CHAPTER 5 — The Ghost File
Special Agent Rebecca Hayes returned to the cabin before sunrise.
"This changes everything."
She placed dozens of photographs across the dining table.
Faces.
Vehicles.
Private airfields.
Luxury resorts.
Government buildings.
The investigation had uncovered a second organization hidden behind the first.
Far richer.
Far more dangerous.
Olivia had given it a name inside her journal.
The Ghost Circle.
Unlike ordinary criminals...
Its members never appeared together.
Never communicated directly.
Every order passed through dead drops, coded messages, and disposable couriers.
No one knew who led them.
Except...
Olivia had come close.
Very close.
The final encrypted folder on the memory card required one missing password.
Ethan searched every page of Olivia's journal again.
Hours passed.
Nothing.
Then Ella quietly walked toward Olivia's old piano.
She pressed seven keys.
Not randomly.
A melody.
Olivia used to play it every night before bed.
Emma suddenly smiled.
"She told us music remembers what people forget."
Ethan rushed to the journal.
Every chapter began with a handwritten musical note.
When translated into letters...
They formed a single phrase.
OUR FIRST SUNSET.
He entered the words.
The folder unlocked.
Thousands of classified files appeared.
Hidden bank accounts.
Private satellite phones.
Names of judges.
Police chiefs.
Military officers.
Even members of Congress.
Rebecca whispered one sentence.
"This reaches farther than we imagined."
Then the computer beeped.
Incoming message.
No sender.
No address.
Only five words.
YOU OPENED THE WRONG FILE.
The cabin lights went out.
Again.
Outside...
Drone engines buzzed overhead.
Then every phone inside the cabin displayed the same countdown.
10:00
May you like
Nine minutes until...
No one knew what.
