Chapter 4 - The Second KeyThe keys should not have existed.
My office lock had been replaced after our last security upgrade.
Only three people had physical access.
Me.
Rachel.
And corporate security.
My father had no reason to possess a duplicate.
Yet the footage clearly showed him handing something to Dylan.
I asked Ortiz to send me a still image.
When it arrived, I stared at it for nearly a minute.
My father.
My brother.
A key ring between them.
The image was blurry but unmistakable.
Then I noticed something else.
Dylan wasn't looking at my father.
He was looking behind him.
Toward the hallway.
As though he was waiting for someone.
“Who was he expecting?” I asked.
Ortiz said, “We don't know.”
“I need the full footage.”
“You shouldn't be investigating this yourself.”
“I work there.”
“You were attacked there.”
“Which means I have every reason.”
Ortiz sighed.
“I'll send you what we have.”
That evening, I returned to Halcyon.
The reception desk went silent when I walked in.
People stared.
Whispers followed me.
I ignored them.
Rachel met me near the elevators.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“I need my office.”
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
My room had been sealed as evidence.
The lock was still broken.
Inside, the furniture remained exactly where it had been.
The blood had been cleaned.
But one thing hadn't been moved.
A whiteboard.
I walked toward it.
I had no memory of what was written.
At first, it looked like nonsense.
Numbers.
Dates.
Vendor names.
A series of initials.
Then I saw a phrase written in the corner.
BLACKLINE
I stared at it.
“What's Blackline?”
Rachel froze.
“You wrote that?”
“Yes.”
She moved closer.
“Daniel, where did you hear that?”
“I don't remember.”
Rachel looked terrified.
“What?”
She pointed at the whiteboard.
“I've never seen you write that before.”
My pulse accelerated.
Someone had been using my office for something I couldn't remember.
I took photos.
Then I noticed a small USB drive taped beneath the desk.
I pulled it free.
Rachel stared.
“Don't open that here.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone hid it, they didn't want anyone finding it.”
I slipped it into my pocket.
We went to a secure conference room.
I connected the drive to an isolated laptop.
There was one folder.
One file.
A spreadsheet.
Vendor payments.
Millions of dollars.
Every payment traced back to the same network of companies.
Shell corporations.
Consulting firms.
Foreign contractors.
And one name repeated across almost all of them.
Victor Carter Consulting.
I stared at the screen.
Rachel whispered, “Oh my God.”
My father had been siphoning money through vendors connected to Halcyon.
But why had I been investigating it?
I scrolled deeper.
Then I found something that made my hands shake.
A file titled:
BLACKLINE FINAL
I opened it.
It contained employee names.
Executives.
Account managers.
Finance officers.
And beside several names, the word:
REMOVED
At the bottom was Dylan's name.
Beside it:
PENDING
I looked at Rachel.
“What does pending mean?”
She didn't answer.
Then the laptop screen flickered.
The USB drive had been remotely accessed.
Someone was trying to erase it.
Rachel slammed the laptop shut.
“Disconnect it.”
We pulled the cable.
Too late.
The file had disappeared.
Almost.
A single line remained on the screen.
One line the attacker hadn't managed to delete.
NEXT REMOVAL: DANIEL CARTER
Rachel stared at me.
I stared back.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message from the unknown number.
You finally found Blackline.
May you like
Another appeared.
Now find out why your brother was never supposed to survive it.
