Chapter 5 - The Other Rebecca Carter
Major Rebecca Sloan requested immediate removal from the investigation.
The name created an obvious conflict even if it belonged to someone else.
She surrendered her devices and access voluntarily.
A separate military investigator, Colonel James Hayes, took over contractor review.
Rebecca remained available as a witness.
Her birth name was Rebecca Anne Carter.
She had no known relation to me.
Carter was common.
The land program owner used the same full name.
Company records identified Rebecca A Carter as founder of Meridian Rural Protection, a private trust holding Helix acquisition rights.
The listed birth date matched Major Sloan.
The signature resembled hers.
The address belonged to a house where she lived during college.
Someone had built a corporate identity around her.
Rebecca examined the records.
“I never created this.”
Colonel Hayes asked who had access to her identity during college.
“Nathan Briggs.”
They had served in the same reserve training program.
Briggs handled administrative forms.
He possessed her birth certificate, signature, and early biometric records.
The network did not only manufacture messages from deployed soldiers.
It manufactured company owners from military identities.
If investigations reached Meridian Rural Protection, public records pointed toward Rebecca Sloan.
Briggs could blame an officer known for enforcing military ethics.
The perfect false owner was someone credible enough to pass checks and respectable enough to attract trust.
Rebecca had investigated Helix complaints for years without realizing her name protected the program.
Claire claimed she met the real organizer once.
The woman introduced herself as Rebecca Carter but looked nothing like Major Sloan.
She was in her late sixties, with silver hair and a scar near her right ear.
My mother recognized the description.
“Your aunt Rebecca.”
My father’s older sister disappeared when I was ten.
The family said she moved to Canada after a dispute with my grandfather.
No one spoke about her.
Her full name was Rebecca Anne Carter.
Major Sloan and my aunt shared the same name by coincidence, or someone had chosen the younger officer because the match allowed identity confusion.
My aunt had once co owned the farm.
When my grandfather died, he left the property to Robert and Rebecca equally.
Rebecca sold her share to my father after receiving a large payment.
My parents believed she left willingly.
The original deed told another story.
Rebecca’s signature transferred the land for one dollar.
Martin Vale’s father notarized it.
A medical statement declared Rebecca emotionally unstable.
Dr. Elaine Mercer’s father signed it.
The same professional families had controlled property for two generations.
My aunt may have lost her share through an earlier version of the scheme.
If she survived, she could have become its enemy.
Or its leader.
My father kept letters from her inside a locked trunk.
Claire removed the trunk months earlier.
Police found it in the storage locker.
The letters began with anger.
Robert, they told me I was sick because I refused the sale.
Later letters became darker.
I found the families Vale moved into care. The doctors work with the buyers.
The final letter arrived twenty seven years earlier.
I am using their own names now. If they want dead identities, I will give them more than they can control.
Rebecca may have infiltrated the network after becoming a victim.
Claire described her as the owner.
Ownership could mean command.
It could also mean a false identity used to hide Briggs.
The hidden camera archive contained one clip recorded six weeks before my return.
An older woman stood beside my parents at the coop.
My mother looked at her with recognition.
The woman unlocked the gate after Claire left.
She gave my parents food, water, and medication.
Then she relocked the chain.
My father shouted:
“Rebecca, help us.”
The woman answered:
“I am helping. Daniel needs proof strong enough to survive Claire.”
She allowed the abuse to continue because she wanted evidence.
My aunt, or someone using her identity, had chosen the investigation over my parents’ bodies.
My mother watched the video from her hospital room.
“She came three times.”
“Why did you never mention her?”
“She said Claire would kill us if anyone knew.”
“Did she hurt you?”
“No.”
“Did she free you?”
“No.”
That answer mattered.
A person could bring food and still leave prisoners behind.
Rebecca told my parents that Briggs planned to declare me dead. She wanted them to resist until the final closing so the camera would capture every participant.
She knew about the transmitter.
“How?” I asked.
My father looked at me.
“You told her.”
“I have not seen Aunt Rebecca since childhood.”
“You came to the farm before deployment and climbed the weather vane.”
“That was me.”
“He believed it was you.”
Another man wearing my face or using darkness had installed or inspected the transmitter after I left.
The hidden backup may not have been my secret alone.
I installed the original device.
Someone upgraded it remotely during deployment.
The account log showed access under my military credentials.
Briggs possessed copies.
He may have watched Claire while also helping her.
Rebecca may have stolen his access.
Every side understood surveillance.
My parents remained the only people without control.
Colonel Hayes traced the encrypted camera uploads.
The backup server belonged to Meridian Rural Protection.
The company Claire said Rebecca owned had preserved the evidence that destroyed Claire’s plan.
The network had recorded itself.
Not by accident.
Someone wanted the scheme exposed at this farm.
Officer Harris asked the question I feared.
“Why your family?”
A message arrived through the server.
Because Daniel Carter’s parents are not the owners Helix believes them to be.
Attached was the farm’s original land patent.
Owner: United States Veterans Agricultural Trust.
The Carter family held only residential stewardship.
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The underground rights belonged to a military survivor fund containing millions in forgotten assets.
Continue to the next part: The farm Claire tried to steal is revealed as the legal entrance to a hidden veterans trust rather than ordinary private land.
