CHAPTER 7 — The Man Who Never Existed
The satellite phone call lasted only eight seconds.
Yet it changed everything.
Within twenty-four hours...
Every federal database containing information about Ethan Brooks had been compromised.
His military service?
Gone.
His birth certificate?
Missing.
His financial records?
Deleted.
Even his driver's license suddenly belonged to another man.
To the government...
Ethan Brooks no longer existed.
Special Agent Rebecca Hayes slammed a folder onto the conference table.
"I've never seen anything like this."
"It's as if someone rewrote reality overnight."
Without an identity, Ethan couldn't travel.
Couldn't open a bank account.
Couldn't even prove Emma and Ella were legally his daughters.
That was exactly what the Ghost Circle wanted.
To erase him.
Just as they had erased hundreds of missing children.
Meanwhile...
The twins began remembering things they had buried for years.
One rainy evening, Emma woke screaming.
"They're underground!"
Rebecca rushed into the room.
"What did you see?"
Emma's hands trembled.
"I remember a train."
"No windows."
"Children crying."
"Someone counting numbers."
Ella suddenly finished the sentence.
"...Forty-seven."
Rebecca froze.
The FBI had recovered an encrypted shipping manifest months earlier.
One entry kept repeating.
Route 47.
No one knew what it meant.
Until now.
The girls weren't remembering a place.
They were remembering transportation.
Somewhere...
Children were still being moved through the mountains.
And the Ghost Circle hadn't stopped.
They had only changed routes.
Late that night...
Rebecca received an anonymous package.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed Ethan standing beside Olivia at the cabin years before.
Except...
There was someone else in the picture.
A man standing behind them.
Watching.
His face had been scratched away.
May you like
Written across the back were six chilling words.
You never noticed him, did you?
