The sudden stop of the hum caused Juan and David to wince slightly, almost like it had affected them to hear it disappear. Juan seemed to struggle to shake his mind and reorient himself after the experience.

"That.. Was.. Awfully weird"

Juan responded slowly, the words drawn from him. Lila agreed, before she asked him, confused and awestruck;

"Where did you find that, dad? It felt... Kinda alive. The sound was unlike anything I had ever felt before"

David turned to face Lila and sat for a few seconds, thinking over the best answer to give her.

"I cannot reveal where we got this. However, I can tell you I do not think it is dangerous. What is dangerous however, is where it came from."

David gestured with his hand to emphasise the statement, Lila responded sarcastically.

"Alright, and let me guess, its some conspiracy or another like the crazy alien conspiracy theorist Thomson on the TV"

David raised his hand in response and paused for a moment, his hands traced each other and then moved upwards to interlock, fingers pointed forwards with thumbs almost parallel. A single motion of his hands punctuated his sentence;

"Lila, no conspiracy this is real. This came directly from the factory itself and is what caused the machines to light up. I can guarantee its presence in the factory, Juan's manager had also called into a local contractor. After that, Juan heard from some of his old colleagues that their manager arranged to have the factories cameras removed."

Lila listened to her father quietly, trying her best to comprehend everything. She didn't know how much more craziness she could deal with, a couple of months ago it was only dealing with Mr Thomson and now her father showed up on her doorstep talking about aliens.

The sudden stop of the hum caused Juan and David to wince slightly, almost like it had affected them to hear it disappear. Juan seemed to struggle to shake his mind and reorient himself after the experience.

"That.. Was.. Awfully weird"

Juan responded slowly, the words drawn from him. Lila agreed, before she asked him, confused and awestruck;

"Where did you find that, dad? It felt... Kinda alive. The sound was unlike anything I had ever felt before"

David turned to face Lila and sat for a few seconds, thinking over the best answer to give her.

"I cannot reveal where we got this. However, I can tell you I do not think it is dangerous. What is dangerous however, is where it came from."

David gestured with his hand to emphasise the statement, Lila responded sarcastically.

"Alright, and let me guess, its some conspiracy or another like the crazy alien conspiracy theorist Thomson on the TV"

David raised his hand in response and paused for a moment, his hands traced each other and then moved upwards to interlock, fingers pointed forwards with thumbs almost parallel. A single motion of his hands punctuated his sentence;

"Lila, no conspiracy this is real. This came directly from the factory itself and is what caused the machines to light up. I can guarantee its presence in the factory, Juan's manager had also called into a local contractor. After that, Juan heard from some of his old colleagues that their manager arranged to have the factories cameras removed."

Lila listened to her father quietly, trying her best to comprehend everything. She didn't know how much more craziness she could deal with, a couple of days ago it was only thinking about Thomson, the alien enthusiast on the news and now her father showed up on her doorstep talking about some weird as hell vial.

David put the vial into the pocket, his hand quickly patted over it. Gently making sure that no matter what happened it would remain with him. Juan's phone buzzed, and the man got distracted for a few seconds.

A silence crept over them, Juan checked his phone and sighed before standing up. He gave a concerned smile to Lila. He smiled at her before continuing on and responding apologetically.

"Hermana, listen. I am real sorry about bringing this to you Lila, you don't need to be apart of this or help us investigate what is going on if you don't want. I didn’t realise you didn’t have a good relationship with your father"

Lila saw him and laughed, rolling her eyes;

"What the heck, of course, we're gonna investigate. The whole thing reeks of a government coverup and you better believe I’m not leaving you to uncover everything on your own! I think you can see the relationship with my dad isn’t great, but the fact is I’m not going to leave a friend alone and now it does involve us, doesn't it. So no worries!"

Lila stepped around the table and hugged Juan, a man who had become an older brother figure over the years;

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"So let's figure this out!"

Juan had an emotion on his face which she had seen only a few times during the time she knew him. When something he wasn't prepared to deal with came up, Lila would often find him dealing with his anxiety while planning for their next step. Her being here with him, seeing this and preparing together would ease his mood immensely and provide him a stability and hope she thought was very endearing.

David was still sitting at the table, before his old tired voice interrupted;

"Thank you Lila, I wasn’t sure to expect anything after… You know… Thank you so much for your cooperation, it really means a lot."

Lila and Juan looked at David, remembering that in their rush to comfort each other they had completely forgot his presence. Lila looked at her dad and considered something as Juan awkwardly stood, trying to gather himself.

