"The Cold Room"

 

Inside the cryo-research chamber of Arctis Labs, a state-of-the-art underground facility built for climate and durability experiments, Dr. Jonas Wirth, a respected cryophysicist, sat upright in the monitoring chair — eyes open, lips blue, skin pale with frost. The cold room had been programmed to shut down at 2:00 AM. Instead, it had dropped to -60°C and stayed active for six hours.

No forced entry.

No signs of struggle.

No one else had entered.

“I’ve seen dead bodies,” Zane said, crouching near the frosted glass, his breath forming smoke. “But this one looks like death itself paused to admire its own work.”

Eli shivered behind him, wrapped in a borrowed thermal coat, eyes darting around the steel walls of the lab. “Why does every place you take me have dead people, Zane? Can’t we ever go bowling?”

Zane didn’t respond. His eyes scanned the digital readouts on the wall. Something was wrong, and not just the corpse.

There were four staff members who had access to the chamber:

Dr. Lena Voss, assistant researcher, and Jonas’s ex.

Caleb Thorne, the engineer responsible for cryo-systems.

Miranda Kale, the security officer.

Dr. Ren Amsel, a quiet climatologist who worked night shifts.

All four had airtight alibis. All four had swiped in and out at the times their logs claimed. And all four seemed genuinely shocked when Jonas was found dead that morning.

But Zane didn’t believe in coincidence. Especially not when the logs were too perfect.

The First Contradiction

“They say he died during routine calibration?” Zane asked.

Eli nodded, reading from the official report. “Jonas was testing a long-exposure freeze simulation. The kind used for polar survival. Supposedly he scheduled it himself. System shutoff failed. Malfunction, probably.”

Zane ran his fingers across the control panel, his gloves squeaking against the frost. “He was brilliant. Methodical. He wouldn’t have entered the chamber without safeguards. And see here?” He pointed to a specific line. “The override was entered from the main terminal — not from inside.”

Eli blinked. “Someone tampered with the controls? From outside?”

Zane grinned faintly. “Or Jonas committed suicide by locking himself in and hacking the system from... the hallway?”

Eli opened his mouth. Then shut it. “Right. No. That makes no sense.”

A Visitor in Heels

Zane called her without hesitation.

Within the hour, Lyra Hale walked into Arctis Labs, black boots clicking sharply on the tile floor. Her crimson coat contrasted the clinical blues and whites of the lab. She removed her gloves slowly, deliberately.

“I was in the middle of a brunch, Zane,” she said flatly, “with someone important.”

“Oh?” Zane didn’t look up. “Are they still alive?”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “You dragged me to a frozen corpse so you could make ice puns?”

“Not just for the puns,” Zane smiled. “I need your help decoding their access encryption.”

Lyra glanced at the body through the glass. “What happened to him?”

“He froze,” Eli said.

“Thank you, genius.”

“Anytime,” Eli mumbled.

Zane motioned to the control desk. “Check if any of the staff’s security cards were duplicated. And look for ghost entries — manual overrides, terminal access from unregistered fingerprints.”

Lyra looked at him for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then sighed. “You better not be flirting with me through encrypted murder mysteries.”

Zane winked. “It’s the only language I speak.”

Four Names. One Murder.

Zane interviewed each of the four.

Dr. Lena Voss looked devastated. Her eyes were red, voice soft. “Jonas and I had our differences, but we were still close. He was obsessive about protocols. There’s no way this was an accident.”

“Where were you last night?” Zane asked casually.

“In the east lab. You can check the cameras. I stayed there all night.”

Zane nodded. “Did you know Jonas was planning to run a deep freeze cycle?”

She hesitated. “No. He didn’t tell anyone.”

Caleb Thorne, tall and gruff, met Zane with irritation. “Look, I didn’t kill anyone, alright? Jonas was brilliant, but he kept messing with my systems. Last week he bypassed a safety relay to test an idea. Nearly blew a fuse.”

“Any reason to want him dead?”

“Plenty. But I’m not stupid enough to do it in the most obvious way possible — in my own lab.”

Miranda Kale, in uniform, stayed professional. “Access logs are clean. Only Jonas entered that wing during the freeze window.”

Zane smiled politely. “Logs can lie.”

Miranda stiffened. “We have biometric locks.”

“So you’re saying the system is foolproof?”

“I’m saying I didn’t kill him.”

