Part 4
Grant Mercer aimed the gun at Lily.
“Now,” he said, “let’s talk about which child Elena is willing to lose.”
For one impossible second, no one moved.
Leo whimpered against his mother’s chest.
Lily stood beside Elena, pale and shaking, but she did not cry.
Rachel kept her weapon trained on Grant’s heart.
Behind them, pounding continued from inside one of the sealed evidence crates.
“Rachel!” the real Detective Price shouted. “He has people above you!”
Rachel’s eyes flicked toward the steel rafters.
That tiny movement was all Grant needed.
He fired.
Rachel threw herself sideways.
The bullet missed her chest and tore through the black phone in her hand.
The device shattered against the concrete floor.
Elena screamed.
Evelyn fired toward Grant.
He ducked behind the metal desk as gunfire exploded through the office.
The children dropped to the floor.
Rachel crawled toward them.
“Stay down!”
Another shot came from the upper walkway.
Glass rained over the office.
Evelyn stumbled backward, pressing her wounded shoulder.
“There are two shooters!” she shouted.
Rachel dragged Elena and the children behind a heavy filing cabinet.
Grant remained hidden behind the desk.
“You destroyed the archive,” Rachel called.
Grant laughed.
“No. I destroyed your access to it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know everything about Daniel Cross’s system.”
Elena tightened her arms around Lily and Leo.
Grant continued.
“I knew Daniel was building an archive long before he died. What I didn’t know was where Elena had hidden the physical copy.”
“You murdered him because he discovered your network,” Rachel said.
“No.”
Grant rose just enough to fire twice.
Rachel returned fire, forcing him down again.
“I killed Daniel,” Grant continued, “because he made the mistake of believing Elena loved him more than she feared me.”
Elena’s face hardened.
“I never loved you.”
Grant became silent.
That wounded him more than any bullet could have.
Rachel leaned close to Elena.
“Can the archive be recovered?”
Elena stared at the broken phone.
“The phone was only a doorway.”
“To what?”
“A remote server.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. Daniel never told me.”
Evelyn crouched beside them.
“If it activated, it may already be uploading.”
Grant heard her.
“And that,” he said from behind the desk, “is why none of you are leaving this building.”
A low mechanical rumble moved through the warehouse.
Rachel looked toward the far wall.
Steel shutters were lowering over every exit.
The emergency lights changed from red to flashing amber.
Then a computerized voice announced:
“Fire suppression system armed.”
Evelyn’s face drained of color.
“This warehouse stores chemical evidence.”
Rachel understood immediately.
Grant was not planning to burn the building.
He was planning to fill it with gas.
A hissing sound began overhead.
White vapor poured from the ceiling vents.
“Move!” Rachel shouted.
She grabbed Lily while Elena lifted Leo.
They ran from the office.
Bullets struck the railing behind them.
Rachel fired toward the upper walkway without stopping.
Evelyn reached the evidence crate containing Price.
“It’s locked!”
Rachel handed Lily to Elena and shot the padlock.
The crate door swung open.
Detective Jonah Price fell out with his wrists bound and blood covering the side of his face.
He looked thinner than the man Rachel had met at the hospital.
More exhausted.
But he was alive.
Rachel cut his restraints.
“How long were you in there?”
“Since last night.”
“Then who came to the hospital?”
“Grant.”
“He copied your face.”
Price wiped blood from his mouth.
“Not just my face. My fingerprints, voice patterns, personnel records. He had access to everything.”
The gas thickened around them.
Price coughed.
“We need the ventilation controls.”
“Where?”
“Sublevel two.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“This building only has one basement.”
Price looked at her.
“The official plans show one.”
Grant’s voice echoed from the speaker system.
“You always were observant, Jonah.”
Price stared upward.
“Grant!”
“You spent thirteen months searching for a dead man. Did you ever wonder why every lead brought you exactly where I wanted?”
Price grabbed a fallen weapon.
“You won’t walk out of here.”
“Neither will you.”
The ceiling vents released another wave of vapor.
Leo started coughing.
Elena covered his face with part of her shirt.
Rachel pointed toward a row of emergency breathing masks mounted on the wall.
They ran to them.
