CHAPTER 3: THE HUNT BEGINS
The words on the envelope silenced the entire warehouse.
THE LITTLE GIRL COMES NEXT.
For a full three seconds, nobody spoke.
The crackling flames were the only sound.
Detective Daniel Hayes carefully slipped the envelope into an evidence bag without taking his eyes off Luna. The little girl stood just outside the yellow police tape, clutching the sleeve of Richard Sterling's jacket. She couldn't have known what the note said.
But somehow...
She looked terrified anyway.
Richard turned toward Hayes.
"She's coming with me."
The detective shook his head.
"She's now the most important witness in an active terrorism investigation."
"And according to that note," Richard replied coldly, "she's also the next target."
Hayes didn't argue.
Because Richard was right.
Within minutes, three black SUVs from Sterling Security arrived at the marina. Six armed bodyguards formed a protective circle around Luna, Marina, and Ethan.
Reporters were already flooding the entrance.
"Mr. Sterling!"
"Was this an assassination attempt?"
"Did someone target your family?"
"Is it true a homeless girl saved your life?"
Camera flashes lit the night like lightning.
Luna lowered her head.
She had never seen so many people looking at her.
An hour earlier...
Most of them wouldn't even have noticed she existed.
Now she was the center of every camera lens.
Richard opened the rear door of the SUV.
"Get in."
Luna hesitated.
"I've never..."
She stopped.
Richard smiled faintly.
"What?"
"I've never ridden in a car before."
The sentence struck everyone into silence.
Marina felt her chest tighten.
She quietly took Luna's hand.
"Then tonight will be your first."
The little girl climbed into the leather seat with almost painful caution, as if she were afraid touching anything would make someone angry.
She ran one finger across the soft upholstery.
"It's... softer than my blanket."
Richard looked away.
He didn't trust himself to answer.
As the convoy pulled away from the marina, Detective Hayes remained behind, studying security footage recovered from nearby cameras.
One frame caught his attention.
The timestamp read 7:18 PM.
The video showed two men walking along Pier Seven.
Scar on the chin.
Blue bird tattoo.
Exactly as Luna had described.
Hayes zoomed in.
The tattooed man stopped beside a maintenance cart and looked directly toward the security camera.
Then...
He smiled.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
As if he wanted the police to find the footage.
Hayes frowned.
"Why would you let yourself be recorded?"
His assistant enlarged another frame.
Something was sticking out from the man's back pocket.
A folded blueprint.
Only one corner was visible.
But there was enough to identify the logo printed on it.
STERLING SHIPYARDS
Hayes felt a knot form in his stomach.
That wasn't a random document.
It belonged to Richard's private shipyard.
Someone on the inside was helping them.
Meanwhile...
Twenty miles away.
The black delivery van rolled into an abandoned industrial district.
Its headlights disappeared inside an empty warehouse.
The engine stopped.
The man with the scar climbed out first.
"So..."
he muttered.
"The little rat survived."
The tattooed man laughed.
"Of course she did."
"You don't sound disappointed."
"I'm not."
He removed the fake blue tattoo from his neck.
Beneath it...
Perfectly clean skin.
The scarred man stared.
"You wore a fake tattoo?"
The other man smiled.
"If witnesses describe a tattoo that doesn't exist..."
He tossed the adhesive strip into a barrel of burning trash.
"...the police waste days chasing the wrong man."
The scarred man chuckled.
"Clever."
A voice echoed from the darkness.
"Not clever enough."
Both men froze.
An elderly man stepped into the light.
Gray suit.
Silver cane.
Thin smile.
Everyone in the room immediately lowered their heads.
"No excuses," the old man said softly.
"You were supposed to eliminate Richard Sterling."
"We almost did."
"Almost?"
The old man's smile vanished.
"I don't finance 'almost.'"
Silence.
Then he asked the question that changed everything.
"Who warned him?"
"The little beggar."
"No."
The old man's eyes narrowed.
"A seven-year-old child doesn't identify military explosives, describe trained operatives, and predict a timetable."
He tapped the floor once with his cane.
"Find out who taught her."
Back inside the Sterling mansion...
Luna refused to leave the window.
She kept staring into the darkness outside.
Marina brought her warm soup.
Fresh clothes.
A blanket.
The little girl accepted everything politely.
But she didn't eat.
She didn't change.
She didn't smile.
Richard approached quietly.
"Are you afraid they'll come here?"
Luna shook her head.
"No."
"Then what?"
"They're already here."
Richard stiffened.
"What do you mean?"
Instead of answering...
Luna pointed toward one of the family portraits hanging above the fireplace.
Richard looked up.
It was a photograph taken three years earlier.
Himself.
Marina.
Young Ethan.
And dozens of employees during the opening ceremony of Sterling Shipyards.
Luna's tiny finger rested on a man standing in the very back row.
Almost hidden.
"I've seen him."
Richard leaned closer.
The man wore a maintenance uniform.
Average height.
Average face.
Someone nobody would remember.
"Where?"
"At the fish market."
"When?"
"The day before yesterday."
Richard frowned.
"That's impossible."
"This picture is three years old."
"I know."
She nodded slowly.
"He looked exactly the same."
Richard felt a chill crawl across his neck.
People changed in three years.
Hair.
Weight.
Age.
Beards.
Wrinkles.
No one looked exactly the same.
Unless...
The photograph wasn't old.
Or...
The man hadn't aged at all.
Just then...
A bodyguard hurried into the living room.
"Sir!"
"What?"
"We've checked every employee in that photo."
"And?"
"There is no maintenance worker."
Richard blinked.
"What are you talking about?"
"The man she's pointing at..."
The guard swallowed.
"...doesn't exist in the original company records."
Richard slowly looked back at the portrait.
The smiling faces seemed unchanged.
Except now...
The maintenance worker was gone.
Only an empty space remained between two employees.
Richard's breathing stopped.
He had been staring at the photograph less than a minute earlier.
May you like
He was absolutely certain...
There had been someone standing there.
