Chapter 7 - The PasswordThe password was not written anywhere.
I had memorized it.
That was why my father hadn't killed me.
That was why the attack had been designed to damage my memory instead.
The doctors had called it an unfortunate consequence.
I was starting to wonder whether it had been the entire point.
“What password?” I asked.
Dylan shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“Then how do you know I memorized it?”
“Dad said you did.”
Ortiz interrupted.
“Why would your father care about a password if the evidence is already gone?”
Dylan looked at her.
“Because the evidence was never stored on a server.”
I felt something click inside my mind.
Blackline.
The files.
The missing seven minutes.
The USB.
Everything was fragmented.
Designed to look like ordinary corporate corruption.
But there was another layer.
A hidden archive.
Offline.
Untouchable.
I suddenly remembered a room.
Not physically.
A memory fragment.
A metal door.
A keypad.
A red light.
My own hand entering numbers.
I stood.
“I know where it is.”
Dylan looked at me.
“Where?”
“The old server bunker.”
Rachel had told me Halcyon maintained a backup facility underneath one of our original buildings.
Nobody used it anymore.
It had been decommissioned after a flood.
We went there that night.
The access door required an old biometric system.
My fingerprint worked.
The hallway smelled like dust.
I touched the keypad.
Nothing happened.
Then I remembered.
Four numbers.
I entered them.
The light turned green.
The door opened.
Inside was a single server rack.
No network connection.
No external access.
Completely isolated.
A screen flickered on.
WELCOME, DANIEL.
Dylan stared.
“You built this?”
“Yes.”
“But you don't remember.”
“I don't.”
I walked closer.
The screen displayed another sentence.
BLACKLINE ARCHIVE REQUIRES MEMORY KEY.
Then a prompt appeared.
ENTER PASSCODE.
I couldn't remember.
I closed my eyes.
Nothing.
Then I heard Dylan say:
“Dad said it was connected to something only you knew.”
“What?”
“Your mother's birthday.”
I tried the date.
Wrong.
Rachel suggested the company founding date.
Wrong.
My first promotion.
Wrong.
Then I remembered something strange.
My mother used to tell me that my father gave me a name before she did.
My middle name.
Elias.
My name was Daniel Elias Carter.
Elias.
I entered the numbers.
The screen unlocked.
We all stared.
Folders appeared.
Contracts.
Audio recordings.
Emails.
Wire transfers.
And one folder marked:
ORIGIN
I opened it.
The first file contained a document from twelve years earlier.
It listed the original founders of Halcyon Systems.
Victor Carter.
Elias Grant.
And a third name.
Rachel Morgan.
I stared at the screen.
Rachel walked forward.
“That can't be right.”
Her father had told her he had invested in Halcyon.
But he hadn't.
He had founded it.
And she had been there from the beginning.
Only as a child.
The next file was a photograph.
Victor.
Elias.
Rachel's father.
My mother.
I stopped breathing.
My mother had been standing between them.
Then I noticed the date.
Three months before I was born.
The file contained one handwritten note.
Daniel will be the contingency.
Dylan whispered:
“What does that mean?”
I opened the next document.
My hands went numb.
It was a birth certificate correction request.
My father's name had originally been listed differently.
Under biological father, a different name appeared.
I stared at it.
Then looked at my brother.
“Dylan…”
He shook his head.
“I've never seen that.”
Rachel stepped closer.
Neither had I.
May you like
The name on the document was:
Elias Grant.
