Chapter 3 - The Ghost in the FurnitureMy breath hitched. Jerry wasn't just a random dog I adopted four years ago from a local shelterâhe was a retired military working dog trained specifically in detection. The shelter had told me he was a stray, but now the pieces were fitting together into a terrifying picture.
Determined to unlock the USB drive, I opened my laptop and connected to the diner's encrypted network through a custom VPN. I plugged the titanium drive into the port.
A single window popped up on screen: REQUIRES BIOMETRIC & LOCATION REAUTHENTICATION.
Before I could unplug it, the laptop screen flickered violently and switched to a live camera feed.
My heart dropped into my stomach.
The live feed showed my apartment living room. The couch was completely gutted, fabric shredded across the hardwood floor. Standing in the middle of the room, looking straight into my laptop's web camera, was a man in a tailor-made suit.
He held up a phone to the camera lens. My phone rang instantly on the diner table.
May you like
I picked it up, my jaw clenched. "Who are you?"
"Hello, Ethan," the voice smoothly replied over the line. "Your father was a very clever man, hiding the evidence inside custom-refurbished antiques. But you made a fatal mistake plugging that drive in. We have your precise signal origin. Look out the diner window."
