CHAPTER 8 — The File That Was Never Supposed to Exist
Late that night...
Emma, Raven, and the warden entered the abandoned records basement.
Dust covered everything.
The vault door stood slightly open.
Inside was a single black steel box.
No label.
No case number.
Only one handwritten word:
GHOST
Emma's hands trembled as she unlocked it.
Inside were photographs...
Medical reports...
Military documents...
And one faded family picture.
Emma stared at it in disbelief.
She wasn't alone in the photograph.
Standing beside her as a child...
Was Victor Hale.
The room froze.
Raven whispered,
"That's impossible..."
Emma kept turning the pages.
Every document revealed another unbelievable truth.
She had never been chosen to infiltrate Victor's organization.
She had grown up inside it.
As a child, she had been rescued during a secret federal operation after Victor's criminal network kidnapped dozens of children and trained them to become future operatives.
To protect the survivors, the government erased their identities and gave them new lives.
Emma had remembered nothing.
Until now.
Tears filled her eyes.
"My entire childhood..."
"...was a lie."
Just then...
The basement lights flickered.
A slow clap echoed from the darkness.
One.
Two.
Three.
A gray-haired woman stepped into the light wearing a federal identification badge.
Everyone recognized her immediately.
She was the Director of the agency that had recruited Emma years ago.
But instead of smiling...
She pulled out a pistol.
"You were never supposed to find that file."
Emma stared at her in disbelief.
"You knew?"
The director nodded.
"I buried the truth to protect an operation far bigger than you could ever imagine."
Then she aimed the gun directly at Emma.
"And now..."
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"I can't let you leave alive."
To Be Continued...
