"The Man Inside the Wardrobe

Ethan Harrison could not stop staring at the envelope resting on the steel safe.

**"You are finally standing exactly where I wanted."**

No footprints had approached the safe after they entered the vault.

No doors had opened.

No sound echoed through the underground chamber.

Yet the envelope had appeared.

Someone had been here moments before them.

Or worse...

someone was still inside.

---

Lucas immediately drew his flashlight toward the dark corners of the vault.

"Who's there?"

Only silence answered.

Daniel slowly picked up the envelope.

There was another object beneath it.

A small bronze key.

Unlike the three keys they had already collected, this one carried a different engraving.

Instead of the Ashcroft Initiative symbol...

it bore Ethan's family crest.

Eleanor's face lost all color.

"The fourth key..."

She whispered.

"It was never supposed to leave Richard."

Ethan frowned.

"Then how did it end up here?"

Nobody answered.

Because there was only one explanation.

The Chairman wanted Ethan to have it.

---

Back at the mansion, Daniel carefully examined the bronze key.

"It isn't old."

"What?"

"This key was manufactured less than a year ago."

Lucas looked confused.

"But the originals were made twenty-six years ago."

Daniel nodded.

"This is a copy."

Ethan suddenly understood.

"The Chairman already opened this vault."

"Exactly."

"And he wants us to believe we're still discovering it."

Eleanor slowly shook her head.

"No..."

"He wants you to find something."

---

They returned underground the following morning.

Using the fourth key, they unlocked another compartment beside the massive safe.

Inside lay a leather journal.

The cover read:

**Property of Charles Ashcroft**

Ethan carefully opened the first page.

It wasn't a diary.

It was a record.

Every founder had been evaluated.

Richard Harrison.

Brilliant.

Ambitious.

Untrustworthy.

Lucas Miller Sr.

Loyal.

Predictable.

Useful.

Eleanor Brooks.

Intelligent.

Compassionate.

Potential liability.

Then Ethan found the page about his father.

Michael Harrison.

"The only founder willing to destroy everything to protect his son."

Ethan closed the journal.

His father had never been studying the organization.

The organization had been studying him.

For years.

Perhaps from the very beginning.

Then another folded paper slipped from between the pages.

It contained only one sentence.

**"The fifth key has already chosen its owner."**