“Hmm.” Zane scribbled nothing on his notepad.

Dr. Ren Amsel was soft-spoken, eyes downcast. “I don’t think Jonas trusted anyone lately. He kept his research private.”

“Did he seem paranoid?”

Ren nodded. “He changed all his passwords last week. Refused to share protocols.”

“Why?”

Ren shrugged. “Said someone was copying his work.”

That was new.

The Second Contradiction

In Jonas’s personal folder, found with Lyra’s help, Zane uncovered a document:

“If I die, someone sabotaged the system.”

He showed it to Eli. “This was timestamped three days ago.”

Eli leaned in. “He knew?”

Zane’s voice lowered. “He suspected.”

“And told no one?”

“He told the file. That’s the scientist way.”

Lyra spoke from across the lab. “I traced a terminal override at 1:58 AM. Two minutes before the cold chamber failed.”

“Who was it?” Eli asked.

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Here’s the thing. The system shows no name. The override came from a terminal that doesn’t exist in the network.”

Zane’s eyes sparkled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

More Questions. No Answers.

Zane leaned back in the chair once used by Jonas. The frost still clung to the edges. He thought aloud:

“If Jonas suspected someone, why didn’t he name them?

If the override came from a ghost terminal, who installed it?

If the logs are clean, why are all four acting so nervous?

And if Jonas was so careful… why did he enter the chamber at all?”

Eli scratched his head. “So... what’s the theory?”

Zane’s tone sharpened. “Someone lured him in. Made him feel safe. Then triggered a controlled failure.”

Eli pointed. “But only the four had access.”

“Exactly,” Zane said. “Which means one of them is lying.”

Lyra Returns — Again

The second time she came, Lyra wasn’t smiling.

“You called me back here to stare at fingerprints?” she snapped, stepping in with her laptop.

“No,” Zane said, handing her a coffee. “I called you back because I missed the way you insult me.”

Lyra snatched the cup. “You are infuriating.”

“I try.”

She sat beside him, typing fast. “There was a hidden subroutine in the terminal log. Someone tried to erase their signature — and almost succeeded. But...”

“But?”

Lyra looked up. “I matched the timing to a separate door log — in the maintenance closet. Someone was in there for three minutes. Guess who?”

Zane grinned. “Don’t tell me.”

Lyra whispered, “One of the four. But I want to be sure before I say.”

Zane turned to Eli. “The noose is tightening.”

Eli gulped. “Then why do I feel colder now than in the chamber?”

End of Part 1 Cliffhanger

That night, Zane walked back into the cold chamber alone. The lights flickered. The walls breathed frost. In the reflection of the frozen glass, his own eyes stared back at him.

He muttered, “You were too careful, Jonas. Too methodical. Someone used that against you.”

He turned slowly, remembering each face.

Lena. Caleb. Miranda. Ren.

All four had reasons. All four had opportunity.

And all four kept looking at the body the same way —

—as if they were remembering something.

Something they shared.

Something they buried.

But one of them...

One of them didn’t look away.

“You already know who it is, don’t you?”

Eli’s voice was low, uneasy.

Zane didn’t reply. He was watching the frost build around the sealed chamber window again. Something about Jonas’s body still bothered him — not the position, not the timing, but the expression.

Frozen in horror.

Eyes locked on the control panel.

As if he recognized the betrayal before the cold swallowed him.

The Final Piece

Lyra stood beside Zane, hands folded, scanning the terminal.

“No digital traces,” she said. “Just a brief command injection from the maintenance closet. Whoever did this used a masked device and purged it after use.”

Zane smiled faintly. “Not entirely. They left one thing behind.”

Lyra blinked. “What?”

He pointed to the calendar settings. “They forgot to change the terminal’s internal clock. It shows the override happening at 1:54 AM.”

“But the security logs show it at 1:58.”

“Exactly.” Zane turned to her, eyes sharp. “Someone edited the master logs. But this... this internal timestamp was forgotten. Classic mistake. They covered the door logs, but not the embedded system clock.”

Lyra whistled. “So someone edited the logs and tried to erase it all. That narrows it down.”

Zane nodded. “To four people. One of them knew how to manipulate digital infrastructure and knew Jonas's routine.”

The Gathering

Zane asked all four suspects to meet in the observation room.

Lena sat pale, hands clenched.

Caleb leaned against the wall, jaw tight.

