CHAPTER 5 - THE HIDDEN FILE
1550 Words
The rain began to fall shortly before daybreak.
Alexander watched the metropolitan skyline blur as streaks of water ran down his hospital window. Neon lights splattered on the glass like dazzling, fractured memories that are too far away to grasp.
He hadn't gotten any sleep all night. The choice he made a few hours ago, with every pulse, "We start digging tomorrow", resonated in his thoughts.
He didn't believe his recollections anymore, but Elena's tenacity had kept him grounded. She stared at him like she knew him, not as the famous billionaire or the person behind the news, but as the guy he really was.
And it was what worried him most.
The door opened without making a sound. Elena strolled in, still wearing yesterday’s clothing, her hair twisted into a loose bun. She looked fatigued, but her eyes were crystal clear.
“You didn’t sleep,” he said.
“Neither did you.” She gave him a tablet. “Dr Miles sent this before he left for the morning shift. It’s encrypted. He said you’d know how to unlock it.”
Alexander grimaced, touching the tablet. A password prompt appears. He gazed at it for a bit, then immediately typed something.
E + A 2017.
The file unlocked.
Elena blinked. “What was that?”
“Our wedding year,” he added softly, astonishment flaring in his voice. “I didn’t even think. My hands just”
“Remembered,” she concluded for him, her lips curling softly.
Inside the folder were hundreds of scanned papers, security reports, medical records, and internal memoranda. Most of them appeared routine. But one file stuck out. It was designated PROJECT NEMESIS INTERNAL USE ONLY.
Alexander tapped it open. The file featured a sequence of encrypted letters and a list of names of key executives, investors, and at the bottom… Victoria Hale.
Elena’s eyes widened. “What is this?”
He scrolled down. The communications were timestamped a week before his accident. They cited merger control, elimination of liabilities, and one horrifying statement that made Elena’s blood run cold:
“Ensure contingency is handled before board approval. K’s quiet must be permanent.”
Her voice shook. “K. That’s you.”
Alexander’s jaw was constricted. “And ‘handled’ means”
“Assassination.”
Neither of them talked for many seconds. Outside, thunder boomed across the metropolis.
Alexander closed the file, breathing hard. “I remember none of this. But this can’t be a coincidence. Someone at my workplace wanted me gone.”
Elena’s voice pierced through the quiet. “And Victoria’s name is right there.”
He leaned back, running a hand over his face. “She’s always been ambitious. Ruthless when she has to be. But this?”
“She’s been controlling everything since your accident,” Elena added. “The company, your care, even your medication.”
He glanced up sharply. “You said Dr Miles found tampering in my records.”
She nodded. “He confirmed it this morning. Someone changed your dosage remotely through the digital chart system. The login used was from an executive access ID.”
“Meaning someone from my own team.”
“Or someone with help on the inside.”
For a long while, they sat in an uncomfortable silence. The world outside was waking up to faint sirens, the buzz of the metropolis, the murmur of nurses in the corridor, but within the room, time stopped.
Alexander eventually spoke. “If we’re going to find out who did this, we can’t trust anyone here. Nor the hospital, nor the company.”
Elena’s brow wrinkled. “Then where do we start?”
He moved the iPad toward her. “Here. There’s a server in my office that holds all encrypted board conversations. If we can access it, we’ll know everything.”
Her stomach constricted. “Your office is in Midtown. You can hardly walk yet.”
“I can manage,” he murmured, dangling his legs over the bed.
“Alexander”
“Elena.” His tone eased, but his determination didn’t. “Someone tried to erase me. I’m done hiding.”
For a moment, she saw the guy she’d fallen in love with resolutely, obstinately, alive.
She exhaled. “Then we do it together.”
By lunchtime, the rain had ceased. Elena had arranged for a wheelchair and surreptitiously signed him out for “rehabilitation evaluation.” The nurse on duty scarcely looked at the paperwork. Elena’s serene assurance made everything appear commonplace.
