CHAPTER 8 â The First Name on the List Was Someone Ethan Never Suspected
No one in the command center breathed.
The encrypted drive had finally opened.
A single folder.
PROJECT GENESIS.
Inside were thousands of classified files, surveillance videos, financial records, and one document titled:
ACTIVE MEMBERS.
Twenty-seven names.
The FBI agents began reading them one by one.
Each name carried more power than the last.
Senators.
Federal judges.
Media executives.
Billionaires.
Military officers.
Then...
The lead agent suddenly stopped.
His face turned pale.
He slowly turned the laptop toward Ethan.
"You should see this yourself."
Ethan looked at the first name.
His entire body froze.
Margaret Holloway.
The woman standing beside him.
The woman who claimed she had spent thirty years helping expose the conspiracy.
The woman who had just saved Lily.
Ethan stepped backward.
"No..."
Margaret's eyes filled with disbelief.
"That's impossible."
The FBI agents immediately raised their weapons.
"Hands where we can see them!"
Margaret slowly lifted both hands.
"I've never seen that file before."
The lead agent remained expressionless.
"Your name is number one."
Emily stared at Margaret.
"You lied to us..."
Margaret shook her head desperately.
"No."
"They wanted you to find this list."
"They knew you would trust it."
Before anyone could respond...
Another file automatically opened by itself.
A prerecorded video.
Richard Caldwell appeared once again.
This recording looked newer than the last.
"If you've reached this file..."
"...then Genesis has already begun."
Richard smiled sadly.
"You are now looking at a list designed to destroy itself."
"The first five names are innocent."
"They were placed there intentionally."
"So when investigators arrest them..."
"...the real leaders escape."
The room erupted.
Every FBI agent lowered their weapons in confusion.
Richard continued.
"Genesis was never built on secrets."
"It was built on lies."
"The greatest weapon isn't violence."
"It's convincing good people to destroy each other."
Margaret collapsed into a chair, tears streaming down her face.
"They framed me..."
Richard looked directly into the camera.
"And Ethan..."
"If you're still alive..."
"...there's only one person left who knows the complete truth."
The screen displayed a single photograph.
A man in an orange prison uniform.
Prisoner Number A-7719.
Location:
Black Ridge Federal Supermax Prison.
Emily gasped.
"I know him..."
Ethan looked at her.
"Who is he?"
Emily whispered the name she had never dared to say aloud.
"Daniel Mercer."
"The accountant who laundered billions for Genesis."
"I watched him testify against them..."
"...the day before he disappeared."
An FBI agent quickly searched the federal database.
Seconds later, he looked up in disbelief.
"This can't be right."
"What?"
"Daniel Mercer died six years ago."
Emily slowly shook her head.
"No..."
"He wanted everyone to believe that."
At that exact moment...
Every light inside the command center suddenly shut off.
Emergency generators kicked in.
Red warning lights flashed across the walls.
A computerized voice echoed through the building.
SECURITY BREACH.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
Every monitor switched to the same live camera.
Black Ridge Federal Supermax Prison.
Smoke filled the prison corridors.
Alarms screamed.
Cell doors were opening one by one.
An officer shouted into his radio.
"All units respond immediately!"
"We have a mass escape!"
Then the camera zoomed in on Cell A-7719.
The door stood wide open.
The bed was empty.
But someone had written six words across the concrete wall using fresh red paint.
"YOU'RE ALREADY TOO LATE, ETHAN."
As everyone stared at the screen in horror...
A phone inside Ethan's pocket vibrated.
One new text message.
Unknown sender.
"Look behind you."
Ethan slowly turned around...
...and saw Lily smiling at someone standing in the doorway.
"Grandma..."
she whispered happily.
Emily's face drained of color.
Because the woman standing there...
...was Ethan's mother.
May you like
The woman the entire world believed had been dead for twenty-four years.
TO BE CONTINUED...
