CHAPTER 4 – Someone Wanted the Truth Buried Forever
The police cars had barely disappeared when Samuel's old flip phone rang.
He frowned.
No one had called that number in years.
He answered.
A raspy voice whispered only one sentence.
"Don't open the box... unless you're ready to bury another daughter."
The line went dead.
Emily felt the color drain from her face.
"Who was that?"
Samuel slowly lowered the phone.
"I don't know."
"But they know we're alive."
Without another word, Emily's security team rushed both of them into the armored SUV.
The convoy sped toward the oldest bank in the state.
Hidden beneath the building was a private vault that had existed for nearly a century.
The silver key was useless anywhere else.
As they drove, black clouds swallowed the afternoon sky.
No one noticed the black motorcycle following them from a distance.
The rider never got closer.
Never fell behind.
He simply waited.
Thirty minutes later...
The convoy entered the underground parking garage.
The bank manager was already waiting.
His hands trembled as he checked the faded serial number engraved on Samuel's key.
"I've worked here for twenty-eight years," he whispered.
"I never believed this account still had an owner."
He led them through three steel security doors.
Past biometric scanners.
Past reinforced vaults.
Finally...
They stopped before a dusty deposit box labeled simply:
H-17
Samuel inserted the key.
Click.
The lock opened.
Inside wasn't money.
There were no gold bars.
No diamonds.
Only three objects.
An old cassette tape.
A sealed envelope.
And a military notebook stained with dried blood.
Samuel's breathing became uneven.
He immediately recognized the notebook.
"It belonged to Michael..."
Emily's father.
She carefully picked up the envelope.
Across the front, written in fading ink, were seven words.
"Open only if we never return."
Emily's hands shook.
Samuel nodded.
"Open it."
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Emily began reading aloud.
"If you're reading this, then someone succeeded in covering up the mission."
Her voice cracked.
The room fell silent.
"The helicopter crash wasn't an accident."
Samuel froze.
Emily continued.
"We discovered a secret operation involving senior government officials, illegal weapons, and missing military funds."
The security guards exchanged nervous glances.
Emily kept reading.
"If anything happens to us, trust no one wearing a uniform."
Suddenly—
BANG!
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the vault.
Emergency alarms exploded through the building.
Red lights flashed.
One of Emily's bodyguards shouted,
"Everyone down!"
Gunshots echoed through the hallway.
Glass shattered.
Someone screamed.
The bank manager collapsed to the floor.
Samuel instinctively pulled Emily behind the heavy steel vault door.
Despite his age...
Despite his prosthetic leg...
His military instincts returned in an instant.
He whispered calmly,
"Three shooters."
"Professional."
"They're clearing the hallway."
Emily stared at him in disbelief.
"How do you know?"
Samuel listened.
"They're firing in pairs."
"Moving every four seconds."
"They've done this before."
Another explosion rocked the building.
Smoke poured into the vault.
One guard rushed inside, bleeding heavily from his shoulder.
"They're here for the cassette!"
he shouted.
"They don't care about the money!"
Before anyone could react...
A masked man appeared in the doorway.
He raised his rifle.
But instead of firing...
He looked directly at Samuel.
Then he slowly removed his mask.
Samuel's eyes widened.
His heart nearly stopped.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
The man smiled coldly.
"You should've stayed forgotten, Colonel."
Samuel whispered the impossible name.
"Captain Richard Kane..."
The man everyone believed had died on the same mission...
...was standing alive in front of him.
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And he was pointing a gun at Emily's head.
To be continued...
