CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1144 Words
THE FOOTING
Farida looked shaken.
Not angry.
Not defensive.
Shaken.
And that frightened everyone far more than the accusation itself.
Because Farida was not someone who frightened easily.
Not by ghosts.
Not by murder.
Not by billion-naira conspiracies.
Yet the moment Khalid Voss's name entered the conversation, something changed.
Something cracked.
Tania noticed it immediately.
"Ellen."
Her voice was careful.
Warning.
"You need to calm down."
Ellen didn't move.
Her eyes remained fixed on Farida.
The silence stretched.
Long.
Uncomfortable.
Dangerous.
Finally Farida spoke.
Very quietly.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Then explain it."
Farida looked away.
For the first time since they met, she seemed unsure.
And that alone was alarming.
Because Farida always had an answer.
Always.
This time she didn't.
---
That evening, Ellen sat alone inside Augustus's old office.
The room remained untouched.
Dusty shelves.
Locked cabinets.
Forgotten files.
Secrets.
Everywhere.
The deeper she dug into Augustus's records, the more questions emerged.
At first she believed CODAX and ViX were simply companies.
Large companies.
Successful companies.
Powerful companies.
Nothing more.
Now she wasn't so sure.
Because hidden among Augustus's private documents were files that made no sense.
Reports.
Maps.
Coordinates.
Names.
Encrypted transactions.
Classified correspondence.
None of it resembled ordinary business operations.
The more Ellen read, the colder she became.
Augustus hadn't merely been running corporations.
He had been protecting something.
Something important.
Something worth killing for.
A soft knock interrupted her thoughts.
Tania entered.
Holding two cups of coffee.
Or rather, one cup.
Since Ellen rarely drank anything anymore.
The irony wasn't lost on either of them.
Tania sat opposite her.
"You've been in here for hours."
Ellen nodded.
"I'm finding things."
"Good things?"
"No."
That answer worried Tania.
"What now?"
Ellen slowly slid a document across the table.
Tania frowned.
"What am I looking at?"
"Project Aegis."
The name meant nothing.
At least initially.
Then she noticed the classification markings.
RESTRICTED.
INTERNAL SECURITY ACCESS ONLY.
Tania blinked.
"What exactly does CODAX do again?"
"Officially?"
The answer immediately sounded suspicious.
Tania groaned.
"Oh no."
Ellen nodded.
"Oh yes."
---
Three Years Earlier
Augustus's Private Office
The night Ellen first learned the truth.
She remembered it clearly now.
Augustus had been drinking.
A rare occurrence.
He usually avoided alcohol.
Especially during business discussions.
That evening had been different.
The older man looked tired.
Worried.
A man carrying something heavy.
"Ellen."
She looked up from her laptop.
"Yes?"
"If anything happens to me..."
She sighed immediately.
"You're not dying."
Augustus smiled sadly.
"Everybody dies."
The statement felt strangely significant now.
Years later.
Ellen remembered closing her laptop.
Giving him her full attention.
Something in his voice sounded wrong.
"What happened?"
The older man stood.
Walked toward a locked cabinet.
Opened it.
Removed a black folder.
Then handed it to her.
Ellen frowned.
"What is this?"
"The real company."
Silence.
"The real company?"
Augustus nodded.
"The reason people kill."
The statement should have sounded ridiculous.
Instead it sounded terrifyingly sincere.
---
Present Day
Tania stared at Ellen.
Neither spoke for several moments.
Finally she whispered,
"CODAX isn't just a company."
"No."
"ViX isn't either."
"No."
The answer sent a chill through the room.
Because suddenly dozens of unexplained events began making sense.
The missing money.
The board conflicts.
The pressure.
The surveillance.
The murder.
The fear.
It was never about profits alone.
Never about inheritance.
Never about boardroom politics.
Those things were merely symptoms.
The real issue lay somewhere deeper.
Far deeper.
---
Farida couldn't sleep.
Not after Ellen's accusation.
Not after Khalid's name surfaced.
She sat inside her room staring at her phone.
Waiting.
At exactly 1:12 a.m., it rang.
One caller.
Always the same caller.
Khalid.
She answered immediately.
"You shouldn't have come to the house."
Silence greeted her.
Then his voice.
Calm.
Measured.
Dangerous.
"I needed confirmation."
"Of what?"
Another pause.
Then:
"Whether Ellen remembers."
Farida froze.
The question instantly raised alarms.
Why would Khalid care?
Unless...
No.
She pushed the thought away.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Silence.
Again.
Farida hated that silence.
Because Khalid only became quiet when deciding how much truth to reveal.
Eventually he spoke.
"Have you ever wondered why CODAX exists?"
Farida's stomach tightened.
"What does that have to do with Ellen?"
"Everything."
The answer came immediately.
Without hesitation.
Without uncertainty.
Everything.
---
Meanwhile.
Across the city.
Inside a heavily secured compound.
Khalid Voss stood before a wall-sized digital display.
Maps covered the screens.
Satellite images.
Coordinates.
Data streams.
Security feeds.
Nothing about the room resembled a criminal headquarters.
It resembled an intelligence agency.
An operations center.
A command hub.
Men and women worked silently around him.
Analysts.
Hackers.
Former military officers.
Investigators.
Experts.
Highly trained professionals.
This wasn't a street gang.
This wasn't organized crime in the traditional sense.
This was something else.
Something larger.
Something smarter.
Something dangerous.
A woman approached.
"Sir."
Khalid didn't turn.
"Report."
"The river activity increased."
His expression darkened immediately.
"How much?"
"Significantly."
Silence.
The woman hesitated.
Then continued.
"We also confirmed Ellen Banky Shaffa recovered additional memories."
Khalid finally looked up.
For the first time all evening.
His eyes remained fixed on the screen displaying Ellen's photograph.
Alive.
Dead.
Neither description seemed entirely accurate anymore.
"What did she remember?"
"The river."
A pause.
"Eddie."
Another pause.
"The push."
The room became silent.
Khalid slowly exhaled.
Because the situation was accelerating.
Faster than anticipated.
Far faster.
The woman watched carefully.
"Should we intervene?"
Khalid immediately shook his head.
"No."
The answer surprised her.
"Sir?"
"No."
He continued staring at Ellen's image.
"She's getting close."
"Exactly."
A faint smile appeared.
Not cruel.
Not sinister.
Something else.
Almost respectful.
"Which means she'll eventually discover what Augustus discovered."
The woman frowned.
"And that's good?"
Khalid looked toward the satellite image of the river.
The smile vanished.
Instantly.
"No."
His voice lowered.
Dangerously.
"But it's inevitable."
---
Back at the mansion, Ellen continued reading.
Page after page.
File after file.
Until finally she found something.
A document Augustus had hidden separately.
Locked.
Encrypted.
Protected.
The title alone made her blood run cold.
PROJECT ORIGIN
Beneath it sat a single sentence.
A sentence Augustus had personally written.
If you're reading this, then they finally came for me.
The room became silent.
Tania moved closer.
Neither woman spoke.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Ellen turned the page.
And immediately realized why Augustus had been afraid.
Because CODAX and ViX were never created to generate wealth.
The wealth had merely funded the mission.
The real purpose was something far older.
Far more dangerous.
A purpose connected directly to the river.
Directly to the mysterious stranger.
Directly to Eddie.
Directly to her death.
And as Ellen continued reading, she realized one terrifying truth:
Augustus hadn't been protecting a company.
He had been protecting a secret powerful enough to reshape everything they thought they knew about the world.
And someone was willing to kill anyone who discovered it.
- Writer
