Chapter 5 - Shadows in the System
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Bishop said, his keyboard clacking with renewed fury. “Someone with immense state-level clearance scrubbed the birth and adoption records of the current Preston Caldwell. The kid enrolled in university using a sealed trust fund managed by a shell corporation tied directly to his supposed parents—Arthur and Evelyn Caldwell. But their real son is supposed to be in a grave.”
“An identity swap,” I said, pieces of a terrifying puzzle clicking into place in my mind. “Or a ghost child installed to inherit an empire. If he isn't who he says he is, then his family isn't just rich—they’re hiding something much darker.”
“It goes deeper, Commander,” Bishop warned. “Within forty seconds of me querying that federal cold case file, my firewall just got pinged by an automated trace program originating from a server farm in Langley. Someone inside the intelligence apparatus is monitoring anyone looking into the Caldwell lineage.”
“They’re watching us,” I stated.
“They’re watching him,” Bishop corrected. “Or rather, they’re guarding whatever secret that boy represents. Chad Kensington and the other two boys—Sterling and Holbrook—they’re just spoiled trust-fund thugs. But Caldwell? He’s protected by layers of security that normal millionaires don't have access to.”
I looked back through the glass window. Nora stirred slightly, whimpering in her sleep as pain broke through the heavy sedatives.
My heart hammered against my ribs, but the cold, calculating clarity of Task Force Vanguard flooded back into my veins. The man I buried nineteen years ago hadn't died. He had just been sleeping.
“Bishop,” I said, my voice dropping an octave into a tone that made men on the battlefield double-check their safeties.
“Commander?”
“Pull every satellite pass over the Caldwell estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains for the last forty-eight hours. Check thermal signatures, vehicular traffic, and private airstrip logs.”
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“You’re going to their turf?”
“No,” I said, turning away from Nora’s room and walking toward the hospital exit into the cold night air. “I’m going to find out why a dead boy is walking around breaking my daughter's jaw. And when I find him, I’m going to remind them all why the Phantom Commander never left.”