David awkwardly got up from the chair and leaned to rub his back and stretch up with a sigh;

"So, that's the story. The next stage of the plan is to start collecting clues and to look further into this factory"

Lila thought about it and nodded her head. She went to the door to get her coat and paused before turning and looking at them;

"So then, what next?"

Lila turned to Juan, the only one who probably has the most clue as to where they should be going. David had spoken about a plan, however, it seemed he was short on ideas beyond just a basic goal. He looked pensive, looking down as if examining something in his palm, before a thoughtful smirk grew on his face. Lila didn’t know him that well after all these years, but knew enough to tell he must have some thought of what they should do. He turned his head towards her and called out;

"Hey Lila, bring your computer I'll show you a way to get some extra data, the factory must have some security systems and this way we can do it remotely. I’ll see if I can find a camera and get a clear view of the building."

Lila knew what he meant. Going to the couch in the adjacent room, she retrieved her laptop.

The laptop was a grey boxy thing, it had some wear and tear on the plastic on the casing and it always took a few moments of turning before it would eventually buzz to life. In a sense Lila considered the laptop, like an old friend who was slow to open up.

Bringing it out into the dining room, she set down the laptop in front of David. He had already opened the device and was busy typing away before she could even turn her head to walk around it and sit down again.

Lila shook her head and smiled wryly;

“Just don’t get caught by the NSA or FBI or something when you go poking around with it. The last thing I want is for those government types to go knocking on my door”

David looked up and laughed dismissively;

“Please, as if any of those posers could find anything. I am routing this through a couple proxy servers”

He smirked before joking;

"Do you want me to pull the surveillance camera footage from outside your house?"

Lila laughed and sat at the table.

"No no, theres no cameras outside anyway."

Juan shrugged at that comment;

"Either way David, this is gonna help. With this, You should be able to track the factory's security cameras and get an idea of what exactly is going on and what they’re hiding"

Lila raised her brow;

"Isn’t that supposed to be hard? Getting into that kind of surveillance network"

David tapped his hand on the keyboard as a joke, while continuing to focus on the computer. The tapping became rhythmic as he replied;

"Eh, not for someone like me"

Lila chuckled before turning her gaze over to Juan;

"So what do you want to do now Juan? Since you've already brought this mess to my door, there's no way I'm gonna send you away without at least offering some food."

Juan shrugged and laughed, looking at Lila. She was certainly offering something good, food did seem to be the only thing keeping him happy over the last couple of days after being fired from his job. He then shook his head;

"I guess I could eat. We’ll need the fuel to do some good brainstorming if we're all gonna be hacking the factory and government together"

David scoffed;

"I will have you know I've been hacking into government agencies since before you were born… But I could use a bite if you’re offering."

Lila stood up, hearing their replies and responded;

"Great idea! I will go cook some pasta."

She turned on her heels and headed to the kitchen. Juan got up and moved over to David and the computer.

David was sitting still, the glow of the screen casting the shape of his face on to the wall, the eyes of the shadow reflecting the screen perfectly. Juan leaned towards the screen and frowned, studying it intently, Juan put his hands up to his face in exasperation.

"Joder, mira ese horripilante y loco bastardo."

David looked at Juan before continuing typing;

"Well Juan, I'll keep an eye on the camera here for anything else while you help Lila cook up some of that pasta. I could use something to snack on.

Juan laughed and nodded, getting up and following the sounds of pots and utensils in the kitchen.

Juan walked in and began taking up a saucepan and various other utensils that he knew Lila would need and sat them down on the counter in front of her. He stood next to Lila as they got the meal ready, side by side in unison and peace. Lila cooked the sauce as Juan boiled the pasta and chopped the vegetables to be fried with them. When the cooking was over they turned and began to make the plates before heading into the dining room. They brought David his plate last as they were distracted with the thought of what David was doing. They all took the silence whilst it lasted to enjoy a nice meal. David continued looking through cameras on the computer as he ate.

Eventually Lila could take it no longer and got up and spoke;

"David I know you know more than what you are saying right now, so just tell me what are you looking for?"

"Joder David, I wanna know that too"

Lila came over next to her father and looked at his screen as he flicked between camera feeds, and images of the town moved on his screen. Eventually he flicked it to an area with the mountains behind a familiar factory;

"Well what do you know, Juan the camera is exactly where you said it would be. This might prove your innocence in the eyes of the law for a start"