The face behind the curtain

Chapter 13– The Face Behind the Curtain

The air in their safehouse felt heavier after Prague.

They had the drives. They had the footage. Names, numbers, off-the-book transactions. Silas Creed had been the vault holding decades of secrets—and now they were sitting on a bomb.

Michael and Mason went to work organizing it all. But it was Elias who found it.

A folder buried beneath layers of encrypted files.

Project Wildthorn.

Inside: personnel files, payment trails… and surveillance logs.

Amara leaned in beside him, her breath catching.

It wasn't just about Myra. It wasn't just Daedalus.

It was personal.

The footage showed West. Alive. Before her death. In conversations with someone they hadn't seen before. A woman. High-ranking.

Then, a second feed—Myra and the same woman. Talking. Laughing.

Planning.

Amara's voice was a whisper. "Who is that?"

Elias froze the frame. Zoomed in.

The name on the ID badge sent a chill through the room:

> Dr. Evelyn Ward. United States Government Liaison. Defense Oversight Division.

"She's not just Daedalus," Elias said quietly. "She's the one who sanctioned them."

Michael frowned. "Wait... Evelyn Ward was the one West tried to expose years ago. But the investigation got buried. Someone pulled the strings and made it disappear."

Amara stared at the screen. "That's who 'Don't trust anyone' was really about. It wasn't just about Daedalus. It was about the government who protected them."

---

Later that night

Amara sat alone, going through more files. She came across a personal message West had recorded but never sent.

Her aunt's face flickered to life. Alive. Strong.

> "If you're watching this, I'm already gone. And you're closer to the truth than anyone's ever been. You'll be angry. That's good. But don't let it break you."

"Tell him—Elias—he can't do this alone. And neither can you."

"Don't trust anyone. Especially Evelyn. She'll smile at you and gut you in the same breath."

"You're not a victim, Amara. You're my legacy."

Amara closed the file slowly.

For the first time in weeks, her hands weren't shaking.

---

Elsewhere…

Myra stood in a glass penthouse in Berlin, flanked by Evelyn Ward.

"He knows now," Evelyn said, handing Myra a printed photo.

It was Elias. And Amara. Together.

"They'll come for us."

Myra smiled faintly. "Let them."

She poured herself a drink. "Let the girl walk into the lion's den. I want her to see what power really looks like."

They regrouped in a quiet town near the Austrian border, somewhere anonymous, somewhere safe.

But no one felt safe anymore.

The files from Prague had ignited something in Amara. No longer just a survivor, she was becoming something else entirely.

A strategist.

Elias saw it in the way she moved, the way she spoke—calm, but with purpose. Her fear had become fuel.

They didn't just have names now.

They had leverage.

---

That evening

"I want to hit Berlin," Amara said, spreading maps across the table.

Elias blinked. "That's suicide."

"No. It's strategy. Evelyn and Myra are there. And according to the files, so are the biometric records Daedalus uses to control its people. If we get those, we can expose their entire chain of command."

Michael leaned back, arms folded. "We've done recon. That server farm is a fortress."

"I'm not saying we break in tonight," she said. "But we plan. We watch. We make a move they don't expect."

Elias watched her closely. "You're thinking like her."

She paused. "Like who?"

"West."

Amara didn't deny it.

"She was the only one who saw this coming. It's time we finish what she started."

---

Later…

Elias stepped outside to clear his head.

That's when Mason approached.

"You need to see this," he said, his voice tight.

Inside, he pulled up a file they'd almost missed.

Encrypted under an old Daedalus shell company.

A bank transfer. From Evelyn Ward. To a private account.

An account under the name: Jonas Bell.

Elias went cold.

"That's my father's name," he said quietly.

More files followed—travel logs, voice transcripts.

Meetings between Evelyn and Jonas Bell.

And then a video.

Elias pressed play.

It was an old security feed. His father. In a private room with Evelyn. Talking. Strategizing. Smiling.

"You always said you wanted Elias to think for himself," Evelyn said on the screen. "Now he is. Just not in the direction we hoped."

