Elias stared at the file on his desktop: Mia-FD-Mia-032a.mp4.7z.002 .

Elias had tried every password he knew to open the archive, but even if he cracked the code, he was missing the header information contained in the first file.

Late that night, his phone buzzed. An anonymous email arrived with no subject line and only one attachment: Mia-FD-Mia-032a.mp4.7z.001 .

It was a "002" file—the second part of a split archive. Without part 001 , it was useless, a collection of compressed, unreadable data. He had found it on an old flash drive labeled "FD" (Flight Data) tucked inside a shoebox in his sister Mia’s closet. Mia had been a freelance investigative journalist who specialized in corporate whistleblowing. She had disappeared three months ago while working on a story she called "The Mirror Project."