"It's an old audio recording, Cassian," D said. "The recording your father left to trigger the Backup Key's emergency protocol."
I immediately took the box and opened it. Inside, there was a small emblem I recognized instantly from my childhood photos. It was the exact same emblem I had just used to defeat Elias. But this emblem didn't belong to Elias.
"D, this is the emblem of a Vanguard agent who worked with my father. The agent I thought killed Elias in Vilnius..." I stared at the emblem. "This belongs to Arthur Ashworth."
"What does that mean, Cassian?"
"It means... Arthur didn't kill my father in the way we thought. He killed *himself* to protect the technology. He let himself be framed as the traitor by the North Clan, and he made the fake recording to lure me out."
I looked at
