I leaned over Riley's shoulder, my pulse hammering as she worked on the corrupted files. The glow from her monitor painted our faces in blue and green, flickering like a heartbeat. I could see the tension in her jaw, the way her fingers moved faster than normal. She was worried.
"Anything?" I asked, my voice tight.
She exhaled sharply. "Some of it's fried, but..." Her fingers flew over the keyboard, and suddenly, a fragment of text appeared.
A name.
Julian Cross.
A cold, sharp feeling stabbed through my chest.
No. That's impossible.
I took a step back, my throat dry. "Where—where did that name come from?"
Riley shot me a look, the kind that saw right through me. "It was buried in the metadata of one of the files. You know him, don't you?"
I did.
Julian wasn't just a name. He was my best friend. My brother in all but blood. And if his name was here, tied to this mess, something was very, very wrong.
I forced myself to breathe, but my thoughts spun like a storm. Julian had been off the grid for over a year. No calls. No sightings. Gone. I searched for him, chased every lead, but there was nothing.
And now? His name was buried in an erased file?
Riley's voice cut through my thoughts. "Nathan, what aren't you telling me?"
I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to think clearly. "Julian and I go way back. If he's in this, then either he was looking for the same answers we are… or—"
I stopped.
Or he was involved.
The idea made my stomach churn. Julian wasn't like that. He wouldn't betray me.
Right?
Riley studied me. "This changes things. If Julian's in play, we need to find him."
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "He's been missing for over a year, Riley. I looked everywhere. He was just... gone."
She frowned. "Then why does his name show up now?"
I had no answer.
A sharp beep made us both snap to attention. Riley's fingers danced over the keys. "Wait—there's an encrypted message attached to the file. It's broken, but I think I can recover it."
A deep feeling in my gut told me this wasn't going to end well.
She worked fast, pulling pieces of data back together. Line by line, the message rebuilt itself.
Then—
Nathan, if you're seeing this, it means I failed.
My breath caught.
They know. They're watching. Do not trust—
The rest was scrambled, distorted beyond saving.
Riley whispered, "Holy shit."
I barely heard her. My heartbeat roared in my ears.
Julian had left this. For me. And someone had buried it.
A chill crawled down my spine.
I stared at the broken message. "Do not trust who, Julian?" I whispered. But there was no answer.
Riley's voice was tense. "Nathan... there's something else."
Of course there was.
She pulled up timestamps from the file. Cross-referenced them with security logs.
"These files were erased six months ago."
My stomach dropped.
Six months. Right around the time I stopped searching for Julian. Right around the time I started digging into The Oath.
I felt sick.
This wasn't just Julian going missing.
Someone made him disappear.
Riley clenched her fists. "Nathan, I don't like this. If Julian knew something—if he was trying to warn you—whoever erased this file wanted to make sure you never saw it."
I met her gaze, my jaw tight. "Too bad for them."
A dangerous thought formed in my mind.
If Julian had left this message, maybe—just maybe—there was something else he had left behind.
I forced the chaos in my head to settle. "We need to retrace his last steps."
Riley nodded. "Agreed. But we're not the only ones looking anymore."
She was right. I felt it. That creeping sensation of eyes in the shadows, doors that suddenly locked behind me, phone calls that ended in dead silence.
Someone was watching.
And they knew I was getting close.
I clenched my fists.
Let them watch. I'm not stopping.
Then, as if the universe wanted to punish me for that thought, the office lights flickered.
Riley's laptop screen glitched.
A single line of text appeared in red.
Walk away.
A chill crawled up my spine.
Riley sucked in a breath. "Oh, hell no." She started typing furiously.
The screen flashed again.
You were warned.
Then—the laptop shut off.
The whole room went dead silent.
The weight of the moment pressed against my chest.
Someone had just made contact.
Riley exhaled shakily. "That was not normal."
"No," I agreed, my pulse pounding. "It wasn't."
Whoever we were up against had power. They had resources. And they had just reached us here.
That meant they weren't far.
They were close.
Riley looked at me, and for the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.
But fear wasn't going to stop me.
Because now I knew one thing for sure.
Julian Cross wasn't just missing.
He was in trouble.
And I was going to find him.
No matter what it took.