Chapter 10 - SAMUEL’S LAST RECORDING
Miriam contacted me again at 3:11 a.m.
One sentence.
I’m safe.
I called.
She answered.
“What happened?”
“Wrong delivery.”
“You believe that?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m moving.”
“Still refusing to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“Then give me something useful.”
She was quiet.
“I found Samuel’s audio file.”
My body tightened.
“What audio?”
“He recorded his meeting with Julian.”
“When?”
“The night he died.”
“Play it.”
“I’m sending it.”
The file arrived.
Twenty-eight minutes.
I listened with headphones.
Samuel’s voice first.
“Julian, you need to tell Elena.”
Julian:
“Not yet.”
“Your markers are still active.”
“I know.”
“You do not understand what that means.”
“I understand enough.”
“No. You understand that your hand works again.”
Silence.
Samuel continued.
“Aurum did not shut off. It integrated.”
I felt cold.
Julian:
“Cassandra says Batch 7 fixes that.”
“Cassandra is not a molecular safety specialist.”
“She has data.”
“From who?”
Pause.
Then Samuel:
“You treated someone else.”
My breath stopped.
Another secret human subject.
Julian said:
“I didn’t.”
“Then where did those data come from?”
“I don’t know.”
Samuel:
“Bullshit.”
I sat straighter.
Cassandra had data from another human.
That meant Julian might not be Patient Zero.
He might be Patient Two.
Samuel continued:
“Elena needs to freeze Aurum.”
Julian:
“If I tell Elena, she kills the program.”
“She saves the company from killing somebody.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know the sequence.”
Then a long silence.
Samuel’s voice softened.
“Julian, somebody used her founder key to access the persistence model.”
“What?”
“Three days ago.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cassandra?”
“Maybe.”
“Can you trace it?”
“I did.”
Paper moved.
Samuel:
“The access came from Miriam Cross’s legal office.”
I paused the audio.
Miriam had sent me this.
She knew the recording implicated her office.
Good.
Or calculated.
I pressed play.
Julian:
“Miriam doesn’t have lab credentials.”
Samuel:
“Someone tunneled through her network.”
Julian:
“Why?”
“Because legal servers are excluded from science audit alerts.”
That was clever.
And dangerous.
Someone with deep HartVale knowledge had used the legal network as cover.
Samuel:
“I made copies.”
Julian:
“Give them to me.”
“No.”
“Samuel.”
“No.”
“You’re making this bigger.”
“It is bigger.”
Then:
“I found the original subject.”
Silence.
Julian’s voice changed.
“What original subject?”
“The human data Cassandra used before you.”
My pulse pounded.
“Who?”
Samuel replied:
“I don’t know the name.”
Julian:
“Then what do you know?”
“Female.”
Silence.
“Treatment occurred eighteen months ago.”
Before Julian.
Before the secret alternate program supposedly started.
“Where?”
“Not HartVale.”
“Who administered?”
“Unknown.”
Samuel:
“But the sequence originated from Elena’s private founder archive.”
I took off the headphones for one second.
My founder archive.
The section no employee could access.
It contained early Aurum variants I never considered safe enough to patent.
Someone had stolen a sequence from me before Cassandra and Julian began their plan.
Maybe before either of them realized a theft had happened.
I continued.
Julian:
“Does Cassandra know?”
Samuel:
“She knows now.”
“Who told her?”
“You did.”
“What?”
“When you gave her your response data, she compared it.”
Julian cursed.
Samuel continued:
“She realized your treatment resembled an earlier human exposure.”
“Did Elena do it?”
“No.”
The certainty in Samuel’s voice mattered.
“How do you know?”
“Because the first administration happened while Elena was presenting in Boston.”
A clean alibi.
Julian:
“Then who?”
Samuel:
“That’s why you need to tell her.”
The recording shifted.
Chair movement.
Julian:
“Give me the report.”
“No.”
“Samuel.”
“No.”
Then Julian said something I couldn’t ignore.
“If this becomes public before the financing closes, Cassandra will destroy you.”
Samuel laughed.
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s a warning.”
“From her?”
“Yes.”
“Or you?”
Long silence.
“From me too.”
My stomach tightened.
Julian had threatened him.
Not death.
But damage.
Then Samuel said:
“I sent Elena a copy.”
I stopped breathing.
Julian:
“What?”
“Scheduled email.”
“When?”
“If I don’t cancel by morning.”
The recording ended.
Samuel died that night.
I never received the email.
Someone canceled the scheduled delivery after his death.
To do that, they needed access to Samuel’s account.
Or his device.
Miriam spoke when I called her back.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Samuel’s phone was never recovered from the car.”
My skin prickled.
“Who reached the crash first?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she corrected herself.
“I know who told HartVale before anyone else.”
“Who?”
“Cassandra.”
“How?”
“She called me at 2:07 a.m.”
“What did she say?”
Miriam’s voice shook.
“She said Samuel was dead.”
“What time was the crash?”
“Official report says approximately 2:12.”
I went still.
May you like
Cassandra had told Miriam Samuel was dead five minutes before the crash was officially estimated to have happened.
📖 Discover how Cassandra knew Samuel was dead before the recorded crash time—and why her answer pointed to the unknown first Aurum patient in CHAPTER 11. 👇
