Helena Ward left the house that morning with a familiar thought in mind: another ordinary morning, a few meetings, a few reports. She had spent over twenty years in the US Army Criminal Investigation Bureau exposing lies and dismantling the most dangerous criminal networks. Helena thought she had seen it all. She was wrong. A call at dawn tore everything apart. Her sister—Emily Carter—was found motionless in a muddy ditch outside Arlington. When the paramedics described …

They weren’t police officers.
They were cleaners.
And they had just made her their new target.

At dawn, Helena arrived exhausted at the apartment of Aaron Malik, a former Army cyber analyst and one of the few people she trusted implicitly. She left the charred USB drive on his table.
“This is almost destroyed,” Aaron murmured. “But I’ll try to recover it.”
“I need to know what Emily discovered,” Helena said.

While he was working, Helena investigated the public records and documents of Carter Defense Systems, Marcus’s company. The more she read, the clearer the picture became: shell companies, contracts outsourced to companies with no track record, opaque financial transactions, agreements with foreign suppliers shrouded in multiple layers of anonymity. It was too coordinated to be simple incompetence.

At midday, Aaron called her from his makeshift lab.

“Helena… this is serious.”
He had recovered several files: encrypted memos, offshore bank records, and a disturbing message marked in Emily’s personal files:
“If you refuse to sign the confidentiality agreement, activate Willow Protocol.”

Emily had found evidence of internal corruption, and Marcus had decided to silence her.

To strengthen the case, Helena contacted David Nolan, the company’s former head of security. After much hesitation, he agreed to meet at a small restaurant outside the city. David arrived tense, wearing dark glasses.
“We shouldn’t talk here,” he whispered.
“Emily is in a coma. Someone tried to kill her,” Helena said.

David handed her an envelope. It contained photos, emails, and records showing illegal transfers of drone components to unauthorized international buyers.
“She uncovered everything,” he said, trembling. “And Marcus lost control.”

Before Helena could answer, two men in suits entered the restaurant. They looked at each table with military precision.
“They followed us,” David murmured.

The men approached.
“Mrs. Ward,” one said, “Mr. Carter is asking you to stop causing trouble.”

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