Chapter 18: The Hidden Message

The words glowed on the screen.

YOU'RE TOO LATE.

No one spoke.

Daniel tried every key on the keyboard.

Nothing.

The laptop had frozen.

"It's locked," he muttered.

Samuel snatched the laptop from him.

"No."

He turned it over.

"This isn't a lock."

"What is it?" I asked.

"They're deleting the files."

Panic surged through me.

"There has to be a way to stop it!"

Samuel pulled the flash drive out just as the screen went black.

For a moment, all hope seemed lost.

Then Lily tugged gently at my sleeve.

"My daddy said this would happen."

I knelt beside her.

"What do you mean?"

She pointed to the flash drive.

"He said... don't trust the first thing you see."

Samuel froze.

He slowly turned the flash drive over in his hand.

"Wait..."

His thumb brushed against a tiny scratch near the metal edge.

"Daniel, give me your pocketknife."

Daniel handed it over without asking why.

Samuel carefully slid the blade into the scratch.

Click.

The flash drive split into two pieces.

"It was hollow," Daniel whispered.

Hidden inside was a tiny memory card, no bigger than a fingernail.

My heart raced.

"The real drive..."

"...was hidden inside the fake one," Samuel finished.

Lily smiled for the first time.

"Daddy said smart people only steal what's easy to find."

Samuel inserted the tiny memory card into the laptop.

This time, the screen lit up instantly.

No warning.

No hacking message.

Just one folder.

Its name was simple.

ECHO

Inside were dozens of files.

Photographs.

Audio recordings.

Bank documents.

Government reports.

And one video labelled:

START HERE

Daniel clicked it.

Professor Elias appeared on the screen.

He looked exhausted.

Behind him was a wall covered with maps, newspaper cuttings, and photographs.

"If you've found this," he began, "then Project Echo is no longer a secret."

He took a deep breath.

"Project Echo wasn't an experiment."

"It was a cover-up."

My pulse quickened.

"A cover-up for what?"

Professor Elias looked straight into the camera.

"For the murder of twelve innocent people..."

He paused.

"...including Maya's father."

The world around me disappeared.

"My..."

I couldn't finish the sentence.

"My father?"

My mother gasped.

"No..."

She stepped backwards, shaking her head.

"No, that's impossible."

Samuel slowly turned towards her.

"You told Maya her father died in a car accident."

My mother burst into tears.

"I had no choice."

I stared at her.

"You lied to me..."

She covered her face.

"I've been lying to you your entire life."

Silence fell over us.

Then, from somewhere deep inside the warehouse...

A slow clap echoed through the darkness.

One.

Two.

Three.

A voice followed.

"Beautiful."

We all spun around.

A tall figure stepped out of the shadows.

His face was hidden beneath a hood.

But the smile on his lips was unmistakable.

"You've finally found the truth."

He looked directly at me.

"Hello, Maya."

"I've been waiting for you."