Ethan felt the floor shift beneath him.
"You're saying the entire death investigation was staged?"
"Not exactly."
Margaret leaned closer.
"Daniel was officially declared dead because someone needed his identity erased. He was no longer allowed to exist."
"Why?"
"Because he possessed the original security footage from the night of the explosion."
Ethan looked at the encrypted drive.
"Is it here?"
Margaret nodded.
"Part of it."
"Where's the rest?"
Before she could answer, a loud metallic sound echoed from the platform.
Someone had entered the station.
Margaret grabbed Ethan's arm.
"We have to leave."
A flashlight beam moved across the wall.
Then a man's voice rang through the building.
"Margaret! I know you're here!"
She turned pale.
"That's impossible."
"Who is it?"
She whispered:
"Someone who was supposed to be dead."
The footsteps grew louder.
Ethan reached for the case.
Margaret suddenly pushed it into his hands.
"Take this and run."
"What about you?"
"Go!"
The lights went out.
A gunshot exploded through the darkness.
Ethan ran toward the exit.
Behind him, he heard Margaret scream.
Then another voice spoke calmly.
"Find the boy. He has the drive."
Ethan reached the street and disappeared into the night.
He didn't stop until he was inside his car.
His hands shook as he opened the case again.
A folded piece of paper had been hidden beneath the documents.
It contained a handwritten message from Daniel.
Ethan, if you are reading this, the worst has already happened. The man you believe to be my enemy may be the only person who can explain why I disappeared.
Ethan read it again.
Then he noticed a name written beneath the message.
JONATHAN REED.
He had never heard of Jonathan Reed.
But beside the name was a date.
October 18, 2019.
The night of the Riverside explosion.
And beneath it, a final sentence:
He died in my place.
Ethan drove through the city until he reached a small motel near the northern highway.
He paid in cash and registered under a false name.
For the first time in years, he felt that his life was being controlled by someone else.
He placed the black case on the bed and carefully examined every document.
The name Jonathan Reed appeared repeatedly.
According to the records, Jonathan had been a senior security engineer at Riverside.
He had disappeared on the night of the explosion.
The official report listed him among the twelve victims.
But Daniel's message suggested something else.
He died in my place.
Ethan searched the encrypted drive.
Most of the files were corrupted, but one folder remained accessible.
It was labeled:
OCTOBER 18 β PRIVATE SECURITY RECORDINGS.
Inside were seventeen video files.
Ethan opened the first.
The recording showed the Riverside control room at 9:12 p.m.
Daniel Cole stood near the emergency control panel, arguing with another man.
Ethan recognized the second man from the photograph.
Jonathan Reed.
The audio was distorted, but several sentences were clear.
"You can't shut it down," Jonathan said.
"People are going to die," Daniel replied.
"You don't understand what Hargrove has invested."
"I don't care about his money."
Jonathan stepped closer.
"You should care about your son."
Daniel froze.
The recording ended.
Ethan replayed the conversation.
Then he opened the second video.
This time, the footage showed the corridor outside the chemical storage room.
A security guard entered carrying a metal container.
He placed it beside the emergency ventilation system.
Then he walked away.
At 10:03 p.m., the system shut down.
Twenty minutes later, smoke began appearing in the corridor.
Ethan felt his stomach tighten.
The explosion had occurred at 10:47 p.m.
He opened the third video.
It showed a man entering the control room at 11:19 p.m.
The building was already burning.
The man was wearing a firefighter's uniform.
But when he removed his helmet, Ethan nearly dropped his laptop.
It was Richard Hayes.
Seven years ago, before he became police commissioner.
Hayes approached the control panel and removed a small storage device.
Then he looked directly at the camera.
"Everything is under control," he said.
He smiled.
And walked away.
Ethan leaned back.
The police commissioner had been inside Riverside after the explosion.
He had removed evidence.
And now he was trying to destroy the remaining recordings.
A knock sounded at the motel door.
Ethan immediately closed the laptop.
"Who is it?"
"Room service."
Ethan frowned.
He hadn't ordered anything.
He moved toward the door but didn't open it.
"Leave it outside."
Silence.
Then a woman's voice whispered:
"Ethan, it's Sophia."
He rushed to unlock the door.
Sophia stood outside, pale and exhausted, with a bandage wrapped around her forehead.
He pulled her inside.
"What happened?"
"They took me to an abandoned warehouse. I managed to escape when one of the guards left the door unlocked."
"Who took you?"
"Hayes's men."
Ethan examined her injuries.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'll survive."
She noticed the laptop.
"Did you find anything?"
Ethan showed her the footage.
Sophia watched the video of Hayes entering the control room.
Her face changed.
"That's not possible."
"What?"
She pointed at the screen.
"Look at the timestamp."
Ethan zoomed in.
The recording was dated October 18, 2019.
But the camera identification number belonged to a system installed in 2020.
Sophia stared at him.
"Someone inserted this recording into the archive later."
Ethan felt a new wave of confusion.
"So the footage is fake?"
"Not necessarily. But someone altered the metadata. We need the original recording to prove when it was made."
She opened the encrypted drive.
Then she found something Ethan had missed.
A folder titled:
JONATHAN REED β PERSONAL FILES.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Jonathan standing beside Daniel.
But the man standing between them was someone else.
A young police officer.
Sophia zoomed in.
"Do you know him?"
Ethan shook his head.
"No."
She looked closer.
Then she whispered:
"That's my father."
Ethan turned toward her.
"What?"
Sophia's eyes filled with tears.
"My father was a police detective. He died in a car accident when I was twelve."
She pointed at the photograph.
"His name was Michael Bennett."