Chapter 3 - The Man Who Knew Too MuchWendell took Jaylen and the data drive back to the city before sunset.
He did not take the boy to a hotel.
He did not take him to a police station.
And he did not tell his security team everything.
Instead, he brought Jaylen to a private guesthouse owned by his family.
Nobody asked questions.
Wendell locked the data drive inside a safe.
Then he called his head of security.
“Marcus?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I need a background check.”
“On whom?”
“Daniel Tate.”
There was silence.
Marcus knew the name.
“That's an old case.”
“I know.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Everything.”
“Understood.”
Wendell hung up.
Jaylen sat at the kitchen table, eating soup.
He looked painfully out of place in the luxury house.
“You don't have to stay here,” Jaylen said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you helping me?”
Wendell looked at him.
“I don't know yet.”
Jaylen nodded.
“That means you want something.”
Wendell almost smiled.
“You're very suspicious for thirteen.”
“My dad taught me.”
Wendell sat across from him.
“What else did he teach you?”
“People lie.”
“Anything else?”
“Machines don't.”
Wendell glanced toward the safe.
“Your father was right about one thing.”
“Which thing?”
“Machines don't lie.”
The next morning, Marcus arrived.
He placed a file on the table.
Daniel Tate.
Engineer.
Hayes Renewables, eight years.
Special projects division.
Official cause of death: vehicle accident.
Unofficial notes: several anomalies.
Wendell read faster.
Daniel had not died in an accident.
His car had been tampered with.
Brake fluid line cut.
Witness statement altered.
Corporate investigation closed within forty-eight hours.
Wendell looked up.
“Who signed the closure?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Richard Voss.”
Wendell slowly closed the file.
Richard.
Again.
“There's more.”
Marcus pushed another document forward.
Three employees associated with Project Orion had left the company within six months.
Two vanished from the industry.
One died of an apparent overdose.
All three accounts had received unexplained payments shortly before leaving.
Wendell's stomach tightened.
“Why wasn't this in my executive report?”
Marcus answered carefully.
“Because you were recovering after the laboratory fire.”
“I was the CEO.”
“Yes.”
“And someone buried this.”
Marcus nodded.
Wendell looked toward Jaylen.
The boy was holding the photograph of his father.
“Did Daniel leave anything else?”
Jaylen thought.
“My dad kept a notebook.”
“Where?”
“Hidden.”
“Where?”
Jaylen looked nervous.
“In the workshop.”
“We need to go back.”
Marcus objected immediately.
“No.”
Wendell stared at him.
“What?”
“It could be watched.”
“Then we'll find out.”
Two hours later, Wendell, Marcus, and Jaylen returned to the dirt road.
The workshop looked exactly the same.
But Jaylen stopped before opening the door.
“What?”
He pointed.
“There.”
A footprint in the mud.
Fresh.
Marcus crouched.
“Two people.”
Wendell's jaw tightened.
Someone had already been here.
Inside, the workshop had been searched.
Tools scattered.
Drawers open.
The table overturned.
But Jaylen suddenly smiled.
“What?”
He walked to an old refrigerator.
Removed the bottom panel.
Reached inside.
Pulled out a black notebook.
“My dad's.”
Marcus opened it.
The first pages were filled with equations.
Then diagrams.
Then names.
A name repeated again and again.
Richard Voss.
But on the final page, Daniel had written something different.
Orion doesn't need a laboratory. It needs a field.
Underneath:
Jaylen already knows how to build it.
Wendell stared.
“Your father wrote your name?”
Jaylen nodded.
The boy opened the next page.
There was a circuit design.
Wendell recognized its architecture.
It was far more advanced than the machine in the shed.
“What's this?” he asked.
Jaylen looked at it.
“The real version.”
Wendell slowly raised his eyes.
“Where is it?”
Jaylen swallowed.
“My dad never finished it.”
Wendell exhaled.
“Then we're safe.”
Jaylen shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I finished it.”
Outside, an engine suddenly roared.
Marcus reached for his weapon.
May you like
Three black SUVs appeared at the end of the dirt road.
And Richard Voss stepped out of the first one.
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