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Chapter 3 – "The Names in the Notebook"
Part 3: Names and Shadows
The stranger with the cigarettes didn't follow Ethan after their talk ended.
He simply tapped his book against Ethan's shoulder, muttered, "Turn to page 22," and melted into the sidewalk crowd like fog vanishing into light. No goodbyes. No warnings. Just gone.
Ethan stood in Bryant Park as the carousel slowed to a stop behind him and the city moved around him like a machine too large to understand.
He opened the book.
Catch-22, page 22: one corner was folded. A single line was underlined:
> "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
Below it, handwritten in pencil:
> J. Gauss. 204-616-3829. Queens. No calls. Walk-in only. Ask for whiskey, straight.
Ethan tore the page out and pocketed it. He needed to move. Fast.
---
Queens was two train transfers away. He rode the subway like a fugitive, standing near the doors, hands deep in his coat, one eye always on the reflection in the window. His father's notebook remained hidden beneath his shirt, pressed to his chest with a makeshift duct-tape sling he'd made in a 24-hour bathroom stall.
He hadn't dared open it fully yet.
Not in public. Not until now.
By the time he reached the address—a boarded-up liquor store sandwiched between a dry cleaner and a Vietnamese noodle shop—it was past 1:30 p.m. The place looked condemned, but the neon "OPEN" sign buzzed weakly in the window.
Ethan pushed the door.
A bell jingled.
The inside smelled like dust, old whiskey, and mildew. Shelves were bare except for a few dozen bottles, most likely props. Behind the counter sat a thin man in a blue cable-knit sweater, reading a newspaper dated three weeks old. His eyes didn't move from the print as Ethan approached.
Ethan cleared his throat.
"I'd like whiskey. Straight."
The man didn't blink.
"Which brand?"
Ethan hesitated.
"Gauss?"
The man folded the paper and stood. "Follow me."
---
The back room looked like a bunker.
Concrete walls. Bare bulbs. No windows. A steel desk with two chairs. Ethan sat while the man—who he now assumed was J. Gauss—locked the door behind them and sat across from him with a sigh.
"You're the Cole boy."
"You knew my dad?"
"I built his dead-drops."
That phrase stopped Ethan cold. "His what?"
"Safe routes. Hidden caches. Secret protocols. When things went sideways, Miles always had backups. Redundancy was his religion."
Ethan nodded slowly.
"He's dead."
"I know."
"Did you… work with Halrick?"
Gauss chuckled. "I don't work with traitors."
He leaned forward.
"But if you're here, I assume you brought the notebook."
Ethan hesitated, then reached into his shirt and pulled it free. A small, leather-bound Moleskine, cracked at the corners, warped with age and oil. His father had kept it in a locked drawer, hidden beneath tax returns and medical records.
He handed it over.
Gauss didn't open it immediately. He just held it, weighing its significance.
"This… this is the last original copy."
"You knew about it?"
Gauss nodded. "He said, 'If they ever come for me, they'll come for this too.'"
He opened the book.
Inside were names. Dozens of them. Some Ethan recognized—politicians, scientists, old corporate CEOs. Most he didn't.
Next to each name: a number.
Some names were crossed out.
Ethan pointed.
"What do the numbers mean?"
"Target index. It's a kill registry."
Ethan froze.
"This is… a hit list?"
Gauss flipped a page.
"Not just that. Look closer."
On one page, three names were circled. Underneath them, written in his father's rushed, all-caps scrawl:
> FORMULA SPLIT. THREE HOLDERS. REUNITE TO COMPLETE. TRUST NONE.
"Your father didn't just create PURITY," Gauss said quietly. "He dismantled it. Split it between three people. One of them was Halrick. The others? Still unknown."
"And these names—?"
"People who funded it. Profited from it. Or tried to weaponize it after Miles buried it."
Ethan leaned back, overwhelmed.
"So what now?"
Gauss turned the page.
And there it was.
The first name not crossed out. The one not circled. The only one with a symbol next to it.
A triangle.
> Yasmine Choi – 81 Melrose Blvd – Index: 63.
"She's alive," Gauss said. "And she has part of the formula."
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
"So do I."
"Which means if either of you dies, it's gone forever."
Ethan stood.
"Then I'd better find her before someone else does."
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To be continued in Part 4, where Ethan visits Melrose Boulevard—but finds a trap waiting instead of an ally, and the shadows begin to move more boldly.