless dread building behind every whispered conversation, the weight of legacy crashing down on shoulders not yet grown. The labyrinth they now walk is one of choice and consequence. And not everyone will find their way out.
---
By evening, the war councils had formed.
Amara, Toni, Adrian, and Ralene met in the underground rehearsal hall. The lights were dimmed, their voices low.
"They're going to cancel classes," Toni said. "Blame this all on a cyber-attack."
"And transfer out the students they deem 'problematic'," Adrian added.
Ralene was tracing lines on an old blueprint. "There's a room in the west wing, lower basement. No cameras. No access records."
"What's in it?" Amara asked.
"According to the files? Interviews. Brain-mapping. Sensory tests."
"You mean torture."
Ralene didn't argue.
They looked at one another. Not as students, but as survivors.
"We go tonight," Adrian said.
"All of us?" Toni asked.
"No," Amara said firmly. "They'll expect that. I go with Ralene. Toni and Adrian stay and monitor the admin response. If we get caught..."
"We won't," Ralene said. "We can't."
As the meeting ended, the school's old bells tolled five times. But it sounded different tonight.
Less like tradition.
More like a warning.
End of Chapter Twenty-Nine.