Chapter 12 - 04:17We drove to the old K9 facility.
It had been abandoned for years.
The gates were rusted.
The kennels were empty.
Titan pulled me toward one particular building.
The training hall.
Inside, dust covered the floor.
But one door was new.
Fresh hinges.
Fresh lock.
Titan scratched it.
We broke it open.
Inside was a control room.
Monitors covered one wall.
Every screen showed Titan.
Training footage.
Operations.
Searches.
Rescues.
Five years of his life.
Someone had been watching him.
Studying every reaction.
Every bark.
Every command.
Every weakness.
At the center was a file labeled:
PROJECT 04:17
I opened it.
The first page contained one sentence.
K9 UNIT DEPLOYMENT BEHAVIOR CAN BE REDIRECTED THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL CUES.
My blood ran cold.
The entire park incident had been designed.
The dying oak.
The canceled demonstration.
The location.
The fake paramedic.
Everything.
They had created a situation Titan couldn't ignore.
But why?
Because they were testing whether he still reacted to the same cue from three years ago.
A cue hidden in the tree.
Something Titan had smelled before.
I searched the footage.
There.
Marcus's final operation.
Titan moving through smoke.
Stopping at a door.
Sniffing.
Turning back.
Then the video had been cut.
I restored the missing section.
Marcus was carrying something.
A small metal case.
He gave it to Titan.
Then looked directly at the camera.
“If they take this from me, he'll remember where it is.”
I stopped breathing.
Titan had been carrying evidence.
For three years.
I searched his old equipment.
Nothing.
Then I noticed his tactical collar.
The heavy collar he wore during the park incident.
There was a tiny seam on the inside.
I cut it open.
A capsule fell into my hand.
Inside was a microdrive.
The missing ledger.
Marcus had hidden it inside Titan's collar.
For three years.
Shaw hadn't wanted to kill Titan.
He had wanted the drive.
I inserted it.
Names filled the screen.
But one final file was encrypted.
The password field showed:
WHO DID TITAN SAVE?
I entered Sophie's name.
Wrong.
Marcus.
Wrong.
My name.
Wrong.
Then I understood.
The password wasn't the person Titan saved.
It was the person he couldn't save.
I typed:
MARCUS.
The file opened.
A video appeared.
Marcus was alive.
His voice was calm.
“Mason, if Titan has brought you here, you're finally ready.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Don't trust Shaw.”
I leaned closer.
“He didn't kill me.”
My heart stopped.
“He recruited the man who did.”
Marcus paused.
Then gave one final name.
“Your father.”
I dropped the laptop.
May you like
My father had been dead for twelve years.
At least, that's what I believed.
