Kade read the message three times.
ASK YOUR FRIEND WHAT SHE GAVE HIM.
Across the clinic, Tobi slept with his mouth slightly open, one hand resting on his stomach.
Kade stared at him.
His mother had visited Tobi the afternoon before she disappeared.
He already knew that.
She had asked about their old mathematics textbook.
She had warned Tobi not to let him search alone.
But had there been something else?
Something Tobi hadn’t mentioned?
Kade reached for his friend’s shoulder.
Then stopped.
He looked at Adunni’s phone.
The screen had gone dark.
Whoever sent the messages knew about the waterworks.
They knew about his mother.
And they knew Tobi.
That last part bothered him most.
Kade pressed the power button.
The notifications were still there.
He couldn’t reply without unlocking the phone.
He couldn’t even see the sender.
"Wonderful," he muttered.
Mama Efe looked up from her desk.
"Problem?"
"Possibly."
"That sounds like a yes."
Kade hesitated.
"Has anyone been asking about us?"
She removed her glasses.
"No. Why?"
He showed her the screen.
She read the messages without touching the phone.
Her expression became thoughtful.
"Do you recognize the sender?"
"No."
"Can you reply?"
"Not without the passcode."
"Then don’t waste your strength fighting the phone."
She glanced toward Tobi.
"Wake your friend. Ask him."
Kade looked at her.
"That simple?"
"Most things become complicated because people refuse to begin with the obvious."
Tobi woke to find Kade staring at him.
He blinked.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Did my mother give you anything?"
Tobi rubbed his eyes.
"Good afternoon to you too."
"Tobi."
Something in Kade’s voice made him sit upright.
"What happened?"
Kade showed him the messages.
Tobi read them.
His sleepiness disappeared.
"Who sent these?"
"I don’t know."
"How do they know about the waterworks?"
"That’s what I’d like to find out."
Tobi read the final message again.
Then looked away.
Kade noticed.
"Tobi."
"She gave me the textbook."
"I know."
"That’s what we found the paper in."
"I know that too."
Tobi swallowed.
Kade’s chest tightened.
"What else?"
His friend rubbed his palms against his trousers.
"There was something."
Kade waited.
Tobi didn’t continue.
"What something?"
"A small envelope."
The clinic seemed to grow quieter.
"You never told me."
"I know."
"Where is it?"
"At home."
Kade stared.
For several seconds, he couldn’t find the words.
Then he laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
"An envelope."
Tobi lowered his eyes.
"My mother gave me an envelope, and you forgot to mention it?"
"I didn’t forget."
That was worse.
Kade felt anger rise through the exhaustion.
"You knew I was looking for her."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"And you kept something from me?"
Tobi looked up.
"She told me not to give it to you."
Kade went still.
"What?"
"Not immediately."
"Why?"
"She said there might come a time when you’d be frightened enough to believe anything that promised answers."
Kade stared at him.
Tobi’s voice grew quieter.
"She told me to wait until you were willing to stop and think."
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Kade turned toward the wall.
His ankle throbbed.
His shoulder ached.
He wanted to shout.
Instead, he asked, "Why didn’t you tell me she’d said that?"
Tobi looked miserable.
"Because I thought you’d demand the envelope."
"I would have."
"Exactly."
Kade turned back.
"That doesn’t make it your decision."
"I know."
"She’s my mother."
"I know that too."
Tobi stood.
"And she’s the woman who fed me every time I showed up at your house pretending I wasn’t hungry."
Kade fell silent.
"She helped me pay for my WAEC registration when my father couldn’t afford everything. She never told you because she knew you’d turn it into a competition over who owed whom."
Kade looked down.
He hadn’t known.
Tobi continued.
"When she asked me to keep something safe, I promised her I would."
His voice cracked slightly.
"I didn’t know she was going to disappear."
The anger drained from Kade, leaving something heavier behind.
He remembered Adunni standing in the kitchen.
Complaining about the price of tomatoes.
Pretending not to notice when Tobi took a second helping.
There were pieces of her life he’d never thought to ask about.
"I’m sorry," Kade said.
Tobi sat again.
"Me too."
Kade looked at the phone.
"Do you know what’s inside?"
"No."
"Did you open it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because she sealed it."
Kade almost smiled.
"Since when has that stopped you?"
"Since your mother threatened to tell my own mother what happened to her blender."
Despite himself, Kade laughed.
"What did you do to the blender?"
"That story is classified."
