Chapter 10
James stepped over, taking the letter from my hands.
He read the paragraph under the dim lamp light, his eyes narrowing.
"A key," James muttered. "Your grandfather wasn't talking metaphorically."
"He was a combat engineer before he transitioned to intelligence."
"He built physical security systems."
"If he says there is a key, there is a literal object he hid."
Detective Collins walked into the living room, her face pale, holding her laptop.
"Guys, you need to see this," she said, placing the computer on the coffee table.
"I just pulled the unredacted files from the 2004 military investigation into Richard Lawson."
"The official story was that he sold troop movements to foreign operatives."
"But look at the evidence log that was deleted from the public record."
She tapped the keyboard, bringing up a scanned document from a military archive.
It was a manifest of items seized from Richard Lawson's quarters during his arrest.
One item was highlighted in red by a previous investigator.
Item 14: One encrypted hardware security module, labeled 'Project Black Slate.'
"Black Slate," I repeated, the name sounding foreign and dangerous.
"What is it?"
"It was a deep-black communications network," Collins explained.
"Developed in the late nineties to allow clandestine operatives to communicate without leaving a digital footprint on commercial satellites."
"The network was officially shut down in 2005 after General Vance's supposed death."
"But look who signed off on the destruction of the physical servers."
She scrolled down.
The signature at the bottom of the page belonged to my father.
Captain Thomas Brooks.
The room fell completely silent, save for the crackle of the dying fire.
My grandfather built the hiding places.
My father held the keys to the darkest secrets in the military.
And now, both of them were gone, leaving me to face the man who wanted those secrets back.
"My father didn't destroy those servers," I said, the realization hitting me like a physical blow.
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"He hid them."
"And he used my grandfather's network of properties to do it."