Most of the cabinets were empty.
Only three masks remained.
Rachel handed one to Elena for the children.
One to Evelyn.
She gave the last to Price.
He pushed it back.
“You take it.”
“Stop arguing.”
“You have children depending on you.”
“So do you.”
Price looked at Lily and Leo.
Then he accepted the mask.
Rachel pulled her sweatshirt over her nose and mouth.
It would not protect her for long.
Price led them behind a shelving unit containing sealed narcotics evidence.
A keypad was hidden inside a recessed panel.
He entered a code.
Nothing happened.
“He changed it,” Price said.
Lily stepped closer.
“Try Mommy’s birthday.”
Grant’s laughter returned through the speakers.
“How sweet.”
Lily flinched.
Rachel knelt beside her.
“How would you know the code?”
“Daddy—Grant—made Mommy say her birthday whenever he locked the basement door.”
Elena stared at her daughter.
“You remember that?”
Lily nodded.
“I remember everything.”
Elena gave Price the date.
He entered it.
The wall clicked open.
A narrow elevator appeared behind the shelving unit.
They crowded inside.
Price pressed the button for sublevel two.
The doors closed as bullets struck the wall outside.
The elevator descended.
Rachel watched the numbers.
B1.
Then B2.
Then B3.
Price frowned.
“There is no third sublevel.”
The elevator continued.
B4.
B5.
Finally, it stopped.
The doors opened onto a long concrete corridor.
The air below was clean.
No gas.
No alarms.
Only silence.
Rows of fluorescent lights illuminated steel doors on both sides.
Each door had a number.
Some had names.
Others had photographs.
Rachel approached the first.
A missing woman stared back at her from a faded picture.
She recognized the face from Grant’s basement.
Price checked the door.
Locked.
A weak sound came from inside.
Scratching.
Elena covered Lily’s ears.
Rachel stepped closer.
“Hello?”
The scratching stopped.
A woman’s voice answered.
“Please.”
Rachel’s blood froze.
People were inside the rooms.
Not evidence.
Not bodies.
Living people.
Price looked down the corridor.
“There must be thirty cells.”
Evelyn removed her mask.
“This is the network Daniel discovered.”
Grant had not simply killed witnesses.
He had hidden them.
Rachel tried another door.
Locked.
“Where are the controls?”
Price pointed toward a glass security station at the far end.
They ran.
Inside the station were monitors displaying every room.
Some cells were empty.
Others contained prisoners.
Women.
Men.
Even two teenagers.
One monitor showed Assistant District Attorney Paul Renner chained to a bed.
He was alive.
Weak.
But alive.
Elena pressed both hands against the screen.
“Paul.”
Leo heard the name.
He lifted his feverish head.
“Daddy?”
Elena began to cry.
“Yes, baby.”
Rachel turned to Price.
“Open the doors.”
Price sat at the control panel.
The system demanded a biometric scan.
He placed his thumb against the reader.
Access denied.
Evelyn tried.
Denied.
Elena tried.
Denied.
A message appeared on the screen:
AUTHORIZED USER REQUIRED.
Lily touched the silver key around her neck.
“Mommy said the truth needed me.”
Rachel looked at Elena.
“Could Lily be authorized?”
“I don’t know.”
Grant’s voice filled the underground level.
“Go ahead.”
They all looked toward the speaker.
“Put her hand on the scanner,” he said.
Rachel raised her weapon.
“Where are you?”
“Closer.”
Price scanned the corridor.
Grant continued.
“You found my collection. Congratulations. Now you understand why so many important people protected me.”
“Because they used this place,” Evelyn said.
“Some did. Some simply paid to make problems disappear.”
The screens changed.
Images appeared of judges entering the facility.
Police officers.
Business executives.
A state senator.
Every person who had claimed Evelyn’s reporting was fabricated.
Grant had recorded them all.
Insurance.
Blackmail.
Control.
“You kept evidence against your own partners,” Rachel said.
“Trust is a fairy tale for children.”
Lily stared at the scanner.
“Will it open the doors?”
Grant answered her.
“Yes, Lily.”
Rachel stepped in front of the child.
“Don’t speak to her.”
