Chapter 3 - The Ledger
Cole raised his weapon.
I moved my mother behind the desk.
The hidden door opened three inches.
Then stopped.
"Come out," Cole ordered.
No answer.
The door opened wider.
A young man stumbled through.
Not Ryan.
He was wearing a Hawthorne catering uniform.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
"Please."
Cole lowered his weapon slightly.
"Who are you?"
"Daniel Mercer."
"What happened?"
"They found me."
"Who?"
Daniel looked at my father.
Harrison went still.
"The people he paid."
My father exploded.
"I have never seen this man in my life."
Daniel laughed weakly.
"That's what Ryan said you'd say."
My pulse quickened.
"You know my brother?"
Daniel nodded.
"We've been working together for eight months."
"Doing what?"
"Finding out where the money went."
He reached beneath his shirt and removed a flash drive hanging from a cord.
"The ledger isn't paper."
He handed it to me.
"It's this."
Cole took Daniel aside to check his injuries while I stared at the drive.
My father whispered, "Don't plug that into anything."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"It could be malware."
"That's your concern?"
"My concern is that you're treating criminals like witnesses."
Daniel heard him.
"Ask him about Project Lantern."
Harrison's face changed.
I saw it.
"What's Project Lantern?"
"Nothing."
Daniel smiled.
"Then why'd you stop breathing?"
I stepped toward my father.
"What is it?"
He looked at my mother.
She shook her head.
"Don't look at her. Look at me."
Harrison finally spoke.
"Lantern was a procurement program."
"For?"
"Secure communications."
"Through Dawson Strategic?"
"Partly."
"Classified?"
"Some elements."
"Illegal?"
"No."
Daniel interrupted.
"Not at first."
Cole returned.
"Explain."
Daniel said Ryan had contacted him after discovering irregular transfers from Dawson Strategic to three shell companies.
The payments stretched back eighteen years.
Small at first.
Then enormous.
Ryan had believed Harrison was stealing.
He was wrong.
The money wasn't leaving Harrison's accounts.
It was entering them.
Someone had been paying my father.
Millions.
"That's a lie," Harrison said.
Daniel looked at him.
"Then show her your Zurich account."
My mother gasped.
I didn't.
I watched my father's face.
"Do you have one?"
Silence.
"Do you?"
"Yes."
My mother backed away.
"How much?"
Harrison wouldn't answer.
Daniel did.
"Fourteen million."
My mother slapped him.
The sound echoed through the basement.
Harrison didn't defend himself.
She stared at him.
"You told me we were losing the company."
"We were."
"Fourteen million dollars?"
"It wasn't mine."
"Whose was it?"
"I was holding it."
"For whom?"
His eyes found mine.
"I don't know."
That answer almost made me lose control.
"You accepted fourteen million dollars from someone you didn't know?"
"It didn't happen like that."
"Then tell me how it happened."
He sat down.
For the first time in my life, my father looked old.
"Lantern failed."
"What does that mean?"
"A prototype communications unit malfunctioned during field testing."
Cole frowned.
"When?"
"Twenty years ago."
I did the math.
I was fifteen.
"Was anyone hurt?"
My father looked at me.
"Three soldiers died."
The room went silent.
My stomach tightened.
"Why wasn't this public?"
"The official report blamed an electrical fire."
Cole's expression became dangerous.
"You falsified a casualty investigation?"
"No."
"Did you know it was false?"
"Later."
"How much later?"
"Two days."
"And you said nothing?"
My father looked down.
I understood then.
The laughter.
The contempt.
The obsession with keeping me away from the military.
Maybe it had never been about believing I wasn't capable.
Maybe every promotion had brought me closer to the world where his secret lived.
"Who ordered the cover-up?"
"I never knew."
Daniel said, "Ryan does."
I turned.
"What?"
"That's why they took him."
"Where?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't trust anyone."
"Not even me?"
Daniel looked almost apologetic.
"Especially not you."
That hurt.
"Why?"
"Because your promotion gave you access."
"Access to what?"
"Lantern."
Cole and I exchanged a look.
My new command included oversight authority over legacy communications procurement.
Ryan hadn't simply discovered my father's secret.
He had discovered why someone feared my promotion.
I inserted the flash drive into an isolated laptop from Cole's security case.
Encrypted folders appeared.
Daniel gave me the password.
DAWSON1998.
My academy graduation year.
I opened the ledger.
Transfers.
Names.
Dates.
Contract numbers.
Then one recurring designation.
H.D.
Harrison Dawson.
My father.
Another.
R.D.
Ryan.
"No," my mother whispered.
I clicked.
Ryan hadn't received money.
His name marked access attempts.
Then another set of initials appeared beside almost every payment.
E.D.
I looked at my mother.
Elaine Dawson.
She stared at the screen.
"I don't know what that is."
Harrison stood.
"Close it."
I turned toward him.
"What did you do?"
"Close the file."
"Why is Mom's name here?"
"It isn't."
"Those are her initials."
"Close it!"
Cole stepped between us.
"Sit down."
My father stared at me.
Then his shoulders collapsed.
"Those aren't your mother's initials."
"Whose are they?"
He didn't answer.
Daniel whispered, "Ryan figured that out too."
"Who is E.D.?"
"Not who."
Daniel pointed toward the screen.
"What."
I opened the linked document.
E.D. stood for ECHO DIRECTIVE.
A classified authorization pathway.
I had heard of it.
Rare.
Powerful.
Used when normal procurement channels were bypassed during national emergencies.
Someone had used Echo Directive to keep Project Lantern alive.
For twenty years.
And that person had enough authority to bury deaths.
My phone vibrated.
Another message from Ryan.
A location.
An abandoned Dawson Strategic warehouse forty miles away.
Then:
MIDNIGHT.
Cole checked the time.
10:46.
My father stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"He's my son."
"And I'm not losing both of you."
His face twisted.
"You think I don't care about him?"
"I don't know what you care about."
That landed.
My mother walked toward him.
"Tell her everything."
"I have."
"No."
She shook her head.
"You haven't told her about General Everett."
Cole froze.
I did too.
General Thomas Everett had been one of the most decorated officers of his generation.
He had also chaired the board that recommended my promotion.
"How do you know Everett?" I asked.
My father closed his eyes.
My mother answered for him.
"He was the man who told your father to keep you out of the military."
My blood turned cold.
"Twenty years ago?"
She nodded.
"Before you'd even applied."
I stared at my father.
"Everett supported my entire career."
"Yes."
"Why would he tell you to stop me?"
Harrison whispered, "Because I refused."
The answer made no sense.
"Refused what?"
"To destroy the original Lantern records."
A notification appeared on the laptop.
REMOTE ACCESS DETECTED.
Daniel swore.
Someone was inside the system.
Files began disappearing.
Cole disconnected the network adapter.
Too late.
The ledger vanished folder by folder.
Then the screen went black.
White text appeared.
GENERAL DAWSON.
Another line followed.
YOUR BROTHER HAS TEN MINUTES.
A live video opened.
Ryan sat bound to a chair.
Someone walked into frame behind him.
Only a uniformed shoulder was visible.
Four stars.
Then the figure leaned toward the camera.
I recognized the voice before I saw the face.
"Alyssa."
May you like
General Thomas Everett stepped into view.
"I think it's time we talked."
