Chapter 10 - The Night the House BurnedThe archive erupted into chaos.
Red lights flashed.
Metal doors slammed shut.
Daniel pulled Rachel behind a server rack.
“Stay down.”
Gunshots echoed through the corridor.
Victor fired toward the doorway.
Three men rushed in.
Daniel took down the first.
Victor dropped the second.
The third vanished through a side passage.
Rachel saw something on the floor.
A key card.
She picked it up.
“Daniel!”
He turned.
The card had a symbol.
A red circle crossed by a vertical line.
Daniel recognized it.
“Lucian.”
Rachel's eyes narrowed.
“He's here.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
He looked at Victor.
“You said Lucian controlled the network.”
Victor nodded.
“Then somebody else is using his access.”
Daniel understood.
“This is bigger than Lucian.”
They escaped through an underground tunnel.
By dawn, the safe house was burning.
The fire destroyed most of the archive.
But Rachel had copied one file.
Only one.
She opened it in the car.
It contained a list of names.
Doctors.
Executives.
Judges.
Politicians.
Hospital directors.
Each connected to Project Mercy.
Then Rachel saw one final name.
Daniel.
His status wasn't marked as target.
It was marked:
ADMINISTRATOR CANDIDATE.
She stared.
“You were supposed to inherit it.”
Daniel looked at the screen.
“No.”
“Your father intended to give it to you.”
“No.”
Rachel turned to him.
“Then why?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Because he remembered his father saying something when Daniel was nineteen.
Some things must die with me.
At the time, he thought his father meant the family business.
He had been wrong.
Daniel reached for the file.
Rachel pulled it back.
“Don't.”
“Why?”
“Because there are more names.”
She scrolled.
A second list appeared.
People connected to Daniel.
His employees.
His friends.
His sister.
Rachel's eyes stopped.
Emma.
“Why is Emma here?”
Daniel frowned.
Her file was marked:
UNAUTHORIZED KNOWLEDGE.
Rachel looked at him.
“Your sister knows something.”
Daniel immediately called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Emma sent a voice message.
Daniel played it.
Her voice was trembling.
“Daniel, don't come to the house.”
A pause.
“If you hear this, it's too late.”
Another pause.
“I found the original Project Mercy records.”
Rachel leaned closer.
Emma continued.
“I know who changed the system.”
Then a loud crash.
Emma screamed.
The recording ended.
Daniel accelerated.
They reached the family estate.
The front gate was open.
Security vehicles were abandoned.
The mansion stood dark.
Daniel entered.
“Emma!”
No answer.
Rachel followed.
They found blood in the hallway.
Then Emma's scarf.
Rachel picked it up.
Daniel's face tightened.
“She's alive.”
“How do you know?”
“She wouldn't leave this behind.”
He searched the house.
Nothing.
Then Rachel found a hidden camera.
Still recording.
The screen showed Emma entering the study earlier that night.
She opened a secret drawer.
Inside was a cassette.
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“What is she looking for?”
He didn't know.
Then the recording changed.
A man entered behind Emma.
Daniel stared at the screen.
The man was holding a gun.
Rachel whispered:
“That's…”
“Yes.”
Daniel's expression became unreadable.
The man on the recording was Daniel's own chief of security.
The person he had trusted to protect the family.
And before the recording ended, the man said:
“Mr. Moretti asked me to remove the sister.”
Rachel slowly looked at Daniel.
“You didn't.”
“No.”
The final frame appeared.
The security chief looked directly into the camera.
As though he knew they were watching.
May you like
Then he smiled.
And the screen went black.
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