Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 487

The sticky note restoration report was delivered on Friday morning.

Robert Lawson brought it in person. The outside of the folder had a seal, and the tracking number matched the evidence log from the secret compartment of the photo album. As Wren signed for it, her fingers hovered over the signature line for a moment.

Phoebe stood beside her, looking even more nervous than Wren did.

"How much were they able to restore?"

Robert said, "More than expected."

That sentence instantly silenced the conference room.

Maya Merritt turned on the projector. Joey Jenkins subconsciously scooted his chair forward, but after Maya shot him a glance, he quietly sat up straight.

Robert projected the scanned image onto the screen.

The first image was a high-definition restoration of Vivian's sticky note.

The ink, which had been so faded it was almost illegible, now revealed clear letter shapes around the edges after infrared and multi-spectral restoration.

The confirmed memo is not in Langford Medical's archives.

If anything happens to me, find the photo album first.

The key to Cabinet S is in the cobalt folder.

Don't let Wren near Quentin Whitaker.

They had already read these parts before.

However, a partial line below that had previously been obscured by watermarks was now partially visible.

Cabinet S is not at the Whitaker estate.

Apex Digital...

The rest was still missing.

Phoebe frowned. "Apex Digital?"

Robert switched to the second slide.

The missing right side of the torn photocopy couldn't be magically restored, but the edges of the red ink seal and the indentations on the back revealed more content.

The document title was finally nearly complete.

Project Morning Star Phase II Data Cooperation Memo - Confirmed Version.

Party A: Langford Medical Rehabilitation Project Prep Team.

Party B: Brightstone Consulting.

Data Processing Support: Apex Digital Intelligence Research Center.

No one in the conference room spoke.

Apex Digital Intelligence Research Center.

This name had appeared in its entirety before them for the very first time.

It wasn't in Langford Medical's official archives.

It wasn't in Brightstone's business registration records.

And it wasn't in Vanguard Trading Co.'s public transaction history either.

Maya immediately opened her laptop to run a search.

A few seconds later, her face slowly fell.

"I can't find an existing corporate entity."

Joey joined in the search. "There's no exact match in the corporate database. There's an 'Apex Intelligent Data Institute' that was deregistered seven years ago. And there's an 'Apex Digital Technology,' but the founding date is wrong—it was established later."

Wren stared at that line of text on the screen.

Data Processing Support.

This was the party that actually took the data.

Brightstone was just Party B, handling the external contracting.

Vanguard just facilitated document flow and contract transfers.

Langford Medical was Party A, pushing the project forward.

Apex Digital was hidden in the deepest shadows.

Robert pulled up the third image.

The signature block at the bottom of the photocopy, now restored, revealed the partial edge of a previously illegible stamp.

Apex Digital Intelligence.

Below it was a line of small print, with only a few broken words visible.

...model training and derivative algorithms...