Chapter 86 - The Familiar Stranger
The security door opened with a quiet hiss.
The figure from the surveillance monitors entered alone.
A man in his early sixties.
Gray hair.
Dark overcoat.
Leather briefcase.
He stopped several feet away from Daniel and calmly removed a pair of glasses.
"I'm relieved you reached File Zero."
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
"We've met."
The man smiled.
"Twice."
Daniel searched his memory.
Airport terminals.
Banks.
Hotels.
Construction sites.
Nothing.
The stranger opened his briefcase and removed an old photograph.
It showed Daniel boarding his overseas flight fifteen years earlier.
Standing unnoticed among the crowd was the same man.
"You were there."
"Yes."
Daniel felt another memory surface.
Several years later, during a layover in Singapore, an older businessman had helped him retrieve a misplaced passport.
The face...
It had been this same man.
"You followed me."
"I observed you."
"For fifteen years?"
The stranger nodded.
"I had instructions."
Samuel stepped forward.
"From whom?"
The man answered without hesitation.
"From your father."
Daniel's breathing slowed.
"My father died thirteen years ago."
"He gave the instructions before he died."
The stranger placed a sealed envelope on the table.
"I wasn't allowed to deliver this..."
May you like
"...until you discovered File Zero."
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