Chapter 4 – The First Key

The train to Budapest rattled through the countryside, swaying with a rhythm that never quite settled into comfort. Outside, winter fields blurred past in muted shades of brown and gray, patches of frost clinging stubbornly to the earth. The windows were fogged with condensation, turning the landscape into smears of color, as though the world itself was reluctant to be seen. Every so often, the train hit a joint in the tracks with a metallic clang, jolting passengers and luggage alike.

Maya sat across from Damian, the narrow table between them cluttered with two half finished coffees and a folded map neither of them had touched in hours. She clutched the folder of clippings she’d copied from the Chronicle archives, the paper edges softened from handling, as if the more she held them the more they might yield their secrets.

Her eyes kept drifting to one article in particular the one with a jagged red circle drawn around a single word: Cipher. The ink bled through the page, heavy and deliberate, as though whoever had marked it had wanted that word to scream louder than all the others.

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“The observatory?” she asked quietly, breaking the long silence.

Damian nodded. “Elias used to spend nights there as a student. If he left a trail, that’s where it begins.”

Maya pressed. “Why would he hide clues? Why not just destroy this Cipher?”

His gaze flicked toward the passing darkness outside. “Because he didn’t trust anyone not even himself. Varga was brilliant, but paranoid. He believed the Cipher was too dangerous to use, but too valuable to erase. So he left breadcrumbs. A puzzle only someone persistent enough would follow.”

Maya shifted in her seat. “Persistent or foolish.”

For the first time since she’d met him, Damian allowed himself a small grin. “Sometimes they’re the same thing.”

The observatory sat on a hill outside the city, its rusted dome split by cracks, glass windows long shattered. The night air smelled of rain and old stone. Their footsteps echoed as they pushed through the creaking door.

Inside, dust floated in shafts of moonlight. Broken telescopes leaned against the walls like skeletons of a forgotten age.

Maya pulled out the photo from the archive the one with Varga storming out of the conference. “Look,” she whispered, pointing at the background. The mural painted on the wall matched the observatory’s ceiling: constellations in faded gold.

“Coordinates,” Damian muttered, tracing his finger along the stars. “He embedded a code in the mural.”

Maya snapped pictures with her phone. Her journalist’s instincts told her this was the first breadcrumb the beginning of Varga’s trail.

Then glass shattered.

The sound came from above, a sharp crack echoing through the dome.

“Down!” Damian yanked her to the floor just as a bullet splintered the wooden railing above them.

Maya’s heart leapt into her throat. “Sniper?”

Damian drew a compact pistol from his coat. “Stay low.”

Another shot rang out, splinters showering her hair. Dust and plaster rained from the ceiling. Whoever was up there had them pinned.

Damian fired blindly toward the broken window. The echo ricocheted through the chamber.

“We need another exit!” Maya hissed.

“There,” Damian pointed an old service door half-hidden behind a collapsed telescope.

They crawled, keeping to the shadows as more bullets cracked against stone. Maya’s pulse thundered, every second stretching into eternity.

The door resisted at first, rust groaning, but Damian shoved hard. It burst open, revealing a narrow staircase spiraling downward into darkness.

They stumbled into the passage, Damian slamming the door shut behind them.

The gunfire ceased.

For a moment, there was only silence thick, suffocating silence.

Maya’s breath came in ragged gasps. “They knew we’d be here.”

Damian’s jaw tightened. “Helix doesn’t make mistakes. They want the Cipher as badly as we want to stop them.”

From the corner of her eye, Maya noticed something carved into the wall fresh, unlike the rest of the decayed stone. She held up her phone light.

It was a series of numbers.

“Coordinates,” she whispered.

Damian’s eyes narrowed as he read them. “Vienna.”

Before Maya could respond, the stairwell shook. A muffled thud above them an explosive charge.

“They’re sealing the building.” Damian grabbed her arm. “Move!”

They burst out of the observatory’s rear exit just as the dome collapsed behind them, fire and dust spewing into the night sky. Maya stumbled, coughing, staring at the flames.

“They tried to bury us alive,” she gasped.

Damian holstered his weapon, face grim. “That was a warning.”

Maya’s hands trembled as she held up her phone, the photo of the coordinates still glowing.

“Then we’d better follow the next clue,” she said. “Before Helix does.”

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