“But she knows my voice.”
Lily trembled.
Grant lowered his tone.
The same calm voice he must have used inside their home.
“Put your hand on the glass, little bird.”
Elena pulled Lily backward.
“Don’t.”
Grant sighed.
“Your mother has always made things difficult.”
Lily looked up at Rachel.
“People are trapped.”
“I know.”
“If I open the doors, they can leave.”
“It might be a trap.”
Lily looked at the monitors.
A woman in one cell was holding her hand against the camera.
Begging silently.
Lily removed the silver necklace.
Then she stepped toward the scanner.
Rachel blocked her.
“No.”
“Officer Rachel,” Lily whispered, “you said good police ask questions before they blame people.”
“Yes.”
“What if good people help before they’re not scared anymore?”
Rachel had no answer.
Lily placed her hand on the scanner.
A green light moved beneath her palm.
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then the system spoke.
“Biometric sequence recognized.”
Every cell door unlocked.
Alarms erupted.
The monitors flashed:
ARCHIVE RELEASE PROTOCOL INITIATED.
Price stared at the screen.
“What did she activate?”
Evelyn began reading the data racing across the monitor.
“Every camera recording, transaction, identity file, and location coordinate is being transmitted.”
“To where?”
“Multiple news organizations. Federal agencies. International servers.”
Grant shouted through the speakers.
“Remove her hand!”
Lily kept it pressed against the scanner.
The transmission percentage climbed.
Eight percent.
Fifteen.
Twenty-two.
Rachel smiled.
“You didn’t bring her here to unlock the archive for you.”
Grant did not answer.
“You brought her because she could destroy you.”
The lights went out.
Gunfire exploded through the glass security station.
Rachel pulled Lily to the floor.
Price returned fire through the broken window.
A masked gunman advanced down the corridor.
Then another.
Prisoners began emerging from the opened cells, confused and terrified.
“Get behind the security station!” Rachel shouted.
The first gunman fired toward them.
A prisoner tackled him from the side.
They crashed into the wall.
The second gunman turned his weapon toward the crowd.
Price shot him before he could fire.
The transmission climbed.
Thirty-nine percent.
Elena ran to the cell holding Paul Renner.
Rachel followed.
Paul lay chained by one ankle, his face hollow and covered with a beard.
“Elena?”
She fell beside him.
“I’m here.”
He touched her face as though she were a hallucination.
“Leo?”
Elena looked toward Evelyn, who held the toddler.
“He’s alive.”
Paul began sobbing.
“I thought Grant had killed you.”
Elena searched the fallen guard and found a ring of keys.
She freed Paul.
Rachel heard footsteps approaching from the far end of the corridor.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Grant emerged from the shadows without a mask.
A breathing tube ran beneath his shirt.
He wore body armor and carried a rifle.
The prisoners backed away.
Some recognized him instantly.
Fear spread through the corridor like electricity.
Grant looked at Lily.
“Take your hand off the scanner.”
The transmission reached forty-seven percent.
Lily did not move.
Grant raised the rifle.
Rachel stepped between them.
“You shoot me, it keeps uploading.”
“I’m not aiming at you.”
He pointed the rifle toward Leo.
Elena stood in front of the toddler.
Grant shifted toward Paul.
Then Evelyn.
Then the prisoners.
“You cannot protect everyone, Officer Brooks.”
“No,” Rachel said. “But you can’t kill everyone before the upload finishes.”
Grant smiled.
“Watch me.”
He fired into the ceiling.
Water pipes burst.
Sparks fell from the lights.
The crowd screamed and scattered.
Grant ran toward Lily.
Rachel shot him.
The bullet struck his body armor and spun him sideways.
Price fired next.
Grant dove behind a concrete column.
The transmission reached fifty-eight percent.
Rachel grabbed Lily.
“Keep your hand there!”
Grant fired around the column.
Price took a bullet in the leg and collapsed.
Evelyn dragged him behind the desk.
Paul picked up the fallen gunman’s weapon.
Despite his weakness, he aimed at Grant.
“You destroyed my life.”
Grant laughed.
“You destroyed your own life the moment you touched my wife.”
Paul fired.
The shot struck the column.
