The Archive of Lost Things
Chapter 10 - The Archive of Lost Things
The steel door opened into a circular room.
Shelves held tagged objects from decades of flights.
Jewelry.
Cameras.
Documents.
Children’s toys.
Ashes meant for burial.
Medical records.
Love letters.
The Mercer network kept one item from every theft as proof and leverage.
At the center stood a server surrounded by analog tape machines.
Evan waited beside it.
Charles Mercer sat in a wheelchair near the wall.
At eighty-two, the former airport chairman had disappeared from public life after a stroke. He remained mentally alert.
“You brought Michael home,” Charles told Clara. “How sentimental.”
Evan looked at his father.
“You said he died.”
“You were not ready to know Eleanor interfered.”
The Mercers had been lying to each other as carefully as they lied to everyone else.
Evan held a remote connected to the archive’s fire system.
“If I press this, every story in this room becomes smoke.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Then yours burns too.”
Evan laughed.
“My story is already written. Successful executive uncovers corrupt baggage supervisor and dies trying to protect airport records.”
He planned to frame Clara even after death.
Clara looked at the nearest shelf.
Margaret’s name appeared on a yellow tag.
Inside the box was a recording of Judge Ellis speaking with Charles.
Thomas warned him that Michael copied the financial ledger.
Charles replied:
“Then put Hayes in the hangar and give my son a body.”
Evan heard the sentence.
He had believed the fire was an emergency decision after Michael entered.
His father planned it in advance.
“You used me,” Evan said.
Charles shrugged.
“Every father uses the son who wants approval.”
Evan’s hand lowered.
Lena moved.
May you like
Charles pressed a second remote hidden beneath his blanket.
Flames erupted behind the server.
