Level Six

CHAPTER FOUR LEVEL SIX Nova Rivers did not normally search for unknown singers. Unknown singers searched for ways to get near Nova Rivers. His face had appeared on giant screens from the Innovation District to Red-K Stadium. He had headlined festivals, sold out arenas, collected awards, and built the kind of career that made strangers argue online about albums he had released five years earlier. And inside Green Room Studios, he was family. T. Green’s closest musical collaborator. A longtime friend. One of the artists who had helped turn Green Room from an ambitious studio into one of the most respected names in music on Imagine Island. Green Room Studios had a reputation unlike most labels and production houses. It listened. T. Green had built his reputation finding voices before the rest of the industry knew what to call them. That was why the file sitting on Nova’s screen mattered. AURELIA UNKNOWN VOCALIST. No name. No photo. No contact information. Only a stolen performance and a voice hidden behind Sable. Nova replayed the final section. Venice’s voice climbed. The chandelier trembled. Blue light spread. “That’s not Sable,” Nova said. “No,” T. Green answered. “So who is she?” “We don’t know yet.” Nova looked back at the screen. “You think we’ll hear her again?” T. Green stood. “Voices like that don’t stay hidden forever.” Neither man knew the singer they were searching for was eight blocks away, standing beneath Innovation Tower. At night, Innovation Tower looked nothing like the photographs in Venice’s residency invitation. The daytime images made it elegant. Bright. Modern. At midnight, the Tower looked like it knew secrets. Mara stood beside Venice. “So.” “So?” “This is where you’re planning to live.” “Maybe.” “In thirteen days.” “Maybe.” Mara looked up. “Very comforting building.” Jaiden joined them. “It’s a building.” “That thing has opinions.” Venice checked her phone. 11:52 p.m. INNOVATION TOWER. LEVEL 6. MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE. Then: OR SABLE SINGS THE NEXT NOTE. Jaiden carried the family notes he had found about the charm. “You find anything useful?” Venice asked. “One thing.” “What?” “The Ninth Interval seems to be a musical key.” Mara folded her arms. “A password?” “Basically.” “For what?” Jaiden looked toward Innovation Tower. “Level Six.” That was the clearest meaning they had found. The Ninth Interval was not a magical power or a special singing technique. It was a rare musical sequence. A key. And according to Jaiden’s family notes, completing it could unlock something hidden. Venice touched the charm. “Why does my necklace react to it?” “I don’t know.” “You keep saying that.” “Because I keep not knowing.” Mara looked toward the entrance. “Well, apparently we’re about to find out what it opens.” They entered. The lobby was enormous. Glass elevators. Blue-lit water. Digital panels. Residences. Restaurants. Innovation labs. Clubs. Wellness facilities. Creative spaces. A wall recognized Venice’s temporary resident credential. WELCOME, VENICE. Then: RESIDENCY COMMENCES IN THIRTEEN DAYS. Mara leaned closer. “Very polite threatening skyscraper.” Jaiden was looking at the directory. “Guys.” One listing stood out. GREEN ROOM TOWER CAMPUS — CREATIVE LISTENING & RESIDENT MUSIC LAB Venice stopped. Green Room Studios itself remained a separate headquarters in the Innovation District. This Tower Campus was one of its smaller satellite spaces, designed for residents, listening sessions, and creative programs. Still, seeing the name inside Innovation Tower mattered. Mara smiled. “Now you remember why you wanted this apartment.” “I never forgot.” At 11:57, they entered an elevator. Venice scanned the controls. Five. Seven. Eight. “There’s no six.” Mara leaned closer. “Maybe they forgot.” “A sixty-eight-floor building forgot six?” At 11:59, Venice’s phone buzzed. YOU’RE LATE. She typed: THERE IS NO LEVEL SIX. Immediate reply: YES THERE IS. Then: SING. Mara shook her head. “No.” Midnight arrived. The elevator doors closed by themselves. The floor display went blank. Venice’s phone buzzed. SING. Jaiden looked at her. “The sequence.” “I’m not singing the whole Aurelia song.” “You don’t need to. The Ninth Interval is the key, not the song.” Venice touched the charm. It was warming. She could almost hear the sequence again. Soft. Incomplete. Waiting. Venice hummed the beginning. The elevator lights turned blue. She continued. The symbol on her charm appeared on the display. Then Venice completed the sequence. The charm flashed. The elevator dropped. Mara screamed. Jaiden grabbed the rail. Then silence. The display changed. LEVEL SIX The doors opened. A dark corridor waited. Low blue lighting. No signs. No people. Doors lined both sides. One displayed a circle divided into nine sections. A panel lit. LISTENING ACCESS INCOMPLETE PRIMARY CHAMBER SEALED “So this isn’t even the main room,” Venice whispered. Music floated through the corridor. Old. Faint. A man singing. They followed it. The voice led them to a partially open archive filled with recording cases, reel-to-reel tapes, digital drives, photographs, music books, and broken headphones. “This is older than the Tower,” Jaiden said. Venice found an old case. GREEN ROOM STUDIOS Inside was a small recording cartridge. Three handwritten letters. VEX Everybody on Imagine Island knew the name. Some knew the music. Some knew the legend. Others knew only the mystery. Vex had been one of Imagine Island’s most unusual male artists, known for experimental performances, unpredictable arrangements, and recordings that never seemed to behave like ordinary records. Then he disappeared from public life. No farewell tour. No final interview. No explanation anyone trusted. Over time, facts became rumor. Venice turned the cartridge over. GREEN ROOM / TOWER SESSION Then: DO NOT MASTER A monitor activated. PLAYBACK AVAILABLE Then: PLAYBACK RECOMMENDED FOR: VENICE Mara stared. “It knows you.” Venice inserted the cartridge. The monitor flickered. GREEN ROOM STUDIOS / INNOVATION TOWER PRIVATE LISTENING SESSION ARTIST: VEX Static. Then Vex breathed into the microphone. “If anyone hears this…” Static swallowed part of the sentence. Then: “…don’t let them finish the ninth.” Venice’s blood went cold. The recording continued. “…Green Room knows where the second piece is.” Static. A thud. Then Vex whispered: “They think Level Six is the secret.” A pause. “It isn’t.” The recording distorted. “The secret is why they built it.” The lights went out. When emergency lighting returned, the cartridge ejected. Its label had changed. FIND THE SECOND RECORDING. Beneath it: GREEN ROOM STUDIOS. Venice stared. She had wanted Green Room long before any of this. For music. For opportunity. For a chance. Now Level Six was pointing there too. Across the Innovation District, Nova Rivers was still listening for the unknown voice from Aurelia House. Neither of them knew the next time Nova heard it, Venice would not be hiding behind a curtain.