Chapter 4 - The Family That Wanted Me Forgotten
The underground archive door opened.
Slowly.
A cold wave of air moved through the hallway.
Commander Hayes stared at the security monitor.
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone in that room understood what it meant.
Someone had entered a place that had been sealed for twenty years.
A place nobody was supposed to know existed.
Except my grandfather.
And now me.
"Who is inside?" I asked.
Hayes didn't answer.
He was staring at the screen.
The camera feed showed nothing but darkness.
The underground archive was old.
Older than Fort Blackwood's current security system.
It had been built before digital records became common.
Before everything could be stored online.
My grandfather had always told me something when I was younger.
"Some secrets are safer when they stay where they began."
At the time, I thought he was talking about life.
Now I understood.
He was talking about that place.
That archive.
My father stepped closer to the monitor.
His face had lost all emotion.
"What did they access?"
Hayes looked at him.
"You know exactly what they accessed."
My father didn't respond.
That answer made my anger return.
"You both keep doing that."
They looked at me.
"Talking like I am not standing here."
I pointed toward the screen.
"My name is attached to that file. My grandfather left something for me. Someone is breaking into a secret military archive, and you two are still deciding what I deserve to know?"
Nobody spoke.
Then Hayes slowly nodded.
"You are right."
He turned toward the computer.
"The truth should have been yours from the beginning."
My father looked at him.
"Richard."
"No."
Hayes shook his head.
"Not this time."
He opened a second security window.
"The archive contains everything your grandfather collected before his disappearance."
I watched the screen.
"What kind of things?"
Hayes hesitated.
Then answered.
"Evidence."
"Evidence of what?"
He looked at my father.
"Of the people who betrayed him."
The room became silent.
I looked at my father.
He looked away.
That hurt more than if he had denied it.
Because silence was confirmation.
"You knew."
My father's voice was quiet.
"Fiona..."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"You knew my grandfather was investigating someone."
He didn't answer.
"You knew he disappeared."
Still nothing.
"And you let me believe he simply walked away from everything?"
My father closed his eyes.
For the first time, I saw regret.
But regret didn't erase years of lies.
"You were young."
"I was twenty-one."
"You were starting your military career."
"And you thought I couldn't handle the truth?"
He looked at me.
"I thought knowing the truth would get you killed."
The words stopped me.
Because my father wasn't defending himself.
He was admitting fear.
Commander Hayes opened the old file system.
A list of documents appeared.
Names.
Locations.
Operations.
Most of them were blocked.
But one folder was highlighted.
PALMER FAMILY RECORDS.
I stared.
"My family?"
Hayes nodded.
"Your grandfather wasn't only investigating military corruption."
He clicked the folder.
"He was investigating what happened inside your own family."
My heart sank.
I didn't understand.
"My family?"
Hayes looked at me.
"Your grandfather discovered that someone close to him was leaking information."
I looked at my father.
He didn't move.
"You think it was him?"
Hayes didn't answer.
That was worse.
My father suddenly spoke.
"It wasn't me."
His voice was firm.
For the first time.
"I never betrayed him."
I watched his face.
And I believed him.
Not because he was my father.
Because he looked like a man carrying a burden he had carried for too long.
"Then who?"
Nobody answered.
The computer suddenly made a sound.
A notification.
The underground archive camera had activated.
The three of us looked at the screen.
The image was blurry.
Old.
But visible.
A person was standing inside the archive.
Searching through files.
Hayes leaned closer.
"No..."
My father immediately reacted.
"You know them?"
Hayes didn't answer.
The figure turned slightly.
Only the side of their face was visible.
Then the camera froze.
The image disappeared.
"Who was that?" I asked.
Hayes stepped back.
His expression was different now.
Not fear.
Shock.
"That person should be dead."
My father looked at him.
"Richard."
Hayes didn't respond.
He looked at me.
"Fiona, there is something you need to understand."
I waited.
"Your grandfather didn't hide the box because he wanted to protect a secret."
He pointed toward the underground archive.
"He hid it because he knew someone would come looking for what was inside."
We moved toward the underground archive entrance ten minutes later.
Hayes insisted on coming with us.
My father followed.
I still had questions.
Too many.
But the closer we got to the archive, the more I felt like I was walking into a part of my life that had existed without me.
The hallway became older.
The walls changed.
Modern military equipment disappeared.
Replaced by old security systems.
Metal doors.
Manual locks.
Places built before technology made everything easier.
At the end of the hallway was a massive steel door.
Commander Hayes entered a code.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
He frowned.
"That is impossible."
My father looked at him.
"What?"
"The system rejected my access."
"Why?"
Hayes looked at me.
"Because the archive is waiting for someone else."
I stepped forward.
"Me?"
He nodded.
I placed my hand on the scanner.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then the machine activated.
ACCESS CONFIRMED.
The steel door unlocked.
My father stared.
"He planned this."
Hayes looked at him.
"Yes."
The door opened.
Inside were shelves.
Thousands of files.
Old photographs.
Military records.
Boxes marked with dates.
My grandfather's entire hidden life was sitting in front of me.
I walked inside slowly.
I didn't know what I expected.
Weapons.
Secrets.
Classified documents.
But what I saw first shocked me.
A photograph.
Placed carefully on the center table.
A photograph of me.
Not as an adult.
Not in uniform.
A childhood picture.
I picked it up.
On the back was handwriting.
My grandfather's.
"She will be the one who finishes this."
My breathing stopped.
"Finishes what?"
Hayes didn't answer.
Because he had found something else.
A file.
Thin.
Separate from the others.
With my name written across it.
FIONA PALMER.
I looked at him.
"Why is there a file about me?"
He opened it carefully.
Inside was a single document.
The first line made my entire body freeze.
SUBJECT: THE LAST HEIR OF THE PALMER OPERATION.
I stared.
"Heir?"
My father looked at the page.
His face changed.
Like he had just seen something he never wanted to see again.
"That can't be here."
I looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he reached for the file.
But Hayes stopped him.
"No."
My father looked at him.
"Richard, you don't understand."
"I understand enough."
"You don't know what this will do to her."
I stepped between them.
"Stop."
Both men looked at me.
I held the file.
"I am done being protected from my own life."
Nobody argued.
Because they knew I was right.
I opened the document.
The first page contained information about my grandfather.
The second page contained information about my father.
The third page...
Was about me.
But before I could read it, every screen inside the archive suddenly turned on.
All at once.
Hundreds of monitors.
Showing the same image.
A live camera feed.
My parents' house.
The Christmas living room.
The place where my family had thrown me out that morning.
My blood turned cold.
"Why are they showing this?"
Hayes walked toward the nearest screen.
Then he saw something.
Something that made him stop.
My father noticed his reaction.
"What?"
Hayes didn't answer.
He pointed at the screen.
A person was standing inside my parents' house.
Someone who wasn't supposed to be there.
Someone my father recognized immediately.
May you like
My father whispered a name.
And then the screen zoomed closer.
