Chapter 21 - A Knock at Midnight From an Unseen Face
Midnight ticked quietly across the digital clock beside my bed while the entire installation slept in deep shadow.
Everything was secure, peaceful, and entirely predictable in the quiet sanctuary of my second-floor apartment.
Suddenly, a soft, deliberate knock echoed against my front door—three slow taps, exactly like a secret code.
I sat up instantly in the darkness, my military instincts kicking in as I reached for my sidearm on the nightstand.
I crept silently across the hallway floorboards, peering through the wide-angle glass of the peephole.
The hallway light flickered erratically, casting long, eerie shadows across the empty welcome mat outside.
Nobody was standing directly in front of the door; instead, a small manila envelope lay taped to the frame.
I unlocked the deadbolt quietly, pulled the door open three inches, and snatched the envelope inside.
I tore it open in the dim light of the hallway, pulling out a single photograph taken just moments ago.
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It showed me sitting on my balcony through a telephoto lens—and scrawled across the back in jagged red ink were the words:
“Your father didn't act alone. We are coming for what you owe us.”