Jonas laughed. "He'll come around. He always does."

Elias stood frozen.

Mason touched his arm. "I didn't want to believe it either."

Elias said nothing. Just turned and walked out.

---

Amara found him hours later

By the edge of the field, staring out into the dark.

"You okay?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

She stepped closer. "What happened?"

"My father's part of it," he said. His voice was quiet. Wrecked. "He's not just a lawyer. He's one of them."

Amara's heart cracked for him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

He looked at her, something dangerous flickering behind his grief.

"I always thought I'd find the truth and bring it to light," Elias said. "But now…"

She waited.

"Now I think I want to burn it all down."

She didn't flinch.

"Then let's burn it," she said.

And for the first time, they didn't feel like two broken people trying to hold on.

They felt like a storm.

The Berlin skyline stretched beneath them like a chessboard.

From the rooftop of a nondescript building, Amara watched the Daedalus data center—a sleek fortress of glass and steel that held decades of secrets.

They'd spent days observing. Mapping guard rotations. Camera blind spots. Employee patterns. Every detail.

"Tomorrow night," Amara said softly. "We go in."

Elias stood beside her, eyes still hollow from the truth about his father.

"You sure you're ready?"

She looked at him. "Are you?"

His jaw tightened. "I'm past ready."

---

Meanwhile…

Back in the safehouse, Mason returned from a late meeting—looking like he'd seen a ghost.

"I found someone," he said, tossing a burner phone onto the table.

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Found who?"

"She calls herself Nyra. Used to work deep inside Daedalus's tech arm. She went dark after a failed whistleblow attempt. She has access we don't."

Elias narrowed his eyes. "And why would she help us now?"

"Because Daedalus tried to kill her. And she wants revenge."

Amara hesitated. "Where is she?"

"On her way here."

---

Hours later…

Nyra walked into the safehouse with a duffel bag and a fractured smile. Late twenties. Shaved head. Smart eyes. Wounded aura.

"You must be the girl who made Evelyn nervous," she said, nodding at Amara.

Amara tilted her head. "And you're the ghost no one could find."

Nyra grinned. "I'm better that way."

She sat, unzipped her bag, and pulled out a blueprint of the Berlin facility.

"I can get you inside," she said. "Through the sub-facility. Unlisted in their system. I designed it."

Elias studied her. "Why should we trust you?"

She met his gaze. "Because if you fail, Daedalus wins. And I'd rather die than let that happen."

Amara and Elias exchanged a look.

It wasn't enough.

But it would do.

---

The next night

They moved like shadows.

Nyra led the way, slipping past biometric locks, guiding them into the facility's lower levels.

Michael and Mason handled surveillance jamming. Elias and Amara pushed deeper.

The vault room was colder than expected. Silent.

Inside: servers. Cryogenic safes. And a single access terminal.

Amara approached it, hands steady.

"Time to let the world see," she said.

She plugged in the decryption drive.

Suddenly—the lights flickered.

And then—a voice.

"Well done, Amara."

She froze.

It was Evelyn Ward.

Her voice echoed from the speakers.

"I always knew you'd make it this far. What I didn't expect was Elias joining you. I suppose betrayal runs in the family."

Amara spun to Elias—but he was frozen too.

"Get the files!" Mason barked. "We don't have time—"

"No," Elias said. "It's a trap."

He yanked the drive out just before the system triggered a purge.

The servers began to overheat.

Amara grabbed a nearby hard copy of key documents before they fled.

---

Outside, panting, in the freezing Berlin air

They regrouped.

Amara clutched the papers.

Not enough to bring Daedalus down. But enough to expose the first layer.

Nyra leaned against a wall, breathing hard. "I didn't know they booby-trapped it. I swear."

Elias studied her. Believed her.

But the game had changed.

This wasn't about surviving anymore.

It was about fighting back.

Amara looked to Elias. "We need the world to see what we found."

"And we need to find Evelyn before she finds us again."