Chapter 20 - The Blueprint Beneath the Notebook
While Victor was escorted to a separate interview room, Marcus returned to the evidence table.
Something continued bothering him.
Daniel had hidden messages inside a watch.
Inside the notebook.
Inside the suitcase lining.
Inside a false compartment.
A man like Daniel wouldn't stop there.
Marcus carefully lifted the notebook once more.
This time he examined the hard leather cover itself.
Running his thumb across the inside edge, he felt an uneven ridge.
"Hold on..."
Dana looked over.
"What is it?"
Marcus pressed gently against the spine.
A thin cardboard layer separated from the binding.
Hidden beneath it was an almost transparent sheet of drafting film.
Everyone leaned closer.
It wasn't another letter.
It wasn't another map.
It was an architectural blueprint.
The drawing showed the airport exactly as it had existed twelve years earlier.
But unlike the official plans, this blueprint contained dozens of handwritten annotations.
Red circles.
Blue arrows.
Black X marks.
Every note pointed toward forgotten maintenance corridors, abandoned utility rooms, and storage vaults that no longer appeared on any official records.
Arthur's expression darkened.
"I hoped that drawing had been destroyed."
Marcus spread the blueprint across the table.
Near the lower-right corner, Daniel had written one final note in careful block letters.
The airport was never the destination. It was the meeting place.
Dana traced one of the red arrows.
"It leads outside the property."
Marcus followed it farther.
The route continued beneath an underground service tunnel before ending at a location marked only with a hand-drawn symbol instead of a name.
"What is that?" Dana asked.
Arthur stared at the symbol for several long seconds.
Finally, he answered.
"I've seen it before."
"Where?"
"In Rebecca's office."
Marcus looked up sharply.
"You were inside her office?"
"Only once."
"What was she hiding?"
Arthur slowly shook his head.
"Not hiding."
"Protecting."
The communications officer's phone rang again.
He answered, listened for a few seconds, then looked toward Marcus with obvious concern.
"North Storage wasn't the only place accessed today."
Marcus stood immediately.
"What else?"
The officer placed a fresh printout beside Daniel's blueprint.
A second secure facility had just reported an unauthorized entry.
The timestamp showed it had happened almost simultaneously with the incident at Locker 118.
The location wasn't inside the airport.
It was listed under an old government property code.
May you like
At the bottom of the report, one line had been automatically generated by the legacy security system:
ARCHIVE NODE 3 — STATUS CHANGED: ACTIVE.
