CHAPTER 8: DAVID’S THIRD LETTER
Federal agents released Maya after six hours of questioning.
The traffic footage changed the investigation.
Dr. Pierce claimed the video had been manipulated, but he could not be located for an interview. He had left North Atlantic Memorial moments after the software failure and had not returned home.
Gregory remained missing.
Charles Whitmore publicly denied any knowledge of Pierce’s actions.
Privately, his attorneys threatened Maya with a defamation lawsuit.
Aster’s board placed Maya on temporary administrative leave.
The vote was five to two.
Even after everything she had built, she was once again being pushed out of her own company.
This time, however, Maya did not cry in a locked bathroom.
She called Priya.
“Preserve every server and every board communication.”
“Already done.”
“Don’t trust anyone.”
“I trust you.”
Those words mattered more than Priya could have known.
Maya returned to Elena’s house that evening.
Three letters waited on the kitchen table.
All were from David.
Maya had never opened them, but Elena had saved them in case investigators needed them.
The first letter blamed Rebecca.
The second blamed his childhood.
The third claimed he had changed.
Maya opened the third.
The apology was exactly what she expected.
David wrote that prison had forced him to confront the man he had become. He claimed he finally understood how deeply he had harmed her.
But something about the letter felt unnatural.
Several words were underlined faintly.
Not enough to notice at first glance.
Maya copied them onto a separate page.
Lantern. Seven. Harbor. Mercy. Thomas.
Elena read them over her shoulder.
“Lantern Seven could be a location.”
Marcus searched public property records.
An abandoned warehouse at Boston Harbor had once belonged to Lantern Seven Shipping Company.
Thomas Mercer had audited the company shortly before his death.
The building was now owned by a Halcyon subsidiary.
David had not written an apology.
He had sent directions.
Maya arranged a prison visit for the next morning.
David entered the visitation room wearing a gray uniform.
A year earlier, his presence alone had been enough to change Maya’s breathing.
Now she studied him through the glass and felt nothing but distance.
He lifted the phone.
“You finally read it.”
“Where is Gregory?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew about Project Lantern.”
“I knew the name.”
“Who created it?”
“My mother helped build the financial side. Charles controlled the rest.”
“You worked for him.”
David looked down.
“I thought I was going to become his partner.”
“But you were disposable.”
His jaw tightened.
“He promised me control of Aster. He said you were wasting its potential.”
“You tried to steal my company because another man told you I didn’t deserve it?”
“I told myself I was protecting what we built.”
“You didn’t build it.”
The words struck harder than anger.
David leaned closer to the glass.
“Charles has judges, hospital executives, police officers, state officials. My mother kept records because she never trusted him.”
“Where are they?”
“Lantern Seven.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because Charles stopped paying for my legal defense.”
Maya almost laughed.
Even now, David’s honesty only appeared when betrayal reached him personally.
“What does he want?”
“Aster’s technology isn’t just scheduling software. It predicts where hospitals will experience shortages before they happen. Charles wants to control those predictions.”
“For profit?”
“For power. If he controls which hospitals appear unstable, he can force them to sell. He’s been doing it for years.”
The acquisition dates inside Gregory’s file suddenly made sense.
Charles caused operational crises.
Then he purchased weakened hospitals through hidden companies.
Thomas Mercer had discovered the scheme.
Rebecca had silenced him.
Maya gripped the phone.
“What is at the warehouse?”
“A backup ledger and a private server.”
“Who else knows?”
David’s eyes moved toward the guard.
“My mother.”
“She’s in prison.”
“She still speaks to Charles through her attorney.”
“Who is the attorney?”
David hesitated.
Then he gave her a name.
Michael Arden.
Marcus searched the name after Maya left the prison.
Michael Arden had visited Rebecca eleven times during the previous two months.
He also served as outside counsel for Halcyon Defense Systems.
Maya called Elena.
No answer.
She called again.
Then a third time.
Marcus checked Elena’s home security system.
The front door had opened forty minutes earlier.
It had never closed.
When Maya reached the house, Elena’s phone was lying on the kitchen floor.
May you like
The Lantern Seven address was open on its screen.
Beside the phone was a red lantern drawn in blood.
