I showed Viktor the message.<\/p>\n
He read it without touching my phone.<\/p>\n
His face changed.<\/p>\n
Not fear.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know that number?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're lying.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize the format.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means they aren't trying to frighten you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAway from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou expect me to believe you're protecting me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer surprised me.<\/p>\n
Viktor closed the folder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect you to believe that someone wants you to distrust everyone in this building.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat includes you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cConvenient.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVery.\u201d<\/p>\n
He walked to the window.<\/p>\n
Below us, traffic moved through the intersection in slow streams.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou asked why I chose you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were selected long before I knew your name.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room became silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy former partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor's expression tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did he die?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAccident?\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn't answer.<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
Someone had been removing people.<\/p>\n
One by one.<\/p>\n
I thought about the photograph.<\/p>\n
My father's accident.<\/p>\n
The man at the rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n
The mysterious company records.<\/p>\n
The message on my phone.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed something.<\/p>\n
The folder on Viktor's desk was slightly open.<\/p>\n
A corner of paper protruded from it.<\/p>\n
I recognized the symbol printed there.<\/p>\n
It was the same symbol I had seen on the side of the black case in my father's study.<\/p>\n
I pointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor followed my gaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father's house.\u201d<\/p>\n
He crossed the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did it look like?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack case. Metal corners. Small silver emblem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did your father keep inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you ever open it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is it now?\u201d<\/p>\n
I hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor studied me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do.\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven't seen it since the accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
The house.<\/p>\n
The study.<\/p>\n
The bookshelf.<\/p>\n
My father's desk.<\/p>\n
The night before the accident, he had asked me to bring him a cup of tea.<\/p>\n
I remembered something.<\/p>\n
He had moved the black case from the desk to the floor.<\/p>\n
I had asked why.<\/p>\n
He had said it was in the way.<\/p>\n
Nothing more.<\/p>\n
Then another memory surfaced.<\/p>\n
Two days later, after he was hospitalized, I had returned to the house alone.<\/p>\n
The case was gone.<\/p>\n
I had assumed my father had locked it away somewhere.<\/p>\n
I opened my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father moved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor stepped back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone vibrated again.<\/p>\n
This time the message contained an image.<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
It was a photograph of my father's study.<\/p>\n
The picture had been taken recently.<\/p>\n
The black case was sitting on the floor beside the desk.<\/p>\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat can't be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor looked at the screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your father's house?\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn't answer.<\/p>\n
The photograph had one detail that terrified me more than the case itself.<\/p>\n
A shadow was visible in the doorway.<\/p>\n
Someone had been standing there when the picture was taken.<\/p>\n
And the person had known exactly where the camera was.<\/p>\n
Viktor reached for his jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe're leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo do they.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think this is bait.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why go?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause if they want me to find the case, I want to know why.\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds, he said nothing.<\/p>\n
Then he nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n
We left the building through the underground garage.<\/p>\n
Viktor's driver waited beside a black sedan.<\/p>\n
I noticed another car parked across the street.<\/p>\n
Same model as the vehicle I had seen outside the rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n
I pointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor looked.<\/p>\n
The sedan pulled away.<\/p>\n
His driver started the engine.<\/p>\n
We followed.<\/p>\n
For fifteen minutes, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
The city passed outside the windows.<\/p>\n
My hands were folded tightly in my lap.<\/p>\n
I kept thinking about my father's warning.<\/p>\n
If anyone asks about the accident, tell them you don't know anything.<\/p>\n
I had thought he was protecting me from a painful memory.<\/p>\n
Now I wondered whether he had been protecting me from something much larger.<\/p>\n
The car stopped two streets from my father's house.<\/p>\n
Viktor told the driver to wait.<\/p>\n
We continued on foot.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood looked exactly as I remembered it.<\/p>\n
Quiet.<\/p>\n
Ordinary.<\/p>\n
Almost painfully familiar.<\/p>\n
But the front door of my father's house was unlocked.<\/p>\n
I stopped on the path.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always lock it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n
We entered.<\/p>\n
Nothing appeared disturbed.<\/p>\n
The hallway smelled faintly of dust and old wood.<\/p>\n
The clock on the wall was still ticking.<\/p>\n
I walked toward the study.<\/p>\n
The door was open.<\/p>\n
The black case was exactly where it had appeared in the photograph.<\/p>\n
On the floor.<\/p>\n
Beside the desk.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said you hadn't seen it since the accident,\u201d Viktor whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
I approached slowly.<\/p>\n
There was no lock.<\/p>\n
Only a narrow metal clasp.<\/p>\n
I lifted it.<\/p>\n
The case opened.<\/p>\n
Inside were documents.<\/p>\n
A passport.<\/p>\n
A small encrypted drive.<\/p>\n
Several photographs.<\/p>\n
And one handwritten notebook.<\/p>\n
I picked up the notebook.<\/p>\n
The first page contained my father's handwriting.<\/p>\n
Three words were written across the top.<\/p>\n
ANNA KNOWS NOTHING.<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
Viktor read over my shoulder.<\/p>\n
Then I turned the page.<\/p>\n
There was another sentence.<\/p>\n
If she ever finds this, they have already found her.<\/p>\n
My breathing became shallow.<\/p>\n
I turned another page.<\/p>\n
The handwriting continued.<\/p>\n
The accident was not an accident.<\/p>\n
I looked at Viktor.<\/p>\n
He didn't speak.<\/p>\n
I turned the page again.<\/p>\n
There was a list of names.<\/p>\n
Some were crossed out.<\/p>\n
Some had dates beside them.<\/p>\n
My father's name appeared near the bottom.<\/p>\n
Beside it was yesterday's date.<\/p>\n
My hands began to shake.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday?\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor looked at the page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means someone has been updating this.\u201d<\/p>\n
A floorboard creaked behind us.<\/p>\n
We both turned.<\/p>\n
Nobody stood in the doorway.<\/p>\n
Then my phone rang.<\/p>\n
The screen displayed an unknown number.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
For three seconds, there was only silence.<\/p>\n
Then a man's voice spoke in German.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally.\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn't move.<\/p>\n
The voice continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you know what your father was protecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tightened my grip on the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
A quiet laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk Reinhardt why your photograph was in his presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call ended.<\/p>\n
I turned toward Viktor.<\/p>\n
He was staring at the notebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did they mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked up slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took the notebook from my hands.<\/p>\n
His eyes stopped on one particular page.<\/p>\n
There was a photograph attached to it.<\/p>\n
My photograph.<\/p>\n
But beneath it was another image.<\/p>\n
A photograph of Viktor himself.<\/p>\n
Both pictures were connected by a handwritten line.<\/p>\n
And beside the line were four words.<\/p>\n
THE TWO SURVIVORS.<\/p>\n
I showed Viktor the message. He read it without touching my phone. His face changed. Not fear. Recognition. \u201cYou know that number?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cYou're lying.\u201d He looked at me. \u201cI … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5561,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5549\/revisions\/5561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}