Chapter 11: Protocol Nine
Chapter 11: Protocol Nine
The countdown continued.
Thirty-six hours.
Twenty-three minutes.
Nine seconds.
Every second that passed felt like a clock ticking inside my head.
Protocol Nine.
A name with no explanation.
A plan hidden inside a system built by people who believed they would never be challenged.
Director Graves stared at the screen.
"We need to know what this is."
I looked at the timer.
"And if we don't?"
His silence answered the question.
The investigation expanded overnight.
Federal teams searched every property connected to Richard Cross.
His offices.
His private residences.
His financial accounts.
His father's old companies.
Everywhere they went, they found the same thing.
Evidence of control.
Manipulation.
Secrets.
But no Protocol Nine.
It was as if someone had built a machine and removed the most important piece before anyone could see it.
That bothered me.
Because people like William Cross didn't make mistakes.
They planned for failure.
They planned for discovery.
They planned for people like me.
At 5:30 a.m., I received a call from Lily.
"Dad?"
Her voice sounded different.
Not afraid.
Concerned.
"What happened?"
"I remembered something."
I sat up immediately.
"What?"
"When Richard brought me to his office before we got married."
I waited.
"He showed me something."
"What?"
"A painting."
I frowned.
"A painting?"
"Yes."
"Why is that important?"
"Because there was something written behind it."
My grip tightened around the phone.
"What?"
She took a breath.
"Nine names."
I stood.
"What names?"
"I don't remember all of them."
"Try."
Silence.
Then:
"Judges."
A pause.
"Business owners."
Another pause.
"People in government."
My eyes moved toward the countdown.
Protocol Nine.
Nine names.
"Anything else?"
Lily became quiet.
"Dad..."
"What?"
"I remember one name."
"Whose?"
She whispered:
"Your name."
I called Graves immediately.
Within minutes, his team was reviewing every document recovered from Richard's office.
The painting.
The nine names.
Protocol Nine.
Everything connected.
At 7:15 a.m., an analyst found something.
"Director."
Graves walked over.
"What?"
The analyst pointed at the screen.
"We found references to Protocol Nine."
Everyone gathered.
The file was buried inside an encrypted folder.
The title:
CONTINGENCY RESPONSE
Graves opened it.
The first sentence appeared.
Protocol Nine will be activated if the Cross network is compromised.
I continued reading.
Primary objective: eliminate remaining threats.
The room became silent.
"Threats meaning witnesses?" I asked.
The analyst nodded.
"Most likely."
Graves scrolled further.
Then stopped.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
I looked at the screen.
A list appeared.
Nine names.
The targets.
One by one.
I recognized several.
A judge.
A journalist.
A former executive.
Then...
Arthur Hale.
My own name.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Graves closed the file.
"We move everyone immediately."
"How long?"
"Not long enough."
That answer told me everything.
The system had already started.
At noon, Richard's mother made her move.
Her name was Eleanor Cross.
For days, she had remained silent.
Sitting in her mansion.
Waiting.
Watching.
Everyone assumed she was broken.
They were wrong.
Women like Eleanor Cross didn't survive beside men like William Cross by being weak.
She survived because she understood power.
And when agents arrived to search her home...
She was already gone.
The alarm came from one of the surveillance teams.
"Director."
Graves answered.
"What happened?"
"Eleanor Cross left the property."
"Where is she?"
"Unknown."
A pause.
"She took a case file."
My stomach tightened.
"What file?"
The agent hesitated.
"The original Project Horizon records."
Graves's expression changed.
"Impossible."
"They were hidden in a private safe."
"How did she access it?"
Nobody answered.
Because everyone knew.
She had been waiting.
By evening, investigators found Eleanor's abandoned vehicle outside the city.
Inside:
A broken phone.
A suitcase.
A stack of burned documents.
But no Eleanor.
The only surviving piece of evidence was a handwritten note.
One sentence.
William always had a backup plan. I was his backup plan.
That night, I visited Richard.
I needed answers.
He was sitting alone in the interview room.
When he saw me, he smiled.
"You found my mother."
"She escaped."
His smile grew.
"Of course she did."
"You knew?"
"Everyone has a role."
I stared at him.
"What's Protocol Nine?"
The smile disappeared.
For the first time...
Richard looked uncertain.
"I don't know."
I almost laughed.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"My father never told me everything."
That was the first honest thing he had said.
"Why?"
Richard looked away.
"Because my father believed knowledge was dangerous."
"And?"
"He was right."
I leaned forward.
"Where is William Cross?"
Richard stayed silent.
"Your father is still alive."
No response.
"He's controlling this."
Still nothing.
Then Richard whispered:
"You don't understand."
"What?"
"My father isn't running from you."
He looked at me.
"He's waiting for you."
The room felt colder.
"Why?"
Richard's eyes shifted toward the camera.
Then back to me.
"Because you were always part of the plan."
When I returned to the operations center, Graves was waiting.
His face told me something had happened.
"What now?"
He handed me a document.
"We found William Cross."
I looked at the paper.
A location.
Coordinates.
A private facility.
"Where is this?"
Graves looked at me.
"An old government research site."
"Why would he be there?"
He didn't answer.
Because the answer was already obvious.
William Cross had built his empire through information.
Through control.
Through secrets.
And the place he chose to hide...
Was a place designed for secrets.
As the team prepared to move, the countdown reached:
12 hours remaining.
Graves loaded the final briefing.
"Arthur."
I looked at him.
"This operation could be dangerous."
I nodded.
"I know."
"You don't have to go."
I looked at him.
Then at Lily's photograph on the table.
My daughter.
My wife.
My family.
"I spent fifteen years running away from this."
I picked up my jacket.
"Not anymore."
The helicopter waited outside.
The storm was approaching.
And somewhere in the darkness...
William Cross was waiting.
But this time, he wasn't hunting my family.
May you like
This time...
We were coming for him.