They proceeded through the hospital’s subterranean parking garage, the echo of their footfall disguised by the buzz of generators.
As they neared the automobile, Alexander hesitated. “Are you sure about this?”
Elena gazed at him. “I lost you once because I trusted the wrong people. I won’t make that mistake again.”
He offered a slight nod, something sparking in his eyes a blend of appreciation and something more, unsaid.
The metropolis sprawled before them in grey light as they travelled. The streets were slippery from rain, glinting like glass. For a time, neither talked.
Then Alexander replied softly, “You said we were married for three years before the crash.”
“Yes.”
“Was I… happy?”
The question took her off guard.
She smiled slightly. “You used to say happiness bored you. But with me… You smiled more.”
He turned to her, his eyes warm. “And you loved me.”
“With everything I had.”
He peered out the window, a shadow across his face. “Then why can’t I remember the way that felt?”
Elena’s chest hurt. “Maybe because someone doesn’t want you to.”
When they approached the King Industries tower, security was thinner than normal Victoria had likely diverted her concentration elsewhere. Elena wheeled him into the VIP door using his biometric access card, which, to her relief, still functioned.
Inside his office, the air was thick with memories. The elegant furnishings, the aroma of his perfume hanging in the air, seemed trapped in time.
Alexander gazed around cautiously, as if walking into a dream. “I used to live here,” he mumbled.
“Practically,” Elena said with a slight grin. “You once told me sleep was for men who didn’t have empires to build.”
He grinned slightly. “That sounds arrogant.”
“It was.”
She approached his desk and switched up the secret computer system. The triple-screen arrangement flared to life. He walked her through the orders, his fingers firm even as his breathing became shallow from the exertion.
Minutes passed as encrypted windows opened one after another. Data flowed down the displays, countless lines of code, emails, and project logs.
Then Elena froze. “Wait.”
She focused on a message dated the night of the disaster.
“Phase One complete. K’s path verified. Ensure execution before midnight. Report to V.H.”
Alexander’s pulse accelerated. “V.H.”
Elena muttered, “Victoria Hale.”
His jaw stiffened. “We have proof.”
She swiftly saved the data onto a flash drive, slipping it into her pocket. “We need to get this to the police.”
But before she could unplug the machine, a little symbol flashed on the corner of the screen, a flashing red dot.
Alexander frowned. “What is that?”
“Remote access.”
A message flashed up.
WHO’S IN MY OFFICE?
Elena’s breath caught. “Someone’s watching us.”
Another message came almost instantly:
GET OUT. NOW.
Alexander attempted to rise, but his legs failed. She grabbed his arm, tugging him toward the elevator. They walked as quickly as they could, hearts hammering, the sound of their footfall bouncing off marble floors.
The elevator doors slid shut just as the office lights flickered and the computer displays behind them went dark.
They didn’t communicate until they reached the subterranean garage.
Elena’s voice was barely a whisper. “That wasn’t Victoria. That was a warning.”
He turned to her. “From who?”
“I don’t know.”
He seized her hand, grasping it strongly. “Then whoever it is, they’re the only reason we’re still alive.”
Later that night, back in the hospital, Alexander lay awake, staring at the ceiling. His thoughts were a whirlwind of confusion and fragmentation: the accident, the voices, the message.
Elena sat alongside him, her hand resting on his. Exhaustion creased her cheeks, yet her eyes were full of fire.
“Tomorrow,” she continued gently, “we take that drive to the authorities.”
He nodded, yet uncertainty darkened his expression. “If they’re not already compromised.”
“Then we go higher,” she added. “Federal, if we have to.”
He glanced at her for a long while. “You always were the braver one.”
She smiled slightly. “I just have more to lose.”
He turned his hand, interlacing his fingers with hers. “Then we’ll fight for it together.”
Outside, thunder rumbled again, low and distant like a warning that the storm wasn’t finished.
And somewhere in the shadows of the city, a stranger observed their hospital window through the lens of a camera.
The red recording light flickered once, twice, then went black.
- Writer
