Chapter 5 - The First ShotMarcus shoved Wendell behind a steel support beam.
A gunshot cracked through the barn.
Metal screamed.
Jaylen dropped to the floor.
“Stay down!”
Another shot.
The laser vanished.
Marcus moved quickly.
He pulled Wendell toward the back entrance.
“Who are they?”
“Professional.”
“How many?”
“Four at least.”
Jaylen crawled toward the machine.
“Leave it!”
“My dad built this!”
Wendell grabbed him.
“We can come back.”
Jaylen stared at the machine.
Then he reached inside.
He pulled out a small data module.
“The important part isn't the machine.”
“What is?”
“This.”
They escaped through the rear.
Marcus's security team arrived six minutes later.
The attackers were gone.
No bodies.
No vehicles.
Nothing.
Only bullet holes.
Wendell stared at the barn.
“They weren't trying to kill us.”
Marcus shook his head.
“They were trying to scare us.”
“No.”
Wendell pointed at the machine.
“They wanted that.”
Back at the guesthouse, Jaylen connected the data module to a laptop.
A password appeared.
Wendell tried several.
Nothing.
Jaylen stared at the screen.
Then typed a date.
The file opened.
Inside were forty-three videos.
Daniel Tate appeared on the first.
He looked exhausted.
“If you're watching this,” Daniel said, “then they found the prototype.”
Wendell leaned closer.
Daniel continued.
“Project Orion works.”
Wendell's heartbeat quickened.
“But the company will never know the real reason.”
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“Orion doesn't simply store energy.”
A pause.
“It changes how energy moves.”
Jaylen whispered:
“That's what I told him.”
Wendell turned.
“What do you mean?”
“The old model stores power.”
He pointed at the screen.
“My version redirects the loss.”
Wendell's eyes widened.
In engineering terms, it was revolutionary.
It meant energy lost through heat, resistance, and instability could be partially recovered.
A battery would last longer.
Solar farms would waste less power.
Grid storage could become dramatically cheaper.
But Daniel wasn't finished.
“There is one flaw.”
He looked toward something off-camera.
“Orion can be scaled.”
Wendell froze.
“If someone controls the manufacturing system, they could control a major part of the energy infrastructure.”
Jaylen looked at him.
“That's why they're chasing it.”
Wendell nodded.
Daniel continued.
“Richard Voss knows.”
The room became silent.
“Richard believes Orion should never reach the public market.”
Wendell clenched his jaw.
“Why?”
Daniel answered the camera.
“Because he made a different deal.”
The video ended.
A second video automatically opened.
Daniel was sitting in darkness.
His voice was barely audible.
“Wendell, if this reaches you, I need you to listen carefully.”
Wendell leaned toward the screen.
“I trusted you once.”
A long pause.
“I shouldn't have.”
Wendell's face tightened.
Then Daniel said the sentence that changed everything.
“Your company didn't betray me.”
The screen went black.
“The person sitting closest to you did.”
Jaylen looked around the room.
Marcus did too.
Nobody spoke.
Then Wendell noticed something.
May you like
The laptop camera light was on.
Someone was accessing the device remotely.
Related Stories
