A light rain fell over Bellmont that night. In the underground IT room, the only sound was the rapid tapping of Jasper's fingers dancing across his keyboard. On the screen, a loading bar crept forward:
"Accessing Archive Server: 82%"
Rossie stood behind him, her breath held tight. Liam was keeping watch in the hallway, and Nichole sat nearby, jotting down every piece of data that appeared.
"There are thousands of files here… most of them are double-encrypted. But this one's strange," Jasper said suddenly.
"What is it?" Rossie asked, stepping closer.
"Your mom's name… Alya Singgih, right?"
Rossie nodded.
Jasper clicked on a large PDF labeled:
Case Review_A.Singgih_Yr2006_CONFIDENTIAL
"Bingo," he whispered, opening the document. A black-and-white scan appeared: minutes from a Bellmont Foundation board meeting, dated 2006.
Transcript of Bellmont Foundation Board Meeting – May 14, 2006
"…By unanimous decision, we hereby terminate the contract of Alya Singgih due to violations of teacher ethics and the spread of conspiracy theories that have damaged the reputation of the foundation."
"Decision signed by G. Lancaster, Chair of the Board."
Rossie's eyes scanned the document rapidly. Her face paled.
"Conspiracy theories? What did they accuse my mom of?"
"There's an attachment," Jasper muttered. "It's… a video?"
He opened a file labeled:
EvidenceFootage_A.S_03
The footage was grainy. But there, onscreen, was a woman—Alya Singgih—arguing with a man in a dim office. The audio was muffled, but when Jasper boosted the sound, the voices grew clearer:
Alya: "You can't hide the truth, Greg! There's manipulated data in the student admissions system. If this goes public, it will destroy the school's reputation!"
Man: "You know too much, Alya. This is for Bellmont's good."
Alya: "If this is good, why are you hiding everything from the other teachers?"
The screen went dark. The video cut off.
Rossie stared at Jasper. "This… this proves she knew about the manipulation in the admissions system."
Nichole's face was filled with shock. "Maybe that's why she was dismissed. Or maybe… it was more than that."
Liam, who had been silent until now, spoke quietly, "Maybe she wasn't just fired. Maybe she was silenced…"
A Few Days Later
They printed the documents and saved digital copies to an encrypted USB drive. Jasper hid it inside a fake laptop casing. But they all knew—they couldn't hold onto this for long.
"I know someone we can trust with this. Someone who can get it to the media… Mr. Daniel," Liam said.
Rossie blinked. "The history teacher?"
"He's been here a long time. He was once close with your mom," Liam replied. "But he'll need to be convinced this is real."
Faculty Room – Morning
Mr. Daniel read through the file silently. His expression was grim.
"You understand this could destroy the Bellmont Foundation?"
Rossie looked him in the eye. "We're not the ones destroying Bellmont. The people hiding the truth are."
Mr. Daniel glanced at each of them before finally speaking:
"I'll help you. But you'll need to be more careful than ever. If Lancaster finds out you have this, you won't just be expelled… you'll be erased from this school's system."