Chapter 3 - Everything Was Recorded
Kalin stared at the screen.
"He's alive."
Nathan moved toward the door.
"Stay here."
"I'm attached to enough machines to make that fairly likely."
Samuel backed away.
The door opened.
Arthur entered first.
Eighty-one years old.
Silver hair.
Dark suit.
Walking cane.
And eyes sharper than most men half his age.
Julian followed.
"Kalin."
She looked at her husband.
Nothing inside her softened.
Arthur raised one hand.
"Julian, don't."
Julian stopped.
Arthur approached the bed.
"I'm sorry."
"For which part?"
Arthur accepted the question.
"All of it."
Kalin looked at Nathan.
"Why did everyone think he disappeared?"
Arthur answered himself.
"Because I wanted them to."
Kalin's expression hardened.
"People are trying to kill us and you decided to play dead?"
"I needed to know who moved when they thought I was gone."
Nathan crossed his arms.
"And?"
Arthur looked toward Julian.
"My grandson did."
Julian stepped forward.
"Grandfather—"
"But not how I expected."
Arthur reached inside his jacket.
Nathan immediately shifted.
Arthur slowly removed a phone.
"Easy."
He placed it on the table.
"Julian accessed a restricted server forty-eight hours before Kalin's operation."
Kalin looked at her husband.
Julian shook his head.
"I didn't."
"Your credentials did," Nathan said.
"I know. Someone cloned them."
Kalin almost laughed.
"Convenient."
Julian looked wounded.
"You think I arranged the shooting?"
"I think you took away the equipment that might have kept me alive."
His jaw tightened.
"That was a mistake."
"A mistake is forgetting an anniversary."
"Kalin—"
"You removed my armor."
"I thought Clara needed—"
"You removed my trauma kit."
Silence.
"You took my radio."
He looked down.
"You stopped my medevac request."
"Kalin, I was angry."
"And then you left."
Arthur closed his eyes.
Julian looked at her.
"I didn't know how badly you were hurt."
"I told you."
"I thought—"
"You didn't think."
She said it without raising her voice.
"That's the problem."
Julian had no answer.
Nathan picked up Arthur's phone.
"What did you find?"
Arthur's gaze shifted.
"Julian's credentials accessed Project Lantern."
Kalin knew almost every Croft security project.
Not that one.
"What's Lantern?"
Arthur looked at Samuel.
The attorney closed the hospital-room door.
Arthur spoke quietly.
"Twenty-two years ago, Croft Corporation developed a protected transportation network for sensitive government contractors. Routes, safe locations, emergency communications."
Nathan's expression changed.
"Who had access?"
"Originally? Four people."
"And now?"
"Too many."
Kalin understood.
"The shooter knew our route because somebody had access to Lantern."
Arthur nodded.
"And someone wanted Kalin specifically placed on that route."
Julian stared at him.
"Why?"
Arthur looked at Kalin.
"Because of me."
She frowned.
Arthur continued.
"Three years ago, I recruited you because I discovered someone inside Croft was selling protected route information."
Kalin felt cold.
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
"You put me inside your security division to investigate."
"Yes."
"And never told me."
"I couldn't."
"You could have gotten me killed."
Arthur's eyes moved toward her bandages.
"I nearly did."
Silence filled the room.
Nathan broke it.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"After three years?"
"I had narrowed it to executive leadership."
Kalin looked at the brass key.
"What does the key open?"
Arthur's face changed.
So subtly that Julian missed it.
Kalin didn't.
"You know."
Arthur stared at the key.
"Where did you get that?"
"Samuel."
Arthur turned toward the attorney.
"I instructed you—"
"To give it to her if she was seriously injured."
Arthur closed his eyes.
"Then we're out of time."
Kalin's heartbeat accelerated.
"What does it open?"
"A private archive."
"Where?"
"Croft headquarters."
"Room 417?"
"No."
Arthur looked at her.
"Locker 417."
"What's inside?"
"The evidence I couldn't trust electronically."
Nathan leaned forward.
"Evidence of what?"
Arthur hesitated.
"Every compromised route I identified. Every unexplained security failure. Every executive who had access."
Julian stared at his grandfather.
"You suspected me?"
Arthur looked at him.
"I suspected everyone."
Julian stepped back.
Kalin watched him.
For the first time, Julian's arrogance seemed to crack.
Not disappear.
Crack.
"Clara knew about Lantern," Kalin said.
Julian looked at her.
"No."
"She's your technical consultant."
"She didn't have clearance."
"Did she have access to your devices?"
Julian went silent.
Kalin knew the answer.
"Your laptop?"
No response.
"Your phone?"
Julian looked away.
"Your credentials?"
"I never gave them to her."
"You didn't need to."
Nathan spoke.
"Did she ever use your workstation?"
Julian swallowed.
"Sometimes."
Arthur's cane struck the floor.
"You fool."
Julian snapped around.
"I didn't know!"
"You brought someone without clearance into secure environments because you were sleeping with her."
Julian's face reddened.
"Grandfather."
"No. You wanted everyone to treat you like the man running my company. Then behave like one."
Kalin watched without satisfaction.
Once, seeing Julian humbled might have mattered.
Now she simply wanted the truth.
"Where's Clara?"
Nathan answered.
"Under monitored restriction at the Croft compound."
"She shouldn't be there."
"Why?"
"Because if she knows we're alive and Arthur disappeared, she'll run."
Nathan's phone vibrated.
He checked it.
His expression tightened.
"What?"
"Clara's gone."
Julian stared.
"How?"
"Someone disabled the cameras for ninety seconds."
Arthur looked toward Kalin.
"The archive."
Kalin understood.
"If Clara knows about Locker 417—"
"She'll destroy it."
Nathan was already calling his team.
Kalin pulled the medical sensor from her finger.
"No."
Nathan stared at her.
"Absolutely not."
"I'm going."
"You had surgery yesterday."
"And somebody tried to kill me yesterday."
"Kalin."
She looked directly at him.
"I spent three years inside that corporation. If Arthur's archive contains names, I'm the person most likely to understand what they mean."
Julian stepped forward.
"I'm coming too."
"No."
"She's using my credentials."
"That's your problem."
"She's trying to destroy my family."
Kalin's expression remained flat.
"You did a good job of that yourself."
Julian flinched.
Arthur interrupted.
"Enough."
He looked at Kalin.
"If you go to that archive, understand something."
"What?"
"The person who compromised Lantern may know about Keystone."
Nathan went still.
Kalin stared at Arthur.
"How?"
"I don't know."
"Who did you tell?"
"No one."
"Then how could they know?"
Arthur looked toward the window.
"Because three months ago, someone left something inside Locker 417 that I didn't put there."
Kalin felt her stomach tighten.
"What?"
Arthur reached into his pocket.
He removed a photograph.
Kalin took it.
It showed her.
Not Kalin Croft.
Keystone.
The photograph had been taken years earlier during a classified deployment.
Her face was partially visible.
On the back someone had written one sentence.
I KNOW WHO SHE REALLY IS.
Kalin looked up.
Nathan's phone rang again.
He answered.
Listened.
Then slowly turned toward the room.
"Nobody goes to headquarters."
"Why?" Kalin asked.
Nathan stared at her.
"Because Locker 417 was just opened."
Kalin's fingers tightened around the brass key.
"That's impossible."
Nathan looked at the live security alert.
"The system recorded the person who opened it."
"Clara?"
"No."
"Then who?"
May you like
Nathan raised his eyes.
"It says the locker was opened by you."
