CHAPTER 7 – THE VIDEO THEY TRIED TO ERASE
The room fell silent.
Every federal agent stared at the tiny memory card resting in Lily's trembling hand.
No one breathed.
The technician inserted it into a secure computer.
The screen flickered.
Then the recording began.
Officer Daniel Reed's body camera showed the inside of Cabin Twelve.
Voices echoed in the darkness.
Daniel whispered, "If anything happens to me... this recording goes public."
Seconds later, several powerful men entered the room.
One of them looked exactly like the FBI Director.
The room exploded with shock.
"It's him..."
"It has to be him."
But Daniel suddenly shouted from his hospital bed.
"Pause the video!"
The technician froze the frame.
Daniel pointed at the man's wrist.
"No."
"That's not the Director."
Everyone looked closer.
The man wore the Director's face...
But on his wrist was an old military tattoo.
The real Director had never served in the military.
Someone had undergone plastic surgery to impersonate him.
The mastermind had spent years replacing powerful people with look-alikes to keep the organization hidden.
The investigation turned into a nationwide emergency.
If the fake Director existed...
How many others had been replaced?
Hours later, agents stormed the FBI headquarters.
The real Director was found locked inside a hidden panic room beneath the building.
Weak.
Malnourished.
Alive.
He had been imprisoned for nearly eight months while someone else used his identity to destroy evidence and silence witnesses.
The country erupted.
News channels called it the greatest law enforcement scandal in American history.
But Max refused to celebrate.
The loyal German Shepherd kept staring at one final photograph lying on Daniel's hospital table.
A family picture.
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On the back was a handwritten message.
"The last leader isn't in government."
