Chapter 8: The Secret Richard Buried
### Chapter 8: The Secret Richard Buried
Richard Sterling stared at the flash drive as though it were a ghost from another lifetime.
His weathered hands tightened around the silver eagle head of his cane.
The room waited.
No one dared interrupt the silence.
Even the steady beeping of Chloe's heart monitor seemed distant.
Finally, Richard spoke.
"Leave us."
The security officers hesitated.
"So did the detectives."
Agent Emma Brooks looked at him carefully.
"Chairman... if this concerns an active criminal investigation—"
"It does."
Richard's voice remained calm.
"But before the police hear this..."
"...my family deserves to hear it first."
Emma exchanged a glance with Attorney Harrison.
After a long pause, she nodded.
"We'll be outside."
Within seconds, everyone except Richard, Chloe, Harrison, and Emma had stepped into the hallway.
The hospital room suddenly felt much smaller.
Much heavier.
---
Richard slowly lowered himself into the chair beside Chloe's bed.
His eyes never left the flash drive.
"I've spent twenty years pretending this day would never come."
He let out a long, exhausted breath.
"But secrets always collect interest."
"They never disappear."
Chloe watched him quietly.
"What happened to Edward?"
Richard closed his eyes.
"When the world was told that my son died in a helicopter accident..."
"...it was only half the truth."
Chloe frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Richard opened his eyes again.
"The helicopter did crash."
"But Edward was already dead."
The words struck like lightning.
Harrison's eyes widened.
"You told me the pilot lost control."
Richard gave a bitter smile.
"That's what I allowed everyone to believe."
---
Twenty years earlier...
Edward Sterling had called his father shortly before midnight.
He sounded terrified.
Not nervous.
Not stressed.
Terrified.
He told Richard that someone inside Sterling Corporation had betrayed the family.
Someone powerful.
Someone who had been secretly selling company research to Blackstone for years.
"I have proof," Edward had said.
"But I don't know who I can trust."
Richard had immediately arranged to meet him.
Edward never arrived.
The next morning...
His helicopter exploded over the English Channel.
Authorities declared it a tragic mechanical failure.
The case was closed within forty-eight hours.
Richard never believed it.
Not for a single day.
---
"So you investigated."
Emma finished the thought.
Richard nodded.
"Quietly."
"I hired former intelligence officers."
"Private investigators."
"Cybersecurity experts."
He looked toward the window.
"One by one..."
"They disappeared."
The room became silent again.
"One investigator drowned."
"Another supposedly committed suicide."
"A third vanished without leaving a trace."
Emma slowly sat down.
"This wasn't corporate espionage."
"No."
Richard's expression became colder.
"It was organized elimination."
---
Harrison looked at the flash drive.
"You think this contains Edward's evidence?"
Richard nodded.
"Or whoever murdered him wants us to think that."
Emma carefully connected the drive to her encrypted forensic laptop.
"No internet connection."
"Offline only."
The screen remained black for several seconds.
Then...
A single folder appeared.
Its name read:
IF YOU FOUND THIS... I'M ALREADY DEAD.
Chloe felt her heartbeat quicken.
Emma opened it.
Inside were dozens of files.
Financial records.
Surveillance photos.
Audio recordings.
Passport scans.
Encrypted spreadsheets.
And one video.
Recorded exactly twenty years earlier.
Emma clicked Play.
---
Edward Sterling appeared on the screen.
He looked younger than Chloe had imagined.
Confident.
Brilliant.
But exhausted.
Dark circles surrounded his eyes.
He kept glancing toward the office door as he spoke.
"If you're watching this..."
"...I failed."
He forced a tired smile.
"I was hoping to expose them myself."
He looked directly into the camera.
"The person destroying Sterling..."
"...isn't working alone."
"There is a network."
"They've infiltrated corporations..."
"...banks..."
"...government agencies..."
"...and pharmaceutical companies."
Chloe's breathing became shallow.
Edward continued.
"They call themselves..."
He hesitated.
Almost as though saying the name itself was dangerous.
"**The Covenant.**"
The room froze.
Emma immediately paused the video.
"I've heard that name."
Everyone looked at her.
She slowly nodded.
"It appears in several classified investigations."
"No one knows whether it's a criminal organization..."
"...or something else."
"No one has ever proven it exists."
Richard whispered quietly,
"I knew it..."
Edward's video resumed.
"If anything happens to me..."
"...don't waste time chasing the killers."
"They're expendable."
"Find..."
"...the Archivist."
The video suddenly glitched.
Static filled the screen.
Then Edward's face returned.
His expression had changed.
Pure fear.
"They've found me."
A loud bang echoed somewhere behind him.
Edward looked toward the door.
"If Richard is alive..."
"I'm sorry."
Another crash.
The office lights flickered.
Edward reached toward the camera.
Then—
The recording ended.
---
No one spoke.
No one could.
The silence was overwhelming.
Finally, Chloe whispered,
"He knew."
Richard slowly nodded.
"He knew he wasn't going to survive."
A tear rolled down the old man's face.
The first anyone had ever seen.
"I never even got to say goodbye."
---
Before anyone could process what they had just witnessed—
Emma's laptop suddenly emitted a sharp warning tone.
Unauthorized Signal Detected.
She frowned.
"That's impossible."
The laptop wasn't connected to the internet.
Yet the screen suddenly flickered.
The video window disappeared.
Black text slowly appeared across the display.
Every letter seemed to type itself.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PAST BURIED.
Another line appeared.
NOW THE CHILD BECOMES THE TARGET.
Chloe instinctively wrapped both arms around her stomach.
Richard shot to his feet.
"Harrison!"
The lawyer immediately rushed toward the door.
But before he could reach it—
The lights throughout the entire hospital wing went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then...
May you like
Somewhere in the corridor outside...
A woman screamed.
