Chapter 9 - Bernard's Secret
Camille returned to Paris with one objective.
Find Bernard.
His office was empty.
His apartment was empty.
His phone was off.
His security driver had not seen him since the previous evening.
He had disappeared.
Camille stood inside Bernard’s private study staring at decades of photographs.
Bernard with her father.
Bernard at her university graduation.
Bernard beside her mother in the hospital.
Bernard signing the trust documents after both parents were gone.
Every important moment contained his face.
Morel entered.
“Nothing?”
“No.”
Camille looked at him.
“You knew my father gave him the registry.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I promised your father.”
“He is dead.”
“The promise wasn’t.”
Camille laughed bitterly.
“Everyone loved him enough to lie to me.”
Morel accepted that.
Julian called from Bernard’s office.
“You should see this.”
They joined him.
He had opened Bernard’s desk computer.
One encrypted partition remained hidden.
Julian accessed it using a recovery key stored inside the notebook from E-17.
The screen filled with scanned documents.
Payments.
Messages.
Photographs.
Reports.
Camille expected proof Bernard worked for Vesper.
Instead, she found the opposite.
Bernard had spent twelve years collecting evidence against them.
Names of judges.
Bankers.
Executives.
Politicians.
Security contractors.
Every individual connected to Vesper’s network.
Morel looked impressed.
“He kept working.”
Camille opened another file.
Photographs of her.
At university.
At work.
Entering restaurants.
Boarding aircraft.
Someone had monitored her for years.
Camille stared.
Julian read the dates.
“Bernard wasn’t tracking you for Vesper.”
“He was tracking the people tracking me.”
Another file.
AMELIA GRANT.
The folder contained seven years of surveillance.
Money transfers.
Secret meetings.
Contacts with Vesper.
Bernard had suspected Amelia for years.
Camille felt anger rise again.
“He knew.”
Morel nodded.
“He needed her close.”
“He let her represent me.”
“To watch who contacted her.”
“She could have killed me.”
“Perhaps Bernard believed she wouldn’t until the registry became relevant.”
Camille looked at the documents.
“And now it is.”
At the bottom of the folder sat one video.
Recorded forty-eight hours earlier.
Bernard appeared on screen.
He was sitting in the same office.
Camille pressed play.
“If you are watching this, I failed to return.”
Her chest tightened.
Bernard continued.
“Camille, I owe you the truth.”
She sat down.
“Your father gave me the registry in 2012.
I did not keep it.”
Morel leaned closer.
“I divided it.”
Camille frowned.
Bernard continued.
“The registry exists in three encrypted components.
One is in Switzerland.
One is in New York.
One remained with me.”
Julian whispered.
“Distributed key.”
“No single piece can expose the full network.”
Bernard looked directly into the camera.
“I believed division was safer.
I was wrong.”
Camille felt dread.
“Amelia discovered the location of the Swiss component six months ago.
Vesper now has it.”
Morel cursed.
“The New York component remains secure.
My component is hidden somewhere no one connected to Vesper would search.”
Camille waited.
Bernard almost smiled.
“With the person they underestimated most.”
The video ended.
Julian looked confused.
“Who?”
Camille already knew.
She stood.
“Victoire.”
Morel stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because Bernard visited the Delacroix estate yesterday morning.”
She remembered security logs from the audit.
“He said he was reviewing contract documents.”
Julian understood.
“He planted it there.”
Camille called Victoire.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Étienne answered instead.
“Camille.”
“Where is Victoire?”
Silence.
“Étienne.”
His voice broke.
“She’s gone.”
Camille froze.
“What do you mean gone?”
“Security found her room empty twenty minutes ago.”
“Cameras?”
“Disabled.”
Morel closed his eyes.
Vesper had moved first.
Étienne continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“They left a phone.”
“Do not touch it.”
“Already ringing.”
Camille’s own phone received a video.
Victoire appeared on screen.
Her hands were tied.
She was alive.
Behind her stood Amelia.
Camille stared at the woman she once considered family.
Amelia looked into the camera.
“Bring the notebook from E-17.”
Camille did not move.
Amelia continued.
“And bring Bernard’s key.”
Camille frowned.
What key?
Amelia smiled.
“You still don’t know where he put it.”
The video cut.
Camille turned to Morel.
“What key?”
Morel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Julian looked at Bernard’s desk.
Then at the video screen.
“Maybe she means encryption.”
Camille replayed Bernard’s message.
My component is hidden somewhere no one connected to Vesper would search.
With the person they underestimated most.
Camille thought of Victoire.
Something physical.
Something Bernard could have given her without her understanding its importance.
Then she remembered.
At the party, before Camille entered, Bernard had been photographed speaking briefly with Victoire.
Victoire wore a diamond bracelet she had not been wearing in earlier social-media photographs.
Camille called Étienne.
“Did Bernard give Victoire jewelry?”
Étienne sounded confused.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“A bracelet.
He said it belonged to her grandmother.”
Camille closed her eyes.
Not jewelry.
A container.
May you like
The key was inside Victoire’s bracelet.
And now Amelia had both Victoire and the one object capable of unlocking Bernard’s piece of the registry.
