Chapter 10 - The Video Rebecca Left Behind
The recording began with Rebecca Whitmore sitting in front of a plain wall.
She looked tired.
Logan leaned toward the screen.
He had his mother's eyes.
"If you're watching this," Rebecca said, "then something happened that I hoped never would."
Grant covered his mouth.
Rebecca explained everything.
Victor Hale wasn't the architect of Kestrel.
He had discovered it too late.
Someone inside the government had manipulated intelligence and used Hale's company as cover.
A senior official had been selling operational information.
Rebecca knew the name.
She had encrypted the evidence.
But she refused to say it aloud.
"The key is where Logan learned to fight."
Everyone looked at Logan.
"Apex," he whispered.
His gym.
Grant had partially funded it.
But before that, the building had belonged to Rebecca's family.
We reached Apex Combat Academy after midnight.
Logan led us toward an old storage room.
Behind a wall panel, we found a metal box.
Inside was another drive.
And a photograph.
Mercer picked it up.
Then stopped breathing.
I knew that reaction.
"Robert?"
He turned the photograph toward me.
A younger Major General Mercer stood beside the official Rebecca had identified.
Lieutenant General Stephen Caldwell.
Retired.
Decorated.
Respected.
And currently serving as a civilian adviser with access to sensitive defense programs.
Mercer whispered:
"Stephen was my mentor."
The betrayal wasn't twelve years old.
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It was still alive.
And it was sitting close enough to the highest levels of power to erase anyone who discovered it.
