Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO WANTED PROMETHEUS TO BURN
Table of Contents 7
01Chapter 1 - THE COMPONENT THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE
02Chapter 2 - MY FATHER’S HIDDEN NOTEBOOK
03Chapter 3 - THE SCIENTIST WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
04Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO WANTED PROMETHEUS TO BURN
05Chapter 5 - WHAT MY FATHER REALLY LEFT BEHIND
06Chapter 6 - THE OFFER MOM FINALLY ACCEPTED
07Chapter 7 - TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE NINETY-SECOND TEST
Richard Cross had spent most of his life outside the spotlight.
While Ethan built CrossTech into one of the largest technology companies in the country, Richard managed family investments through private offices in Switzerland and Singapore.
He appeared at charity events occasionally.
Almost never at laboratories.
Ethan called him Uncle Richard.
Mom remembered him differently.
“He came to our house once.”
“When?” Ethan asked.
“Two days before David died.”
Every person in the room became silent.
Mom had never connected the visit to CrossTech because Richard introduced himself simply as a company executive. He wanted Dad to surrender his original design notebooks in exchange for what he called a generous severance package.
Dad refused.
Richard became angry.
Mom remembered the watch because it had a strange blue face and silver band. Dad joked afterward that the man wore a car on his wrist.
Ethan ordered his uncle found.
Richard’s private office said he was traveling.
Where?
Nobody could say.
Security reviewed records.
The watch in the footage matched a limited Swiss model Richard had worn publicly for decades.
That did not prove he was the man in the maintenance bay.
Then Marcus remembered something.
Richard had secretly supported Harold Kane’s unauthorized prototype all those years earlier.
Ethan stared at him.
“My uncle funded it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted David’s technology separated from CrossTech.”
Richard believed the adaptive stabilization system could become more valuable than the entire company. If he controlled it privately, he could license it to governments and energy companies without sharing ownership with CrossTech shareholders.
David discovered the plan.
That gave Richard motive twelve years ago.
And now.
Prometheus was finally close to succeeding.
If CrossTech demonstrated a stable engine publicly, David’s technology would become impossible to claim privately.
Destroy the project before launch, and Richard could continue exploiting stolen derivatives elsewhere.
Federal investigators became involved immediately.
Ethan handed over Marcus’s confession, Dad’s notebook, the sabotage component, maintenance records, and archived files.
Then came the part nobody expected.
Richard called me.
Not Ethan.
Me.
Mom’s phone rang while we were inside a protected conference room.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A man asked for Lily.
Mom refused.
Then he said something only Dad would have known.
“Ask her whether she still keeps the red screwdriver with the broken handle.”
I froze.
Dad had given me that screwdriver when I was five.
Mom put the phone on speaker.
Richard’s voice sounded calm.
“Hello, Lily.”
Ethan leaned toward the security team, but I shook my head.
“What do you want?”
“To explain something your mother and Mr. Cross apparently prefer turning into a fairy tale.”
Mom grabbed my hand.
Richard said Dad was not an innocent genius destroyed because greedy men stole his work.
According to him, David had originally agreed to the secret project.
Then he became frightened and tried to destroy years of research after receiving his share of the development money.
Mom immediately said he was lying.
Richard laughed.
“Maria, David kept things from you too.”
He offered proof.
An account in Dad’s name containing nearly three million dollars.
Ethan’s investigators checked while Richard continued speaking.
The account existed.
Mom looked devastated.
For one terrible moment, I wondered whether everything I believed about Dad was wrong.
Then I remembered his notebook.
Machines tell you what happened before they stopped.
People probably did too.
“Why call me?”
Richard became quiet.
“Because you found in ten minutes what thirty engineers missed for six weeks.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“You have David’s mind.”
I hated the way he said it.
Like I was a component he wanted to own.
Richard offered Mom money.
Not one hundred million.
Two hundred million.
Enough to disappear, live anywhere, receive the best medical care for me, and never worry about bills again.
In exchange, we would hand over Dad’s notebook and say nothing more.
Mom answered before Ethan could.
“No.”
Richard sighed.
“You spent years cleaning floors because David left you with debts, and you’re still protecting his memory?”
“I spent years cleaning floors because people like you stole his future.”
Then Richard’s voice hardened.
“That future belongs to whoever can build it.”
The call ended.
Investigators traced it unsuccessfully through several countries.
But Richard made another mistake.
He mentioned my prescriptions.
CrossTech knew Mom had financial problems.
Very few people knew my medication cost was one reason.
Someone had accessed our private insurance records.
That access came from a benefits administration account tied to CrossTech cleaning contractors.
The login belonged to a human-resources executive named Rebecca Sloan.
She had worked for Richard before joining CrossTech.
Federal agents detained her that afternoon.
She cooperated within hours.
Richard had built a network inside the company.
Maintenance.
Human resources.
Procurement.
Contractors.
He had been preparing the Prometheus failure for nearly a year.
Then Rebecca revealed something worse.
Richard was returning to the United States.
The public demonstration was still nine days away.
Ethan wanted it canceled.
I looked at Dad’s notebook.
Richard expected that.
He wanted Prometheus hidden again.
If the demonstration disappeared, he could claim the project never worked.
“What if we don’t cancel?”
Mom looked at me as if I had suggested juggling explosives.
“Lily.”
“We know the sabotage now.”
Ethan understood first.
“If Prometheus runs publicly and independently verified, Richard loses leverage.”
Marcus nodded.
“And every stolen derivative he controls becomes traceable to David’s patents.”
Mom shook her head.
“You are all forgetting she is ten.”
That stopped the room.
She was right.
I had become evidence, witness, and puzzle solver in an adult fight that had already taken my father.
Ethan crouched in front of me.
“You’re done.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“You found what everyone else missed. Now the adults handle the rest.”
For once, I didn’t argue.
I was tired.
More tired than I wanted anyone to know.
Ethan looked at Mom.
“The hundred-million-dollar offer I made as a joke?”
Her face hardened.
He lowered his eyes.
“I’m ashamed of it.”
Nobody expected that.
“I mocked you because I was angry at my team and thought humiliating someone without a degree would make me feel powerful for thirty seconds.”
Mom said nothing.
Ethan continued.
“Your daughter saved this company from a catastrophe. But more importantly, I treated both of you like entertainment.”
He stood.
“I can’t fix that with a check.”
Mom finally answered.
“No.”
“But I can apologize.”
That was the first moment I began to like Ethan Cross.
Not because he was a billionaire.
Because powerful adults rarely admitted when they had been cruel without immediately explaining why it was understandable.
Then federal agents entered.
They had located Richard’s private aircraft.
It had landed forty minutes earlier.
He was already in New York.
And the first place he went was not CrossTech.
He went to the cemetery where my father was buried.
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