“Only the CEO and the board have those keys,” he said. “Marcus has one.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Marcus’s key is registered under his corporate ID. This one is different. It is a legacy key.”

I pointed at the string of characters at the bottom of the security log.

*V_LEGACY_001.*

“That is an old administrative credential,” I whispered. “It was archived before I even started working at the company.”

Alexander bent closer, his eyes scanning the screen. “That key belonged to my father.”

A cold silence filled the room, punctuated only by the hum of my mother’s oxygen machine next door.

“Your father passed away five years ago,” I said.

“Yes,” Alexander said. “The key should have been deactivated upon his death. I ordered it myself.”

“Someone is using it,” I said. “And they are using it to coordinate with Crane Capital’s servers.”

I opened the encrypted ledger file we had recovered earlier.

I began to run a decryption script on the older, nested partition of the file—the one dating back a decade.

“There is a hidden layer in these old accounts,” I murmured. “The transaction logs from ten years ago.”