Chapter 3 - My Mother Revealed a Secret About My Father That Made the Billionaire Realize the Sabotage Had Started Before I Was BornMom had never told me much about Dad's work.
After he died, she packed away his notebooks.
She never opened them.
She said some memories hurt too much.
Now she admitted she'd seen that symbol before.
On Dad's old toolbox.
On his laptop.
On documents he kept hidden.
I asked,
“Why didn't you tell me?”
She looked at me.
“Because your father asked me not to.”
Ethan Cross was listening.
“Why?”
Mom looked at him.
“Because he believed someone at CrossTech was watching him.”
Ethan frowned.
“Who?”
“He didn't know.”
Marcus looked toward the engine.
“Daniel suspected sabotage?”
Mom nodded.
“He said the company wasn't failing.”
Ethan stiffened.
“What did he say?”
“He said someone was making it fail.”
The room became silent.
Then Ethan asked,
“Why?”
Mom shook her head.
“I don't know.”
I looked at the engine.
“Maybe Dad did.”
Marcus stared at me.
“What?”
I pointed toward the diagnostic system.
“There's a missing number.”
“What?”
“Look.”
He checked.
The Prometheus system had a sequence.
Every component had a number.
Except one.
The hidden component.
But there was another missing number.
A number that should have been assigned to the engine's central regulator.
Marcus stared.
“That regulator was replaced three weeks ago.”
“By who?”
He checked the records.
His face went pale.
“Victor Shaw.”
Ethan's chief technology officer.
The man who had overseen Prometheus since day one.
Ethan immediately ordered security to find him.
Victor was gone.
His office was empty.
His phone was off.
His badge had been deactivated thirty minutes earlier.
Then the security system displayed a message.
PROMETHEUS PROTOCOL COMPROMISED.
Marcus whispered,
“Someone is remotely controlling it.”
Ethan looked at me.
“Can you stop it?”
I shook my head.
“Not from here.”
“Then what can you do?”
I looked at the machine.
“Listen.”
I closed my eyes.
The engine was silent.
Then I heard something.
A faint clicking.
One.
Two.
Three.
I opened my eyes.
“The lower bearing.”
Marcus stared.
“That bearing is new.”
“It's wrong.”
He checked the specifications.
I was right.
Someone had installed a bearing made from a different alloy.
The difference was microscopic.
But under extreme heat, it expanded faster.
That caused the ninety-second failure.
The hidden module was only the trigger.
The real sabotage had been built into the machine.
Marcus looked horrified.
“Who could have calculated this?”
I answered,
“My dad.”
Everyone looked at me.
I pointed toward the engine.
“He used to say the best way to hide a broken part was to make it look like another broken part.”
Marcus slowly nodded.
“That is exactly what happened.”
Ethan turned toward Mom.
“Maria, I need to speak with you privately.”
Mom hesitated.
I grabbed her hand.
“No.”
Ethan looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because you know something about Dad.”
Ethan sighed.
“Yes.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Your father didn't die because of an accident.”
Mom gasped.
I felt the room disappear around me.
“What?”
Ethan lowered his voice.
“Daniel Bennett was investigating the same people who sabotaged Prometheus.”
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You let him die?”
“No.”
Mom stepped forward.
“Then who did?”
Ethan didn't answer.
Because the laboratory doors suddenly locked.
The lights went out.
May you like
And a voice came through the speakers.
“Daniel Bennett should have stayed quiet.”
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