The Rumor Under the Overpass

Ethan first became a "rumor" four days after the port fire. He was supposed to die in the footage. The news had already cut the night into two versions. In the official version, the warehouse exploded, fugitive Ethan Carter likely attacked port staff and took hostages, then slipped away before police arrived. In the version spreading quietly online, a hooded man had rescued the accountant, rescued the workers, and locked Ron Verner's men inside a refrigerated truck. No one dared say the second version out loud. But people started sharing it anyway. Jaden stitched screenshots, shaky videos, and forum messages into a timeline and dropped it into a temporary encrypted channel. He sounded amused when he called.