Chapter 2 - The Dead Colonel
Colonel Margaret Vale had officially died in a helicopter crash.
Lisa learned that much within ten minutes.
The Army record listed three fatalities.
Margaret Vale.
Captain Thomas Bennett.
And Staff Sergeant Daniel Cross.
Ryan’s father.
Evelyn’s husband.
Lisa’s brother.
Three people supposedly dead in one operation.
Except Lisa’s brother was alive.
And now the dead colonel had walked into Lisa’s office.
Lisa looked at Ryan.
“You told me your father died in training.”
Ryan nodded weakly.
“That’s what I was told.”
Evelyn laughed once.
A cold, bitter sound.
“No.”
Ryan turned.
“What?”
“You were told what was necessary.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Necessary for what?”
Evelyn said nothing.
The investigators separated everyone.
Lisa rode with Marcus to her office.
The building’s security system was still under her administrative control.
That mattered.
Nothing inside could be deleted without leaving a forensic trace.
Unless someone had access to her root credentials.
When they arrived, the lobby lights were on.
No receptionist.
No security guard.
The night shift had been sent home thirty minutes early under a message appearing to come from Lisa.
She had never sent it.
Her private office door was open.
Inside, one chair was overturned.
A glass had shattered beside the desk.
But there was no blood.
No body.
No Michael.
No Margaret.
Only a laptop sitting open on Lisa’s desk.
A single video file waited on the screen.
Marcus stopped her from touching anything.
A digital-forensics agent mirrored the drive.
Then they played it.
Michael appeared first.
Older.
Thinner.
A gray beard.
But unmistakably her brother.
Lisa stopped breathing.
“Lisa.”
His voice shook.
“If you’re watching this, I’m sorry.”
She covered her mouth.
“I should have come back years ago.”
Behind him stood Margaret Vale.
She looked nothing like a dead woman.
She looked alert.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
Michael continued.
“I didn’t disappear because I wanted to.”
“I disappeared because Evelyn Bennett told me you would die if I came home.”
Lisa’s eyes filled.
Then Margaret stepped forward.
“Your company is compromised.”
she said.
“Your husband is compromised.”
“Your friend is compromised.”
Lisa frowned.
“My friend?”
Margaret looked directly into the camera.
“Claire Donovan.”
Lisa felt cold.
Claire was her best friend.
Chief operating officer.
The woman who helped build the company from a rented office above a pharmacy.
The woman who had held Lisa while she cried before her wedding.
Margaret continued.
“If Claire tells you she is protecting your company, do not believe her.”
The video cut.
Then a second file opened automatically.
A document.
Acquisition Agreement.
Lisa Bennett Cybersecurity.
Proposed controlling shareholders.
Ryan Bennett.
Claire Donovan.
Evelyn Bennett Family Trust.
Lisa stared.
“They planned to take my company.”
Marcus nodded.
“Looks like it.”
She read the date.
The draft had been created nine months before.
Four months before Claire convinced Lisa to appoint Ryan as a temporary board adviser.
Two months before Evelyn doubled pressure for “charitable” donations.
Lisa looked at Marcus.
“This was coordinated.”
“Yes.”
Then the building alarm sounded.
Not the fire alarm.
The server-room alarm.
Someone was inside Lisa’s restricted network vault.
And only five people in the company had physical access.
May you like
One was Lisa.
One was Claire.
