Chapter 5 - the soldier who remembered
Olivia did not open the door immediately.
“How do I know you served with him?”
The voice on the other side answered without hesitation.
“Ask me what Jonathan carried in his left boot during winter deployments.”
Olivia remembered the story.
“A photograph of my mother?”
“No. That was what he told Margaret. It was a packet of cinnamon gum because she hated the smell of military coffee on his breath.”
Olivia unlocked the door.
Noah Reed stood in the hallway wearing the gray uniform of the estate’s senior driver. He was in his late sixties, with a straight back and a scar running from his ear to his jaw.
“I’ve seen you before,” Olivia said.
“I drove your mother here last night.”
“You work for Diane.”
“I work near Diane.”
He entered and closed the door.
“Your father saved my life during Northbridge. I’ve been waiting seventeen years for the archive to reopen.”
“Did my mother cause his death?”
Noah’s expression tightened.
“Margaret signed a route order. She did not write it.”
“What does that mean?”
“The command was transmitted under her authorization code, but she was in another country when it happened.”
“Then someone used her credentials.”
“That was Jonathan’s belief.”
Olivia handed him the note.
“Did you leave this?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the second recorder?”
“I don’t know.”
She stared at him.
“You came here to tell me about evidence you cannot find?”
“I came to tell you your father hid it somewhere only you could reach.”
“I was nine.”
“He expected the archive to remain closed until you had a child. He believed whoever controlled Northbridge would eventually come through you.”
Olivia’s hand moved to her stomach.
“He knew this would happen?”
“He feared it.”
“Why didn’t you tell Margaret?”
“Because Jonathan told me not to trust anyone whose authorization appeared on the route order.”
“My mother included.”
Noah nodded.
The answer hurt, but Olivia understood it.
“What does Diane want me to sign?”
“A declaration stating that your pregnancy has affected your mental judgment and that Ethan should temporarily control the Vale family trust.”
“And after the baby is born?”
“The archive opens. Ethan gains access. Diane removes every record connecting her company to the weapons network.”
Olivia sat down slowly.
“Cross Strategic Industries funded the foundation.”
“It also supplied transport systems to Northbridge.”
“Does Ethan know everything?”
“No.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because if he knew everything, you would already be dead.”
Olivia looked toward the door.
Noah continued before she could speak.
“Diane needs you alive until the child is born. Ethan believes she wants to destroy the archive. She wants something inside it.”
“What?”
“A list.”
“Of names?”
“Of people who continued the network after Northbridge collapsed. Some now hold positions powerful enough to start wars without firing a weapon.”
Olivia thought about the distorted voice on Ethan’s recording.
“I photographed several pages from the file.”
“Where is your phone?”
“Ethan took it.”
“Did it upload automatically?”
“My cloud account requires a second device.”
Noah glanced around the bedroom.
“Do you have one?”
Olivia looked toward the dressing room.
An old tablet was hidden inside a travel case.
She turned it on and logged into her account.
The photographs appeared.
Noah studied the pages.
When he reached the handwritten note claiming Margaret signed the order, he shook his head.
“That was not Jonathan’s writing.”
“How do you know?”
“He never wrote your mother’s name as Margaret. Not once.”
Olivia enlarged the image.
The final word had been underlined twice.
Margaret.
Noah was right.
Her father always called her Maggie, even in military notes.
“This was planted,” Olivia said.
“To make you distrust the one person Diane fears.”
The tablet suddenly displayed a security alert.
Someone had entered the room’s network remotely.
Noah took the device.
“We have to move the photographs.”
The screen went black.
A message appeared.
May you like
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PAST BURIED.
Then the bedroom door began to unlock from the outside.