Miranda stood with arms crossed, unreadable.

Ren sat quietly, looking down.

Zane entered with slow, theatrical steps — Eli beside him, trying to sip cocoa nervously.

“I want to talk about guilt,” Zane began, voice casual. “Because someone in this room is carrying a heavy dose of it.”

Nobody moved.

Zane pointed at the monitor. “Jonas Wirth died at 2:00 AM inside a system that shouldn't have failed. The shutdown failed because someone disabled it manually. The override came from a ghost terminal, placed temporarily in the maintenance closet. That alone points to someone who had technical skill... and opportunity.”

Lena looked at him, trembling. “But... that could be any of us.”

“True,” Zane said. “That’s what makes it fun.”

Zane’s Breakdown

He moved to the board and began writing.

“Let’s examine each contradiction.”

1. Why did Jonas enter the chamber alone?

“He never worked alone in cryo tests. But this time he did. Why? Because someone told him they’d meet him inside — someone he trusted.”

Zane turned. “That narrows it down to someone Jonas personally knew. Not just a colleague — a confidant.”

2. Why was there no evidence of struggle or tampering?

“Because the killer didn’t need to break in. They had full access. They knew how to delete logs. They knew where to place the ghost terminal.”

Eli whispered, “Still all four.”

Zane nodded.

3. Why did the body face the control panel?

“He wasn’t surprised by the cold — he was horrified by what he saw. He realized what was happening too late. And he froze staring at the override being entered.”

4. Why change the logs?

“To cover up a visit to the maintenance closet. Only one person was seen near there on camera — but the footage skips three minutes. Guess who was monitoring the cameras that night?”

Everyone turned to Miranda.

She stared at Zane. “Are you accusing me?”

Zane smiled. “No. I’m saying you were framed. The log tampering was meant to point to you. Because the killer knew how the security system worked, and knew you'd be the fall guy.”

One Final Detail

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “So? Who is it?”

Zane looked at her. “Before I say... there's one last thing.”

He held up a printout.

“Jonas wrote this three days before his death: ‘If I die, someone sabotaged the system.’”

Caleb snorted. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“No,” Zane said, “but the way he wrote it does.”

He turned to Ren.

“You’re a quiet man. Careful. Polite. But when you spoke about Jonas, you said something strange. You said: He refused to share his protocols anymore. Not documents. Not data. Protocols.”

Zane’s voice sharpened. “That’s a word Jonas used. I checked his research logs. He used it repeatedly. And only someone who had access to his raw notes would use the same vocabulary.”

Ren blinked. “That’s not proof—”

Zane cut in. “It gets better. Only one person entered the maintenance closet in the last week — under a generic maintenance badge. That badge belonged to a technician who left the lab a month ago.”

Zane stepped forward.

“And you, Ren, filed the resignation paperwork on their behalf. I checked.”

Killer's Last Words

The room fell silent. All eyes turned to Ren Amsel.

He exhaled.

Then said quietly, “He was going to erase my work. He wanted all credit. He stole my algorithm and pretended it was his. I gave five years to that model — five years in this ice-box.”

He looked at Zane, almost peacefully. “So I made sure he couldn’t steal anything else.”

Lena gasped. “You—?”

Ren stood. Calm. Empty. “It was cleaner this way.”

Zane’s eyes hardened.

“You used his trust. You baited him inside the chamber. Then remotely triggered the override. You knew the system inside out. You even edited the logs to frame Miranda if needed.”

Ren’s face didn’t change.

Zane’s voice dropped lower. “But you made one mistake.”

Ren frowned.

Zane grinned. “You forgot to change the clock.”

Final Paragraph: Name Reveal

The police led him away in silence.

Zane stood by the frosted window, watching the ice slowly melt around the glass.

Eli spoke beside him. “I still don’t get it. Ren was so... quiet. I thought it would be Caleb. Or even Lena. Not... him.”

Lyra stepped closer, arms folded, watching Zane. “You really had it figured out from the start?”

Zane’s smirk returned. “Not the start. But the moment Ren used the word protocols — I knew.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “You’re still an arrogant show-off.”

Zane stepped close. “And you’re still pretending you don’t like it.”

She turned away, but smiled — just slightly.

Eli scratched his head. “So what now?”

Zane’s eyes never left the frost.

“The case is closed, Eli. And the killer... was Dr. Ren Amsel.”

THE END.