Chapter 7 - Elena Price Brings Back the Backpack
Elena looked exhausted.
She had not been kidnapped.
She had run.
That distinction mattered.
“I knew Victor would come for the laptop.”
Adrian stared at her across the interview room.
“You could have called me.”
“I tried for four months.”
“You’re my executive assistant.”
“And every message I sent about Noah was redirected.”
“By who?”
“Victor.”
Elena discovered Victor had administrator access to Adrian’s communications through security protocols.
He could flag emails as threats.
He could reroute meeting requests.
He could monitor unscheduled contacts.
Adrian had approved those systems years earlier after a stalking incident.
He had never considered how much power they gave one man.
Elena said she found Building 9 while following Victor.
She entered once.
That was why her fingerprint was there.
Noah was already gone that day.
But he had left his backpack hidden behind a ventilation panel.
Elena retrieved it.
Inside were a laptop, notebooks, sample records, and a sealed envelope addressed to Adrian.
“Why didn’t you bring it to police immediately?” Mia asked.
Elena looked ashamed.
“Because I found something about myself.”
Inside Noah’s notes was evidence Elena’s late father, Dr. Samuel Price, had signed falsified clinical documents for another Cole Biomedical product fifteen years earlier.
Elena panicked.
She feared the company would destroy her father’s reputation.
So she hid the backpack.
For four months.
Mia stared.
“My brother was missing.”
“I know.”
“You had his evidence.”
“I know.”
“You could have helped us.”
Elena cried.
“I know.”
No excuse fixed it.
Adrian did not defend her.
But he also did not reduce her to one decision.
Elena eventually realized hiding the backpack made her part of the same culture Noah was fighting.
She arranged the penthouse event.
She placed Mia on the catering roster after discovering her name.
She intended to approach Mia privately.
Then someone searched Elena’s apartment the night before the gathering.
She fled.
“Did you send the champagne warning?” Adrian asked.
“No.”
That remained unknown.
Noah’s laptop contained encrypted files.
One folder opened with a password written in his notebook:
DANIEL71.
Seventy-one hours.
The length of time Laura believed her first son lived.
Inside were records connecting Thomas and Victor.
Thomas suppressed Daniel Bennett’s reagent warning.
Victor removed Noah’s access after Noah requested a meeting with Adrian.
Then Victor created the internal theft allegation.
But there was more.
Noah had secretly contacted Daniel Bennett before Daniel’s fatal crash.
They met twice.
Daniel agreed to DNA testing.
The result showed they shared a mother.
Mia began crying.
Daniel had learned the truth before he died.
Noah’s notes said Daniel wanted to contact Laura.
He never got the chance.
Adrian looked at the crash report.
Again, suspicion rose.
Again, evidence had to come first.
Noah had investigated the crash too.
He found no proof Thomas or Victor caused it.
His own note read:
DON’T TURN EVERY TRAGEDY INTO THE SAME CONSPIRACY. FACTS FIRST.
Adrian stared at the sentence.
Noah, while hunted and frightened, had resisted the temptation everyone else kept falling into.
Daniel’s crash might truly have been an accident.
That did not make Thomas innocent of everything else.
The backpack contained one final device.
A voice recorder.
Noah’s voice:
“If I disappear, Victor Lang is the immediate problem. Thomas Cole is the bigger one. But neither of them started this.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“My father did.”
Noah explained Richard Cole secretly arranged Daniel’s neonatal transfer.
Not to save him.
To hide him.
Richard feared a public scandal would destroy his marriage and inheritance.
Thomas helped.
The baby was placed through an illegal private adoption network.
Years later, Richard regretted it.
He tried to locate Daniel.
Thomas stopped him because exposing the adoption could create criminal and financial liability.
Richard died without correcting it.
Noah’s recording continued.
“But the family secret is not why I’m in danger.”
Everyone listened.
“The danger is Asteron.”
Daniel Bennett’s reagent warning proved E17 should never have entered production.
Thomas concealed it to protect the trial timeline.
Victor helped falsify destruction records.
But Noah discovered E17 had not been destroyed.
It had been relabeled.
Where?
The recording ended abruptly.
Mia slammed her palm against the table.
“No.”
Adrian checked the remaining files.
A shipping manifest answered.
E17 had been sent to a clinical site.
Not in the United States.
A private trial partner in Costa Rica.
Forty-two patients had received material associated with the compromised batch.
Adrian’s face went white.
This was no longer about a corporate scandal.
May you like
People might have been harmed.
And Thomas had tried to incapacitate Adrian before he could discover it.
