The Phantom Heist

Chapter 10: The Truth

Sarah discovers the truth: the government never shut down the program, and is using Porter's spirit for modern espionage

The robbery was a cover for Porter's ghost retrieving classified documents

Sarah must decide whether to expose the truth or protect the secret

The following morning, Sarah returned to Captain Walker's office. The captain looked surprised to see her.

"Mathews. I didn't expect to see you so soon."

"There's something you need to know," Sarah said, placing a digital recorder on Walker's desk.

"About Project Threshold. About Maxwell Porter. About why the government is still interested in his... abilities."  

Sarah pressed play.

The recording contained her conversation with the entity in the vault, the sounds of the electromagnetic pulse, and then... silence.

Walker listened without interruption, her expression changing from curiosity to disbelief, then to grim understanding.

When it ended, she sat in silence for a long moment.

"Where did you get this?"

Sarah met her gaze. "The vault. Before the security system activated."

Walker steepled her fingers. "This... recording suggests the government never stopped Project Threshold. That they're still using Porter."

"Not Porter," Sarah corrected. "Something else. Something that was using him. And Elizabeth. And maybe me."

Walker leaned back in her chair. "The bank robbery..."

"Was a cover," Sarah finished. "For retrieving something else. Something they didn't want anyone to know about."

"What do you want to do?" Walker asked.

Sarah hesitated. The implications of exposing Project Threshold were enormous.

It could shake the foundations of national security, spark public panic, and ruin lives.

But the truth demanded to be told.

"I want the truth to come out," she said firmly. "Whatever the cost."

Epilogue

The truth about Project Threshold was exposed, though its full implications remained shrouded in mystery.

Walker and Sarah presented their evidence to a select committee, leading to a Congressional investigation and a cascade of resignations within the government.

The official report acknowledged the existence of the program but downplayed the supernatural elements, attributing the events at Meridian National Bank to "experimental technologies" and "mass hysteria."

Sarah's perspective on reality, however, was forever changed.

The world of concrete evidence and rational explanations had cracked open, revealing a glimpse of something vast, unknowable, and potentially dangerous.

She continued her work as a forensic analyst, but with a newfound awareness of the unseen forces that might be at play.

One evening, months later, Sarah found herself reviewing security footage from another crime scene—a warehouse break-in with several unexplained anomalies.

A flickering shadow in the background, moving too quickly to be captured clearly.

A sudden drop in temperature recorded by a security camera's thermal sensor.

A whisper of sound, just beyond the range of human hearing, picked up by an audio recorder.

Sarah zoomed in, enhanced the image, ran it through spectral analysis software.

The anomaly remained, defying explanation.

A chill ran down her spine.

Was it another Porter? Another entity using a human form as a conduit? Or something new, something different?

A sense of unease settled upon her.

The camera panned, and Sarah noticed something else.

In the corner of the screen, a symbol was visible, scrawled on the wall in what appeared to be ash.

The same symbol that had been on the medallion.

Sarah stared at the screen, her mind racing.

The rational part of her brain sought logical explanations, but another part—the part that had looked into the eyes of an inter-dimensional entity—knew there was more to the world than she had ever imagined.

The footage ended. The screen went dark.

Sarah sat in the silence, the questions echoing in her mind.

Had she become a believer? Or had she been recruited, in a way, to track the shadows that lurked beyond the edges of human perception?

The answer remained ambiguous, lost in the static between worlds.

Stay tuned for more Sarah Mathews adventures!