"Daniel was supposed to meet someone who could expose the entire operation. Your mother found out. She sent security to stop him."
"Stop him?"
Thomas swallowed.
"They were ordered to retrieve the documents. Daniel refused to hand them over."
Evelyn felt her throat tighten.
"Did they kill him?"
Thomas didn't answer.
She grabbed his jacket.
"Did they kill my brother?"
"I wasn't there."
"That's not what I asked!"
Thomas finally looked at her.
"Yes."
Evelyn released him.
For a moment, the room seemed to disappear around her.
She remembered Daniel's laughter. His messages. His final promise that everything would be all right.
She remembered standing in a hospital overseas, unable to sleep, wondering whether her brother had thought about her before he died.
And now she knew.
He had.
He had tried to save her.
"Why did my mother do it?" she whispered.
"Because she believed Richard would destroy the entire family if the truth came out. She thought Daniel was going to expose everything."
"And what about me?"
Thomas looked away.
"Your military deployment was arranged through a private intelligence contractor. Someone leaked your location. The attack that led to your disappearance was not random."
Evelyn felt her blood turn cold.
"Who gave them my location?"
Thomas hesitated.
"Your father."
She closed her eyes.
Her own father had sent her into a battlefield knowing that she might never return.
A terrible silence followed.
Then Thomas stepped toward her.
"There's another reason I came down here."
Evelyn opened her eyes.
"What?"
He reached into his jacket and removed a small electronic device.
"Your brother gave me this the night before he died."
Evelyn stared at it.
"Why didn't you give it to me?"
"Because I was afraid."
"Afraid of my parents?"
Thomas nodded.
"Your mother threatened my family. Your father threatened to destroy my life. I had nowhere to go."
He placed the device in Evelyn's palm.
"Daniel said you would know what to do with it."
Before Evelyn could ask another question, the emergency light went out.
A loud mechanical noise came from somewhere behind the wall.
Thomas looked up.
"Oh, no."
"What?"
"The ventilation system."
A low hum filled the room.
Evelyn noticed a small digital display above the door.
A red countdown had appeared.
04:59.
04:58.
"What is that?"
Thomas grabbed her arm.
"Your father has activated the security lockdown."
"What happens when it reaches zero?"
Thomas looked at her.
"The room fills with gas."
They searched the room desperately.
Evelyn pulled open filing cabinets, looking for a second exit. Thomas examined the ventilation panel.
The countdown continued.
03:41.
03:40.
"There's got to be another way out!" Evelyn shouted.
Thomas pointed toward a narrow maintenance hatch behind the shelves.
"That leads to the old service tunnel."
"Can we open it?"
"Not from this side."
Evelyn examined the metal frame.
There were four bolts holding it in place.
She pulled a small multitool from her pocket and began removing them.
The first bolt came loose.
Then the second.
The third refused to move.
Thomas joined her.
"Come on!"
02:12.
02:11.
The fourth bolt finally fell to the floor.
Together, they pulled the hatch open.
A narrow passage stretched into darkness.
Thomas climbed inside first.
Evelyn followed, carrying Daniel's device and the folder.
Behind them, a warning siren began to sound.
They crawled through the tunnel until they reached a rusted metal ladder.
At the top was another door.
Thomas pushed it.
It opened into an abandoned storage room beneath the garage.
Evelyn climbed out.
Her lungs burned.
But she was alive.
Thomas collapsed against the wall.
"Your father knows now."
"Knows what?"
"That someone has entered the archive."
Evelyn looked at the device in her hand.
"Then we need to find out what Daniel left behind."
At midnight, they reached a small apartment James Carter had rented under another name.
James opened the door and immediately stepped aside.
"What happened to you?"
"Long story."
Thomas entered behind her.
James looked at him suspiciously.
"Who is he?"
"Someone who knows why my brother died."
They placed Daniel's device on the kitchen table.
James connected it to his laptop.
A password screen appeared.
Evelyn stared at it.
Four empty boxes.
She tried Daniel's birthday.
Incorrect.
Their mother's birthday.
Incorrect.
The date of Daniel's death.
Incorrect.
Then she remembered something.
A phrase Daniel used to say whenever she was afraid.
"Two stars, one sky."
She entered the words.
The screen opened.
Hundreds of files appeared.
James began examining them.
"These are financial transfers."
Evelyn leaned closer.
"From where?"
James opened one file.
His expression changed.
"Oh, my God."
"What?"
He turned the laptop toward her.
The file contained a list of names.
Some were government officials. Others were military contractors. Several were wealthy businessmen.
At the bottom was a photograph.
Victoria Ashford.
Standing beside a man wearing a military uniform.
Evelyn recognized the man immediately.
General Marcus Hale.
The commanding officer who had approved her final deployment.
The same man who had signed the official report declaring her missing in action.
James opened another file.
A recorded conversation appeared.
Daniel's voice filled the apartment.
"If you're hearing this, then something has happened to me. I don't know who I can trust anymore. But there's one thing I need Evelyn to understand."
A pause.
Then Daniel continued.
"Mom wasn't the person who started this. Dad was. But she made a choice that night. She chose the company over her children."
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Daniel's voice became quieter.
"And Evelyn, there's something else. The person who ordered the attack on your convoy wasn't General Hale."
The recording crackled.
A second voice interrupted.
It was female.
Familiar.
Unmistakably familiar.
Victoria Ashford.
"Daniel, please. Don't make me choose between you and your father."
Then came a gunshot.
The recording ended.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
Nobody spoke.
James slowly closed the laptop.
Thomas looked down at the floor.
Evelyn wiped her tears.
Her mother had been there.
She had heard the gunshot.
She had known what happened.
And she had spent eighteen months pretending her daughter was dead.
Evelyn stood.
"Where is my mother?"
Thomas looked at her.
"At the mansion."
"Then we're going back."
James grabbed her arm.
"That's exactly what they want. You need to think carefully."
Evelyn turned toward him.
"My brother died trying to protect me. I am not going to spend another night hiding."
James looked at her for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
"All right. But we're not going alone."
At the Ashford mansion, Victoria stood in her bedroom, staring at an old photograph.
It showed Daniel and Evelyn sitting together in the garden.