Chapter 10 - The Man Who Wasn't Missing.
Marcus read Scott's name three times without changing expression.
Andrew did not manage the same control.
"No."
Hannah held the torn ledger page by its edges.
"My father wrote it."
"That doesn't mean Scott is the current operator."
Marcus looked at Andrew.
"You defending him?"
"I'm saying Peter died eight years ago."
Hannah agreed.
"Scott was twenty-seven then. Was he even at Vale Meridian?"
Andrew searched his personnel archive.
Scott Mercer had joined Vale Meridian nine years and eight months earlier as a junior infrastructure analyst.
He had transferred into executive security six years later.
Marcus's eyes hardened.
"He was there."
Hannah looked at Peter's note again.
"But why would my father write his full name?"
Andrew checked Scott's family history.
His father, Thomas Mercer, had been Victor Vale's director of technology for sixteen years.
Thomas retired one month after Peter Reed was fired.
Scott had entered the company under a graduate program soon afterward.
Marcus rubbed a hand over his jaw.
"We have two Mercers."
Hannah exhaled.
"The page doesn't say which one."
Andrew called Scott.
No answer.
Marcus tried next.
Still nothing.
Hannah looked at the empty place Owen had occupied minutes earlier.
"And now my brother is gone."
Andrew checked the car's exterior camera.
Owen had left willingly with a man in a dark coat.
The man's face stayed out of frame.
The vehicle plate belonged to a black sedan registered to Elias Ward.
Marcus recognized the name.
"My father's driver."
Andrew looked surprised.
"I thought he died."
"So did I."
Elias Ward had been driving Victor the night of the Atlantic plane emergency twelve years earlier.
The official story said he later moved overseas and died after an illness.
Marcus had attended no funeral.
No one he knew had.
Hannah stared at the registration record.
"The car is current."
"And insured," Andrew said.
"Which means the man who supposedly died is paying New York premiums on time."
Marcus almost smiled despite the situation.
"My father would've appreciated that detail."
They traced the sedan to a private garage near Riverside Drive.
Elias was waiting when they arrived.
He was seventy now, white-haired, straight-backed, and dressed in a dark wool coat.
Owen stood beside him, unharmed but furious.
"You could've told me where we were going," Owen said.
Elias ignored the complaint and looked at Marcus.
"You have Victor's eyes."
Marcus's voice was cold.
"You were reported dead."
"That was safer for everyone."
"Not a good answer."
Elias nodded.
"No. But it's the true one."
Hannah stepped forward.
"Why did you take Owen?"
"Because someone was following him from the library."
Owen pointed toward the garage entrance.
"He pulled up and told me to get in."
"And you did?"
"A guy was taking pictures of the car. I made a choice."
Hannah wanted to argue, but the logic was painfully familiar.
Elias led them into a small office above the garage.
On the desk sat an old laptop, three external drives, and a dash camera unit from more than a decade earlier.
Marcus stared at it.
"You kept the footage."
"Victor told me to destroy it."
"You didn't."
"Peter told me not to."
Hannah looked at him sharply.
"You knew my father."
"He was the only man in that building who asked why Victor's plane emergency happened the same week Ash Ledger went offline."
Marcus sat across from him.
"Tell me what happened."
Elias connected the drive.
The old dash-camera software required a password Elias had not typed in years.
He failed twice before remembering that Victor had insisted all fleet devices use asset numbers instead of personal phrases.
The footage opened with a distorted timestamp and a view of wet Manhattan streets.
Hannah asked Andrew to preserve the original file before anyone played it further.
Elias nodded approvingly.
"Peter would've liked you."
Hannah kept her eyes on the screen.
"He did like me."
Elias realized the mistake.
"I meant as an auditor."
"I know."
The correction mattered because Hannah was tired of hearing her father discussed only as a professional figure in other people's memories.
To them he was a principled auditor, an inconvenient employee, or a keeper of records.
To her he had been the man who burned pancakes on Sundays and pretended not to notice when she stole the crisp edges.
The human memory and the corporate record did not cancel each other.
They had to coexist.
That realization made her more careful, not less.
She did not want grief turning every ambiguous detail into proof of conspiracy.
She wanted the standard Peter had taught her before she knew he had ever needed it for himself.
Follow the record, especially when the answer you want is easier.
The video showed Victor Vale leaving headquarters late at night twelve years earlier.
Rebecca Sloan entered the car with him.
So did Thomas Mercer.
They argued during the drive to the airport.
The camera had no interior audio, but their gestures were clear.
At one point Victor pointed directly at Thomas and then at a folder in Rebecca's lap.
"Where was Nolan?" Marcus asked.
"Not involved," Elias replied.
"You sure?"
"He didn't even know Victor was his father then."
Marcus looked toward the window.
Another piece of his childhood had been managed by adults who believed secrets were mercy.
Elias continued.
"The plane never had a mechanical emergency. Victor canceled the flight after Peter warned him that someone had duplicated the Echo keys."
Hannah leaned forward.
"Who?"
"Thomas Mercer."
Andrew's face fell.
Scott's father.
"Victor kept Thomas out of prison in exchange for silence," Elias said.
"Why?" Marcus asked.
"Because Thomas had evidence of the Nolan trust, and Victor would not risk exposing his second son."
Marcus laughed bitterly.
"So he protected one secret by creating another."
"Yes."
"And Rebecca?"
Elias's gaze hardened.
"She negotiated the deal."
Hannah thought of Rebecca's boardroom smile.
"Did she benefit?"
"Peter believed she took control of Thomas's access rather than shutting it down."
Andrew asked the question no one wanted to ask.
"Does Scott know?"
Elias looked at him.
"Scott knows his father built the first back door."
Marcus stood.
"Where is Scott now?"
"Trying to close it."
"How do you know?"
Elias reached into his coat and placed a phone on the desk.
The screen displayed a message received twelve minutes earlier.
FROM SCOTT: THEY MOVED THE REAL TRANSFER TO NOON. I NEED MARCUS TO BELIEVE I TURNED.
Hannah stared.
"Why?"
Elias opened the next message.
BECAUSE REBECCA ONLY SHOWS THE MASTER ROUTE TO PEOPLE SHE THINKS SHE OWNS.
Marcus looked at the clock.
10:26 a.m.
One hour and thirty-four minutes until noon.
Then Scott sent another message.
SHE ISN'T MOVING 18 MILLION.
May you like
A final line appeared.
SHE IS MOVING 640 MILLION.
