Chapter 4 - SERVER ROOM 7Daniel stood motionless while his own face appeared across dozens of airport screens.
Passengers were watching.
Security officers were watching.
His colleagues were watching.
The sentence remained beneath his face.
HE KNOWS WHY THE BOY WAS TAKEN.
Daniel's radio exploded.
“Brooks, report!”
“I’m here.”
“Are you involved?”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“No.”
“Then explain the message.”
“I can't.”
Silence.
The truth was heavier than the accusation.
Eleven months earlier, Daniel had found Nathan Hart inside Server Room 7.
Nathan had been bleeding.
He kept repeating one sentence.
“They've been using the airport.”
Daniel had demanded answers.
Nathan refused.
Then alarms triggered.
Backup security arrived.
Nathan disappeared during the chaos.
Daniel filed the report.
But that wasn't the whole story.
There had been a second report.
One Daniel never submitted.
He had found a small data cartridge beside the server rack.
He kept it.
For eleven months.
He had never opened it.
Now he wondered whether that had been a mistake.
Rex suddenly pulled on his leash.
Daniel followed.
The dog led him to a restricted elevator.
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere he wants me to go.”
They descended.
Level B3.
Then B4.
Then B5.
A floor Daniel had never known existed.
The doors opened.
Cold air rushed in.
A corridor stretched ahead.
No cameras.
No signs.
No lights except a faint blue strip along the floor.
Rex growled.
Daniel walked slowly.
At the end was a single door.
It was already open.
Inside stood a row of server racks.
Exactly like Server Room 7.
Daniel stared.
“This is impossible.”
A monitor turned on.
Nathan Hart appeared.
Older.
Exhausted.
Alive.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Nathan?”
The recording began.
“If you're watching this, Daniel, my son is in danger.”
Daniel's breath stopped.
“I knew they would use Eli eventually.”
The video continued.
“I didn't know when.”
Nathan leaned closer.
“Listen carefully. The airport isn't being used to move explosives.”
Daniel frowned.
“It's being used to move people.”
Then the screen went black.
A second video appeared.
Security footage.
Passengers entering the airport.
People being escorted through restricted doors.
Children.
Teenagers.
Adults.
All disappearing beyond a corridor marked STAFF ONLY.
Daniel stared.
“Human trafficking?”
A voice came from behind him.
“No.”
Daniel spun.
Olivia Hart stood in the doorway.
She was no longer crying.
She looked terrified.
But determined.
“It's worse.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Where's Eli?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I didn't take him.”
“Then who did?”
Olivia closed the door behind her.
“The people who took Nathan.”
Daniel lowered his weapon slightly.
“What do they want?”
Olivia looked at the security footage.
“They don't want money.”
“Then what?”
She swallowed.
“They want witnesses to disappear.”
A loud clang echoed somewhere in the building.
Rex turned.
Daniel grabbed his radio.
No signal.
Olivia whispered:
“We're not alone.”
Something moved between the server racks.
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Come out!”
Nothing.
Then a man's voice drifted through the darkness.
“You should have opened that cartridge eleven months ago, Officer Brooks.”
Daniel froze.
He knew that voice.
May you like
It belonged to his commanding supervisor.
Captain Harold Vance.
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