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Chapter Eleven: The Chairman Who Vanished
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05.08.2026 23:44:32A heavy silence settled over the engineering level.
“No one can find him.”
Marcus's words echoed in my mind.
My father had supposedly entered Silverfang Tower an hour earlier.
Yet no one had seen him since.
Inspector Mara Voss was the first to react.
“Verify it.”
Marcus immediately called the reception desk.
He switched the phone to speaker.
“It's Marcus. I need you to confirm exactly what happened.”
The receptionist answered without hesitation.
“I remember him clearly. Chairman Sebastian Vale arrived at 8:02 p.m. I greeted him personally.”
“Did anyone accompany him?”
“No.”
“Did he sign in?”
“Yes.”
“Did security escort him upstairs?”
There was a pause.
“I... I assumed they did.”
“You assumed?”
“He walked toward the executive elevators.”
“Did you actually see him enter one?”
Silence.
Then—
“No.”
Marcus looked at me.
“I should review the lobby cameras.”
Inspector Voss nodded.
“Do it. Right now.”
Within minutes, the security technician connected another monitor.
The lobby footage appeared.
The timestamp read 8:02 p.m.
Everyone watched.
The revolving doors turned.
My father entered the building exactly as the receptionist had described.
Impeccably dressed.
Calm.
He acknowledged the receptionist with a nod before walking toward the executive elevators.
Then something unexpected happened.
Instead of entering the elevator...
He stopped.
Someone stepped into frame.
Only their shoulder was visible.
The camera angle hid their face.
My father spoke to them for several seconds.
Then both men walked away from the elevators together.
Toward the east corridor.
The footage ended there.
Marcus frowned.
“There should be another camera.”
“There is,” the technician replied.
He opened the next recording.
Static.
The entire east corridor feed had failed.
Exactly eleven minutes.
The same eleven-minute blackout.
Ronan folded his arms.
“Not coincidence.”
Inspector Voss agreed.
“Someone knew which cameras to disable.”
I stared at the frozen image of my father.
The unknown figure wasn't visible enough to identify.
Only one detail stood out.
A silver walking cane.
Chairman Hale's eyes flickered toward the screen.
Only for a moment.
But Ronan noticed.
“So,” Ronan said evenly, “who in this building carries a silver cane?”
No one answered.
Because everyone already knew.
Chairman Hale smiled politely.
“I've carried one for years.”
“You have.”
“But so have at least a dozen executives.”
“That may be true.”
Hale's expression remained pleasant.
“Are you accusing me?”
“No.”
Ronan met his gaze.
“I'm observing facts.”
The words landed with perfect precision.
The same words Hale had used earlier.
For the first time that evening, the old chairman's smile faded.
Inspector Voss stepped between them.
“Enough.”
She looked at the technician.
“Can you enhance the image?”
“I'll try.”
The picture sharpened slightly.
The figure remained mostly hidden.
But one detail became clearer.
A ring.
Large.
Black.
Set with a silver wolf's head.
Marcus leaned closer.
“I've seen that before.”
“Where?” I asked.
“I don't remember.”
“Think.”
He closed his eyes.
Then they snapped open.
“The shareholders' gala.”
“Who wore it?”
“I...”
His face tightened in frustration.
“I can't remember.”
Ronan quietly took out his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking photographs.”
“You took photographs at the gala?”
“No.”
“My father hired photographers.”
He scrolled rapidly.
Hundreds of images.
Executives.
Investors.
Pack leaders.
Finally, he stopped.
“There.”
He enlarged the picture.
The ring.
Black stone.
Silver wolf.
Exactly the same.
The man's face, however, was hidden by another guest walking across the frame.
“Can you identify him?” I asked.
Ronan zoomed further.
The image blurred.
“No.”
Inspector Voss looked at the phone.
“Send that to me.”
He did without argument.
Something about his willingness caught my attention.
Only hours ago we had been trying to destroy each other's companies.
Now we were sharing evidence without hesitation.
The realization was strangely unsettling.
An officer hurried into the room.
“Inspector.”
“What is it?”
“We searched the east corridor.”
“And?”
“We found this.”
He held up another evidence bag.
Inside lay a fountain pen.
Dark blue.
Gold trim.
My breath caught.
It belonged to my father.
I had given it to him on his sixtieth birthday.
“There was blood on it,” the officer continued.
Marcus went pale.
“Is it...?”
“We don't know whose.”
Inspector Voss accepted the bag.
“Send it for DNA analysis.”
“Yes, Inspector.”
She turned toward me.
“Chairman Vale.”
“Yes?”
“Until we locate your father, I need you to prepare for the possibility that he may also be a victim.”
The words struck harder than I expected.
For years, my relationship with my father had been defined by discipline, impossible expectations, and the burden of the secret we'd shared.
But he was still my father.
And now...
He was missing.
My phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
No one else seemed to notice.
I answered cautiously.
“Who is this?”
For several seconds, all I heard was breathing.
Then a distorted voice spoke.
“Your father is alive.”
Every muscle in my body tensed.
“Who are you?”
“You're asking the wrong question.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What do you want?”
The caller laughed softly.
“I don't want anything.”
“Then why call?”
“To give you a choice.”
My heart began to pound.
“What choice?”
“Keep searching for Project Genesis...”
The voice paused.
“…and you'll never see your father again.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the dark screen.
Ronan had been watching my face the entire time.
“What happened?”
I slowly lowered the phone.
“They have my father.”
His expression hardened.
“What else?”
I repeated the caller's final words.
For the first time since this nightmare began, Ronan looked genuinely alarmed.
Because he understood what I had only just realized.
Project Genesis wasn't a secret buried in the past anymore.
It was hunting us in the present.
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