Chapter 7 - the midnight visitor
Without wasting a single second, Alessandro crouched down beside the footstool. He gently picked up Captain Bear, holding the worn, soft plush toy under the bright light of the floor lamp.
Logan ran over, pulling on Alessandro’s trouser leg. "Is Captain sick?"
"No, buddy," Alessandro said gently, resting a large hand on Logan's head. "Captain is just helping us find something very important."
Alessandro brought his pocket knife out, carefully slitting the faint, hand-stitched seam running along Captain Bear's back. He reached inside the soft cotton stuffing, his broad fingers feeling around until they touched a hard, rectangular object embedded near the center.
He pulled it out. It was a tiny, military-grade encrypted storage drive wrapped in a waterproof clear casing.
Dr. Harris and Marco stepped into the library, both looking at the small object in Alessandro’s palm with sharp, intense focus.
"Is that David's master file?" Marco asked, his hand tightening over his lapel.
"It is," Alessandro confirmed, standing up. He walked over to his high-powered desk terminal, plugging the drive into an isolated secondary port.
The screen flashed rapidly with lines of green encrypted code before a secure video file appeared on the monitor.
Alessandro clicked play.
The screen lit up, showing a man sitting in a dimly lit room five years ago. He looked tired, his fair skin pale, wearing a dark jacket. It was David Winters—older, weathered, but undeniably Catherine's late husband.
Catherine let out a ragged sob, covering her mouth as she saw her husband's face for the first time in five years.
"Catherine... if you are watching this," David's voice echoed softly from the monitor speakers, "it means Alessandro found you, and Logan is safe. I'm sorry I had to leave. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to watch our son grow up."
David leaned closer to the camera on the screen.
May you like
"The man who betrayed us all... the man who ordered the hit on my car and sold out the Romano family... is sitting at Alessandro's own council table. His name is..."
Suddenly, the monitor screen glitched violently, covered in static, and the power throughout the entire estate cut out, plunging the grand room into pitch blackness.