Bamidele returned twenty minutes later.
He carried a small bag of food and a slip of paper.
"I’ve arranged for someone to take you for an X-ray tomorrow morning," he told Kade. "Mama Efe will explain where."
Kade nodded.
"Thank you."
Bamidele placed the food on the desk.
"What’s wrong?"
Tobi looked at Kade.
Kade considered how much to say.
"My mother’s phone received messages."
Bamidele stopped unpacking the food.
"From whom?"
"Unknown."
"About what?"
"The waterworks. And something she left with Tobi."
Bamidele’s expression tightened.
"Did the messages tell you to go somewhere?"
"No."
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because someone who knows where you’ve been doesn’t necessarily know where you should go."
Kade remembered the shrine.
The guardian.
The recording.
"Could the shrine have told someone?"
"Possibly."
"Could the woman in grey have sent them?"
"Possibly."
"The hunter?"
Bamidele spread his hands.
"Kade, I can’t identify people from possibilities."
It wasn’t the answer Kade wanted.
But it was the answer he needed.
He looked at the phone.
"Then we don’t follow instructions just because they mention my mother."
Bamidele nodded.
"That’s a better starting point."
That evening, rain began falling over Lagos.
Not a gentle rain.
A proper October downpour that hammered rooftops and turned the street outside the clinic into a shallow river.
Mama Efe insisted Kade remain on the examination bed.
Tobi sat beside the window, watching water run along the gutter.
Kade opened the System.
[HOST STATUS]
[ASE CORE: ABSENT]
[SPIRITUAL ENERGY: 19 UNITS]
[PHYSICAL CONDITION: IMPAIRED]
[FOREIGN INSTINCT ACTIVITY: LOW]
Nothing had changed.
No reward for escaping the hunter.
No miraculous recovery.
No new ability.
Kade dismissed the interface.
He was beginning to understand something unpleasant.
The System could help him survive dangers that should have killed him.
But it couldn’t make his decisions for him.
And it certainly couldn’t tell him whom to trust.
He turned toward Tobi.
"Where did you put the envelope?"
"Inside my old schoolbag."
"At your house?"
"Yes."
"Somewhere obvious?"
Tobi shook his head.
"The bag has a torn lining. I slipped it between the fabric and the cardboard."
Kade nodded.
"We’ll get it when it’s safe."
Tobi looked surprised.
"You’re not asking me to go tonight?"
"Should I?"
"No."
"Then why would I?"
"Because yesterday you wanted to enter a building that swallowed stones."
Kade considered that.
"Fair criticism."
Tobi smiled.
Then his expression became serious.
"There’s something else."
Kade felt his stomach tighten.
"Please don’t tell me there’s another envelope."
"No."
"Good."
"When your mother gave it to me, she said something strange."
Kade waited.
"She said, ’If Kade starts hearing me when I’m not there, don’t let him answer.’"
The rain seemed louder.
Kade remembered the Veil Stalker.
Its voice.
Its face.
The way it had used Adunni’s memories to lure him toward the door.
He swallowed.
"Did she say why?"
"No."
"Anything else?"
Tobi thought carefully.
"She said there were things that could borrow a voice without understanding the person it belonged to."
Kade stared at him.
"Why didn’t you mention that before?"
"I thought it was part of the warning about the voices. I didn’t understand what she meant."
Kade couldn’t argue.
Neither would he have understood it two days earlier.
He looked toward the rain-darkened window.
His mother had known something dangerous existed.
Something capable of imitating her.
But knowing about a threat didn’t explain how she had learned of it.
And it didn’t prove she knew anything about the System.
Kade kept those questions separate.
He was tired of mistaking possibilities for answers.
Near midnight, Tobi’s phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
A message from his mother.
WHERE ARE YOU?
He typed a reply.
SAFE. WITH KADE. I’LL EXPLAIN TOMORROW.
A second message arrived almost immediately.
SOMEONE CAME ASKING FOR YOU.
Tobi sat upright.
Kade noticed.
"What?"
Tobi showed him the screen.
Another message appeared.
HE SAID HE WAS YOUR OLD TEACHER.
Tobi frowned.
"That’s strange."
"Why?"
"Because none of my teachers would come looking for me at this hour."
The phone vibrated again.
I DIDN’T LET HIM IN.
Kade felt a cold weight settle in his stomach.
Then the final message arrived.
BUT HE KNEW ABOUT THE ENVELOPE.