Chapter 5 - The Voice Inside The Recording
The message on the screen stayed there.
Five words.
Nothing more.
"Commander Walker, I know you're finally looking for me."
I stared at the damaged military drive in my hand.
My fingers tightened around it.
Because whoever sent that message knew exactly what I was doing.
They knew I had found the evidence.
They knew Daniel was alive.
They knew I was finally asking the questions everyone had spent years trying to keep away from me.
And somehow, they knew I would find this drive tonight.
"Who sent that?" Admiral Carter asked.
His voice was different.
No longer calm.
No longer controlled.
Concern had replaced authority.
I looked at the screen.
"There isn't a name."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Let me see."
I handed him the drive.
He studied the message carefully.
Then his face changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
"You know something," I said.
Daniel looked at me.
"I know the way this message was sent."
"What does that mean?"
He looked around the banquet hall.
"Not here."
I almost laughed.
Not here.
Those two words had followed me my entire life.
Not here.
Not now.
Not yet.
Always another reason.
Always another secret.
I looked at Admiral Carter.
"How many people knew about this drive?"
The admiral answered immediately.
"Only four."
I looked at him.
"Who?"
He hesitated.
That was enough.
"Tell me."
"Me."
He pointed toward Daniel.
"Reeves."
Then he looked at my father.
"Your father."
A pause.
"And one other person."
My stomach tightened.
"Who?"
Nobody answered.
The silence became the answer.
Someone in that room knew.
Someone had been hiding.
Someone had been waiting.
My eyes moved across the banquet hall.
Every officer.
Every guest.
Every person wearing a uniform.
Any one of them could have been connected.
Daniel lowered his voice.
"Ethan, you need to listen carefully."
I looked at him.
"The person who sent this message isn't trying to scare you."
"Then what are they doing?"
"They're warning you."
I frowned.
"Warning me?"
Daniel nodded.
"They know you're getting close."
"Close to what?"
He looked at the drive.
"Close to the truth about why your team was betrayed."
For three years, I had lived with one question.
Why?
Why did our location get exposed?
Why did backup arrive late?
Why were we sent into a situation where someone already knew our movements?
I had blamed myself.
I had replayed every decision.
Every command.
Every second.
But maybe I had been blaming the wrong person.
Maybe I had never failed.
Maybe someone had made sure we couldn't succeed.
My father finally spoke.
"Ethan."
I turned toward him.
His voice was quiet.
"I need to tell you what happened before someone else does."
I stared at him.
"You had three years."
The words hurt him.
Good.
Maybe he needed to feel a fraction of what I felt.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
My voice stayed calm.
But every word carried years of anger.
"You don't know what it was like."
My father looked down.
"You're right."
That surprised me.
He didn't defend himself.
Didn't make excuses.
"I don't know what it was like to wake up every day wondering if your own father was disappointed in you."
His eyes became wet.
"I don't know what it was like to believe nobody cared."
I looked away.
Because hearing regret from him was harder than hearing anger.
"I thought staying away would keep you safe."
I shook my head.
"It didn't."
"I know."
"You let me hate you."
He swallowed.
"I thought that was better than losing you."
The room went silent.
I wanted to be angry.
I wanted to reject everything.
But a part of me remembered being young.
Remembered waiting by the window when I was a kid.
Waiting for my father to come home.
Waiting for him to notice me.
And now I was standing in a room full of people, finally hearing the words I had wanted for decades.
Just too late.
Daniel interrupted.
"Ethan."
I looked at him.
"We need to leave."
The urgency in his voice changed everything.
"Why?"
He looked at the drive.
"Because if the person who sent this message knows you're looking..."
He stopped.
"Then they know where we are."
Almost immediately, the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
The banquet hall went quiet.
People looked upward.
The security officers near the entrance moved.
Admiral Carter reached for his phone.
No signal.
His expression changed.
"That's impossible."
"What?"
"The building has emergency communication systems."
He checked again.
"Everything is offline."
A cold feeling moved through me.
This wasn't random.
Someone had planned this.
My mother grabbed my father's arm.
"What is happening?"
Nobody answered.
Because everyone knew.
The same thing.
We were no longer just uncovering a secret.
We were being watched.
The large screens near the stage suddenly turned black.
The military presentation disappeared.
A moment later, a video appeared.
Static.
Then a face.
Everyone in the room froze.
It was a man.
Older.
Serious.
Sitting in a dark room.
My heart stopped.
Because I recognized him.
Not because I knew him.
Because I had seen his name before.
On classified documents.
On mission reports.
On the list of people connected to the operation.
Daniel stepped back.
"No."
Admiral Carter's expression became unreadable.
My father whispered:
"He's alive."
I looked at the screen.
"Who is that?"
Nobody answered.
Then the man on the video looked directly into the camera.
Like he knew we were watching.
Like he knew I was watching.
And then he spoke.
"Hello, Ethan."
My entire body went still.
Because he knew my name.
"My father told you never to look for the truth."
The room became silent.
"But your father was wrong."
I looked at my father.
His face had gone pale.
The man continued.
"The truth was never hidden from you because it would hurt you."
A pause.
"It was hidden because you were the only person who could expose it."
My breathing slowed.
The entire room listened.
Then the man smiled slightly.
"Three years ago, Commander Walker, you thought you survived an attack."
He leaned closer to the camera.
"You didn't."
The screen flickered.
Daniel whispered something under his breath.
"What?"
He looked at me.
"Run."
The video suddenly changed.
A new image appeared.
A security camera feed.
The banquet hall.
The same room we were standing in.
But the timestamp was different.
It showed the room from ten minutes in the future.
And on the screen...
I saw myself walking toward the exit.
Alone.
May you like
Then the door behind me opened.
And someone stepped out of the shadows...
