Chapter 6 - Nari Had Sixty Minutes to Translate Eight Languages and Stop a War No One Else Even Knew Was ComingThe boardroom doors locked automatically.
Alessio turned.
“Open them.”
Voss laughed.
“You don't understand.”
Nari looked at the screens.
The countdown continued.
Fifty-eight minutes.
“What is it?” Alessio asked.
“Not one device.”
She examined the data.
“Eight devices.”
“One for each language?”
“Yes.”
“What happens at zero?”
“They activate simultaneously.”
“What are they?”
“Signal relays.”
“For what?”
“To trigger people.”
“How?”
“Encrypted messages.”
Nari's eyes widened.
“They're sending false orders to criminal groups.”
Alessio understood.
“They'll attack each other.”
“And law enforcement will respond.”
“Creating chaos.”
“Yes.”
Voss smiled.
“Exactly.”
He had spent fifteen years waiting.
He had infiltrated ports.
Banks.
Companies.
Government contractors.
He had built a system that could turn a misunderstanding into war.
Nari looked at Alessio.
“We need access to the central server.”
Voss laughed.
“It's already too late.”
“Where is it?”
He didn't answer.
Alessio stepped forward.
“Tell me.”
“You're asking the wrong person.”
He looked at Nari.
“You should ask the cleaning lady.”
Nari froze.
Voss smiled.
“She has been listening for years.”
“How do you know?”
“Because your father taught you.”
Silence.
Nari stared.
“What?”
Voss explained.
Her father had not been merely a translator.
He had been one of the architects of Orpheus.
He built the multilingual encryption system.
Then he tried to destroy it.
Voss hunted him.
Nari's father died protecting his family.
Nari had inherited his abilities.
Voss had noticed her the moment she entered the Franks building.
The cleaning job was never random.
Someone had placed her there.
Nari felt sick.
“My supervisor.”
“Yes.”
“She knew.”
Voss nodded.
“She was one of mine.”
Alessio's jaw tightened.
“My company was infiltrated.”
“For years.”
“What do you want?”
Voss smiled.
“You.”
“Why?”
“Your father's legacy belongs to your family.”
“I don't want it.”
“That doesn't matter.”
Nari looked at the countdown.
Forty-one minutes.
“We need the server.”
Voss said:
“Basement.”
“Which room?”
“Language archive.”
Nari recognized the phrase.
She knew where it was.
The old translation department.
They ran.
Ethan and his team fought through security personnel.
Nari and Alessio reached the basement.
Inside was a wall covered with filing cabinets.
No computers.
No obvious server.
Nari looked around.
Eight shelves.
Eight languages.
She touched the French section.
Nothing.
Russian.
Nothing.
Arabic.
Nothing.
Then Portuguese.
A click.
A wall panel opened.
Server room.
Alessio stared.
“Your father designed this.”
Nari nodded.
“Using language as a key.”
They entered.
The system was protected by eight passwords.
Each in a different language.
Nari translated them.
The first opened.
Then second.
Third.
Fourth.
The fifth password was Arabic.
She entered it.
Error.
She tried again.
Still error.
“What's wrong?”
“Nobody speaks this dialect anymore.”
“How can you know the password?”
“My father changed it.”
“Why?”
“To protect the system from himself.”
She thought.
Then remembered something.
A phrase her father said every birthday.
A strange sentence.
Words survive longer than people.
She translated it into old Arabic.
The system opened.
Nari breathed.
Then saw the source code.
Her face changed.
“This isn't the trigger.”
“What is?”
“It's the warning system.”
Alessio frowned.
“Meaning?”
“Voss isn't starting the war.”
Nari pointed.
“He's stopping someone from stopping it.”
“Who?”
“The real commander.”
She scrolled.
A name appeared.
ORPHEUS PRIME.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
The countdown reached twenty minutes.
Then a message appeared.
PRIME ACTIVE.
Nari froze.
A new voice came through the speaker.
“Hello, daughter.”
She stopped breathing.
Her father's voice.
Older.
Recorded.
But alive.
“Your father left instructions.”
Nari whispered:
“He's dead.”
The recording continued.
“If you hear this, then I failed to stop Orpheus.”
Alessio looked at her.
The recording said:
“There is only one person who can stop it.”
Nari expected her name.
Instead, he said:
“Alessio Franks.”
Alessio stared.
“Why me?”
The recording continued.
“Because your family controls the final key.”
Nari looked at him.
“What key?”
His eyes hardened.
“I don't know.”
The recording said:
“You were raised to believe your father abandoned the organization.”
“He didn't.”
“He tried to destroy it.”
“But he needed one thing.”
“Your son.”
The recording ended.
Nari looked at Alessio.
“Your son?”
He froze.
“My father had no son.”
Silence.
Then Ethan's voice came through the radio.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something upstairs.”
“What?”
“A child.”
Alessio went pale.
Nari stared.
“What child?”
Ethan answered:
“Your brother's son.”
Michael's son.
Everyone believed Michael and Elena had died without children.
But they had a child.
A living child.
And somehow, that child was the final key.
Nari looked at the countdown.
Eight minutes.
The war was about to begin.
May you like
And suddenly, the real objective wasn't stopping the attack.
It was finding a child someone had hidden for fifteen years.
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