Chapter 36 - The Man Behind the Name
The room remained silent long after the monitors went dark.
No one reached for a keyboard.
No one spoke.
The sentence echoed in every mind.
"Who became Nathan Cross after he vanished?"
The rescue team leader slowly turned toward Elias.
"What does that mean?"
Elias stared at the blank screen.
"It means Nathan Cross may not have been one man."
Samuel frowned.
"You think it was an identity?"
Henry nodded slowly.
"It would explain everything."
He pulled an old ledger from a nearby shelf and opened it to a faded page.
"When I worked at the fire lookout, people spoke about Cross as if he never aged."
"They described him differently every few years."
"Different height."
"Different voice."
"Different face."
"But everyone called him Nathan Cross."
The realization settled over the room.
The name had become something larger than a person.
It had become a role.
A title.
One that someone inherited whenever the previous holder disappeared.
Elias quietly closed the Project Shoreline folder.
"Then the man we're chasing..."
"...may not be the man Jacob was chasing."
At that exact moment, every light inside the underground control room suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the chamber.
Only emergency lights flickered to life, casting long red shadows across the walls.
May you like
Somewhere in the darkness...
A steel door slammed shut.
