Ellis never watched the video. Instead, he copied one file—a single image—and wiped everything else. The image showed a harbor at dawn. The timestamp matched next Tuesday. And in the background, barely visible: a ship with a hull number that matched the one his father had supposedly died on.
Ellis’s father had disappeared seven years ago, declared dead after a research vessel sank in the Pacific. No body. No log. Ellis never watched the video
His hands went cold.