Chapter 8 - The Patient Who Knew Too Much
General Rowe collapsed before Mara could reach him.
Agent Price called for medical assistance while Trent and Reyes secured the underground bay.
The hospital staff who arrived claimed they had never seen Rowe before.
Mara did not believe them.
Neither did Price.
Rowe was taken to a military medical facility under armed protection. His wound was serious but not life-threatening.
For six hours, he remained unconscious.
Mara spent every minute waiting outside the treatment room while Captain Cho searched traffic cameras for the missing van.
At 8:17 a.m., Rowe opened his eyes.
His first question was about Nadia.
“We lost the vehicle,” Mara said.
Rowe closed his eyes briefly.
“I should have told you sooner.”
“Told me what?”
“The infrastructure fund was compromised before your division took control.”
“By Vivienne?”
“Vivienne was part of it. Not the beginning.”
“Who was?”
Rowe looked toward the armed guard outside his room.
Mara closed the door.
“Elias, my daughter is missing. You do not get to protect secrets anymore.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You forged a reassignment order.”
“No.”
“Your digital signature was used.”
“My authorization token was stolen months ago. I suspected someone inside headquarters, but I had no proof.”
“Why delay my audit?”
“Because every investigator assigned to the fund was exposed. Two resigned. One disappeared. One died in what was called a boating accident.”
Mara remembered the names.
She had attended one funeral.
“You should have told me.”
“I planned to. Then Nadia contacted me.”
Mara stared at him.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago. She found a hidden payment pattern in the Novaris servers.”
“She told me she reported it to Caleb.”
“She did. But first, she sent me a copy.”
“Why you?”
“Because she thought you would be obligated to report through official channels, and she was afraid the official channels were compromised.”
Mara felt both pride and pain.
Nadia had tried to protect her.
Rowe continued.
“I gave her access to an encrypted archive containing every suspicious transaction we had identified. I told her not to open it unless something happened to me.”
“But she opened it.”
“Because something did happen.”
Rowe reached toward the water on the table. Mara helped him drink.
“Two days before Nadia was taken, I discovered someone inside my office had copied the audit files. I sent Nadia a warning.”
“What was in the archive?”
“A master ledger. Not only the hospital transfers. Weapons procurement, construction contracts, medical research grants, private intelligence payments.”
“How much money?”
“More than one billion dollars over twelve years.”
Mara was silent.
The hospital theft was only one branch of a much larger system.
“Who controls it?”
“I never found the top level. Every path ended at a code name.”
“What code name?”
Rowe looked directly at her.
“Lighthouse.”
Mara had heard the word before.
During her final call, Nadia had said she copied files. At the time, Mara assumed she meant the hospital payments.
“What did Nadia do with the ledger?”
“She divided the encryption key.”
“How many parts?”
“Three.”
“Who has them?”
“I had one. Nadia had one. The third was automatically sent to a protected address when my biometric monitor detected that I had been attacked.”
“Whose address?”
“I don’t know.”
Mara’s frustration sharpened.
“You created a recovery system without knowing the recipient?”
“Nadia created it.”
That surprised her.
“She said no single person should be trusted with the entire key, including me.”
“Where is your part?”
“Vivienne took it.”
“Then she has two parts if she finds Nadia’s.”
“No. Nadia never carried hers physically.”
“How does she access it?”
Rowe hesitated.
“She tied it to a memory.”
Mara frowned.
“A phrase, location, or event only she would recognize.”
“Can Vivienne force it from her?”
“Possibly.”
Mara turned toward the door.
Rowe caught her wrist.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“When the van left, I heard Caleb say they were taking Nadia to the first hospital.”
“St. Catherine is not the first?”
“No.”
“Which one is?”
Rowe looked afraid.
“Vale Memorial was closed nineteen years ago after a fire.”
Mara remembered the incident. Twelve patients had died. The building had never reopened.
“Why would they take her there?”
“Because the official report was false.”
“What really happened?”
Rowe swallowed.
“The fire destroyed the original Lighthouse records.”
Captain Cho entered without knocking.
“We found the van.”
“Where?” Mara asked.
“Abandoned outside Vale Memorial.”
“Was Nadia inside?”
Cho’s face answered before he spoke.
“No.”
He handed Mara a clear evidence bag.
May you like
Inside was Nadia’s hidden phone.
The screen was cracked, but a recording was still running.
