Chapter 34 - The Custodian's Test
Another notification appeared across the legacy archive terminal.
Unlike the earlier messages, this one contained no warning.
Only a question.
IDENTIFY THE FIRST CUSTODIAN.
Below it, a blinking cursor waited.
Dana looked at Marcus.
"It's asking for a name."
The technicians hesitated.
"If we answer incorrectly..."
"No one knows what happens," Marcus finished.
Arthur slowly approached the keyboard.
"Daniel told me this day might come."
"You know the answer?" Marcus asked.
Arthur shook his head.
"I know what most people would answer."
"Daniel?"
"No."
"Rebecca?"
"No."
"Eleanor?"
Arthur smiled faintly.
"They all protected the archives."
He pointed toward the screen.
"But none of them created the responsibility."
Marcus looked again at the prompt.
IDENTIFY THE FIRST CUSTODIAN.
Eleanor suddenly reached for the folded American flag recovered from the suitcase.
She carefully unfolded just one corner.
Hidden inside the final fold was a tiny handwritten note no one had noticed before.
Daniel's handwriting filled only a single line.
> The first custodian was never a person.
Marcus read it twice.
Dana looked puzzled.
"If not a person..."
Arthur slowly raised his eyes toward the blueprint spread across the table.
"The place."
Silence settled over the room.
Marcus typed nothing.
Instead, he compared Daniel's maps, Rebecca's letters, and the newly discovered note.
Every clue pointed back to one location.
Not the airport.
Not North Storage.
Not Archive Node 3.
Somewhere older.
Somewhere Daniel believed deserved the title of First Custodian.
Before Marcus could test the theory, the airport dispatcher interrupted over the radio.
"Officer Hale."
Marcus picked up the microphone.
"Go ahead."
"A young man matching Samuel Whitmore's latest passport photo has just entered Terminal 4."
Marcus's eyes lifted toward the security monitors.
The dispatcher continued.
"There's only one problem."
"What problem?"
"He wasn't seen entering through any public entrance."
The monitor switched to a live camera feed.
A young man carrying a worn gray backpack was already standing inside the terminal.
May you like
Looking directly toward the security checkpoint.
As if he had known exactly where to go.
