Chapter 4 - Project Sentinel
Project Sentinel was the largest contract in Marlowe Aerospace history.
It involved a new navigation and communication network designed for emergency aircraft, rescue helicopters, and unmanned disaster-response vehicles. The system could guide aircraft through storms, smoke, damaged infrastructure, and GPS outages.
If successful, it would save lives.
If compromised, it could redirect aircraft anywhere someone wanted them to go.
The official launch was scheduled for Friday.
Three days away.
Daniel ordered every Sentinel test suspended immediately.
Within minutes, angry calls began arriving from board members, government partners, and military officials. Millions of dollars depended on the launch. Delaying it would trigger penalties, investigations, and public scrutiny.
Daniel ignored the pressure.
He gathered the senior engineering team in a secure conference room.
Maya projected the hidden code onto a wall-sized screen.
“It’s not part of our approved software,” she explained. “It creates a secondary command path.”
“Can it control the aircraft?” Daniel asked.
“Not directly. But it can alter location data by small increments.”
“How small?”
“Half a degree at first. Then more.”
A flight-control specialist leaned forward.
“That could make an aircraft believe it is several miles away from its true location.”
“In clear weather, pilots would notice,” Maya said. “In smoke, storms, or darkness, they might not.”
Daniel turned toward Evelyn.
“This is sabotage.”
“No,” Maya replied. “Sabotage destroys something. This code preserves the system so someone else can use it.”
Detective Shaw entered the room carrying news about Nathan Cole.
His sedan had been found beneath an overpass ten miles from the building.
The doors were unlocked.
The engine was running.
Cole was gone.
Inside the vehicle, police found a second phone, two passports under false names, and a photograph of Elise Parker standing outside a rural medical clinic.
The photograph was dated six months after her alleged resignation.
“Elise may still be alive,” Shaw said.
The clinic was located in northern Vermont.
Shaw contacted local authorities.
Meanwhile, the financial investigation uncovered payments from Marlowe Aerospace to three shell companies. Two were registered to vacant offices. The third belonged to a technology contractor called Vantage Meridian.
Daniel recognized the name.
Vantage Meridian supplied encryption hardware for Project Sentinel.
Its chief executive, Adrian Vale, had attended private meetings with Nathan Cole and several board members.
Evelyn remembered him too.
Vale had once tried to purchase Marlowe Aerospace after Samuel died. Evelyn rejected the offer.
“He told me the company would collapse without my husband,” she said. “When it didn’t, he became obsessed with proving he had been right.”
Daniel requested a list of every employee connected to Vantage Meridian.
The answer shocked him.
Thirty-seven contractors worked inside Marlowe facilities.
Twelve had access to Sentinel.
Three were currently inside headquarters.
Security teams moved to detain them for questioning.
Two cooperated.
The third, a systems technician named Eric Voss, ran.
He reached the server level before officers cornered him near a restricted laboratory.
Voss held a small device above an open cooling unit.
“Stay back,” he warned.
Maya recognized the device.
“That contains the Sentinel encryption keys.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Put it down.”
Voss laughed.
“You think this is about money?”
“What is it about?”
“Control.”
Voss dropped the device into the cooling unit.
Sparks exploded.
The lights went out.
Emergency alarms screamed through the building.
In the darkness, Voss shoved past an officer and disappeared through a service door.
Red emergency lights came on seconds later.
Maya ran to the damaged unit.
The encryption device had been destroyed.
But the greater danger became obvious when the engineering screens restarted.
A countdown appeared.
SENTINEL REMOTE DEPLOYMENT
TIME REMAINING: 47:59:31
Someone outside the building had activated the launch process.
Daniel tried to cancel it.
The command was rejected.
Maya typed rapidly.
“They transferred control to an external server.”
“Where?”
“I’m tracing it.”
The signal bounced through New York, Toronto, London, and Singapore.
Then it returned to a location less than two miles away.
The old Marlowe warehouse.
The building where the company had begun.
Evelyn stared at the map.
That warehouse had been abandoned for twenty years.
Or so everyone believed.
Daniel ordered police units to the location.
Detective Shaw stopped him.
“You stay here.”
“That building belonged to my family.”
“And someone may be waiting for you.”
Evelyn picked up her cane.
“Then we should not disappoint them.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You are not going.”
“I came here because your father built this company on the belief that leadership means walking toward danger before asking others to do it.”
“You are seventy-eight years old.”
“And still your mother.”
Before Daniel could argue, Maya spoke from the computer.
“I found another signal.”
The signal was coming from beneath the old warehouse.
According to forgotten architectural plans, a Cold War-era communications bunker existed below the foundation.
Daniel looked at the countdown.
Forty-six hours remained.
Evelyn turned toward Detective Shaw.
“Now do you believe we need to go?”
May you like
Shaw checked her weapon.
“Yes.”
