Chapter 4 - Aaron’s Code
Rachel refused to turn Aaron into a saint simply because he was dead.
If he had done something, she needed to know.
Access logs showed Pike’s command code was entered at 01:43.
From Aaron’s terminal.
Hale received the false order seconds later.
It appeared brutal.
Aaron had impersonated a general to make Hale leave.
Why?
Mercer offered an answer.
“Aaron didn't trust Hale.”
Rachel showed him the log.
Mercer barely reacted.
“He suspected Hale was involved in the leak.”
“Did he tell you?”
“Yes.”
“Yesterday you said Hale knew what happened to Aaron.”
“He does.”
“You also implied Hale identified the body. He didn't.”
Mercer’s eyes hardened.
“You're defending him quickly.”
“No. I'm learning not to let you decide what evidence means before I see it.”
Mercer smiled faintly.
For the first time, almost approvingly.
“You sound like Aaron.”
Rachel hated how much that affected her.
Mercer explained that Aaron believed the Kestrel leak came through command.
Hale had authorized several unusual access requests.
Aaron suspected him.
So Aaron wanted Hale away while he tested a theory.
That could explain the false order.
Then Rachel found the authentication recording.
Hale had received a text-based command packet, not voice.
Origin:
Aaron’s terminal.
But forensic notes from the original investigation contained a crucial line:
Terminal A-4 was operating in remote administrative mode.
Someone elsewhere could have used it.
Aaron’s physical presence at the terminal was unproven.
Another accusation weakened.
Rachel tracked the technician who had written the note.
Dr. Samuel Reed.
Now a university cybersecurity professor.
He remembered Kestrel immediately.
“Aaron Morgan wasn't your leak.”
“How can you know?”
“Because he came to me.”
Three weeks before the incident, Aaron discovered credentials being mirrored.
Not stolen once.
Duplicated repeatedly.
Someone could enter under multiple identities.
Hale.
Mercer.
Pike.
Even Aaron.
The operation’s central mystery had been poisoned from the start.
Every digital log could implicate the wrong person.
“Who built the credential system?”
Reed hesitated.
“A contractor.”
Name:
Aegis Meridian.
Rachel searched.
Company dissolved eleven years ago.
Its project security director had been Evelyn Shaw.
Rachel recognized the surname.
One of the two other people officially killed at Kestrel was Lieutenant Michael Shaw.
Evelyn’s husband.
Rachel found Evelyn.
She agreed to meet only after Rachel mentioned Mercer.
“He's alive?”
“You didn't know?”
Evelyn’s hand began shaking.
She had spent twelve years believing Mercer died alongside Michael.
Rachel showed her a recent photograph.
Evelyn stared for a long time.
Then:
“That's not Daniel Mercer.”
Rachel felt a chill.
“You knew him?”
“For three years.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
The man who entered the training hall had Mercer’s records.
Mercer’s scars were documented.
His fingerprints matched archived military files.
DNA from a stored medical sample later matched too.
He was Daniel Mercer.
So why did Evelyn insist otherwise?
Rachel showed another photograph.
Evelyn enlarged his left hand.
“He's missing part of his index finger.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel lost that at Kestrel?”
“According to him.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Daniel lost it six months before Kestrel.”
Rachel stared.
Mercer had told investigators the injury occurred during the fire.
A small lie.
But deliberate.
“Why lie about when he lost a finger?”
May you like
Evelyn whispered:
“Because the person who walked into Kestrel that night still had all ten.”
