CHAPTER 8: CELESTE’S CONFESSION
Celeste was taken to a federal detention facility.
This time, no attorney could release her.
She requested to speak with me.
Agent Cole advised against it.
Detective Bennett believed she wanted to manipulate me.
I agreed to the meeting anyway.
Celeste entered the interview room wearing a gray detention uniform. Without expensive clothing, controlled lighting, and perfect makeup, she looked like a stranger.
She sat across from me behind a metal table.
“Did my mother ever trust you?” I asked.
Celeste lowered her eyes.
“At first.”
“Was anything between us real?”
She did not answer immediately.
“Samuel approached me when I was twenty-four,” she said. “I owed money. My father was sick. He offered to clear everything if I helped him meet you.”
“So our first meeting was staged.”
“Yes.”
“The broken-down car?”
“Staged.”
“The restaurant where I proposed?”
“Daniel arranged the reservation.”
“Our wedding?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I thought I could stop after the wedding.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Samuel reminded me that he owned my life.”
“You had seven years to tell me.”
“I was afraid.”
“My mother was afraid too. You still locked her in a room.”
Celeste flinched.
“I hated her because she recognized me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Evelyn found a photograph of me with Samuel before our wedding. She began asking questions.”
“So you isolated her.”
“I needed time.”
“You starved her.”
“I did not intend for it to become that bad.”
“You raised a wooden handle over her.”
Celeste covered her face.
For years, I had mistaken her tears for vulnerability.
Now they changed nothing.
“Where is Samuel?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Then this meeting is over.”
“He has a second command site.”
I stopped.
“Where?”
“I never saw it. Daniel called it the chapel.”
“What does that mean?”
“Samuel said it was where his father lost everything.”
Arthur Price had tested his first sensor in an abandoned church converted into an engineering laboratory.
My father later purchased the property and closed it.
The building still belonged to Hale Systems.
It was located in western Massachusetts.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because Samuel plans to release the archive.”
“To whom?”
“Several buyers. Foreign governments. Criminal organizations. Whoever pays first.”
“And Daniel?”
“He was supposed to deliver the final encryption key.”
“Daniel escaped.”
Celeste shook her head.
“No. Samuel allowed him to escape.”
I realized the river tunnel had not been an emergency route.
It had been part of the plan.
Samuel still needed Daniel.
Celeste leaned forward.
“There’s something else.”
She told me Daniel had installed a hidden program inside Hale Systems years earlier.
If Samuel entered the correct command, every security product we had ever sold would receive a corrupted update.
Banks.
Hospitals.
Research laboratories.
Government buildings.
Millions of doors, alarms, and monitoring systems could fail simultaneously.
The resulting chaos would destroy Hale Systems and bury the evidence of Samuel’s theft.
“When?” I asked.
“At sunrise.”
It was already 3:40 in the morning.
We had less than four hours.
Federal agents surrounded the abandoned chapel before dawn.
Thermal cameras detected two people inside.
Samuel.
Daniel.
Agent Cole prepared an entry team.
I examined the building plans.
“There’s a lower laboratory beneath the chapel,” I said. “The entrance is hidden behind the altar.”
“How do you know?”
“My father showed it to me once.”
The team entered through three sides.
No resistance.
The chapel appeared empty.
Then the altar moved.
A steel door opened beneath it.
Agents descended.
Inside the underground laboratory, rows of servers filled the old stone chamber.
Daniel stood near the central terminal.
Samuel held a gun behind him.
“Enter the key,” Samuel ordered.
Daniel looked exhausted.
“You promised my family would be restored.”
“I promised you revenge.”
“This is not revenge. This is mass destruction.”
Samuel pressed the gun against his back.
“Enter the key.”
Daniel looked toward the security camera.
He knew I was watching.
May you like
Then he placed his hands on the keyboard.
The countdown reached ten minutes.