Grant returned fire.
Paul dropped.
Elena screamed and crawled toward him.
Blood spread beneath his side.
Leo began crying.
The sound changed something in Grant.
He stepped from cover.
His eyes fixed on the boy.
“You were never mine,” he said.
Leo buried his face against Evelyn.
Grant raised the rifle.
Lily removed her hand from the scanner.
The transmission stopped at sixty-three percent.
Everyone froze.
Grant looked at her.
“That’s better.”
Lily’s voice shook.
“Don’t hurt him.”
“Come to me.”
Elena shook her head.
“No, Lily.”
Grant pointed the rifle toward Paul.
“Come to me, or Leo loses his real father.”
Lily took one step.
Rachel grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t.”
“He’ll kill him.”
“He may kill him anyway.”
Grant smiled.
“Officer Brooks is finally learning.”
Lily looked at her mother.
Elena was pressing both hands against Paul’s wound.
There was too much blood.
Lily looked at Leo.
Then at the open cells.
The terrified prisoners.
The broken scanner.
The transmission frozen on the monitor.
She looked back at Grant.
“I’ll come.”
Elena screamed.
“No!”
Lily slipped from Rachel’s grip and walked toward him.
Grant lowered the rifle.
“Good girl.”
Rachel kept her weapon aimed at his head.
Grant moved behind Lily and wrapped one arm around her neck.
“Drop the gun.”
Rachel did not move.
“Drop it, or she dies.”
Rachel slowly placed the gun on the floor.
Price tried to rise, but his wounded leg buckled.
Evelyn reached toward another weapon.
Grant noticed.
“Don’t.”
Evelyn stopped.
Grant backed toward the elevator with Lily.
“The upload has already begun,” Rachel said. “You can’t stop it.”
“I don’t need to stop all of it.”
“You’re exposed.”
“Sixty-three percent of a puzzle is still incomplete.”
“The authorities will find the rest.”
Grant’s smile widened.
“Which authorities? Half the people receiving those files are named inside them.”
The elevator doors opened.
Grant pulled Lily inside.
Rachel stepped forward.
He aimed at her.
“Stay.”
Lily looked directly at Rachel.
She was terrified.
But beneath the fear, Rachel saw something else.
Purpose.
The silver key was no longer around Lily’s neck.
Rachel glanced down.
The necklace lay near the scanner.
Lily had dropped it deliberately.
Grant had not noticed.
The elevator doors began closing.
Lily suddenly bit his arm.
Grant shouted.
Rachel lunged.
A shot exploded.
The doors closed.
The elevator descended with Grant and Lily inside.
Rachel looked down at herself.
No blood.
The shot had missed.
Then she heard Elena scream.
Paul Renner had been hit again.
Rachel ran to the elevator controls.
The panel displayed no destination.
“Where does it go?” she shouted.
Price dragged himself closer.
“There’s another level.”
“B6?”
He shook his head.
“Lower.”
“How much lower?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel punched the call button.
Nothing happened.
Evelyn picked up Lily’s necklace.
“The key.”
Rachel turned.
A tiny panel had opened inside the pendant.
Something was hidden inside.
Not metal.
Not paper.
A small memory chip.
Evelyn held it beneath the monitor.
“This could be the missing archive fragment.”
“The other thirty-seven percent?”
“Maybe.”
Price looked toward the scanner.
“Insert it.”
Rachel pushed the chip into a port beneath the control console.
The system rebooted.
The transmission resumed.
Sixty-four percent.
Sixty-five.
Grant’s voice roared through the speakers.
“Stop the upload!”
Rachel leaned toward the microphone.
“Bring Lily back.”
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“Bring her back!”
The transmission reached seventy percent.
The elevator indicator suddenly activated.
DESCENDING TO LEVEL X.
Price stared at the letter.
“There is no Level X.”
Evelyn opened the recovered facility plans.
A hidden blueprint appeared on the monitor.
Beneath the prison level was one final chamber.
Circular.
Reinforced.
Connected to old utility tunnels extending beneath several city blocks.
The chamber was labeled:
CONTINUITY SITE.
“What is that?” Rachel asked.
Evelyn enlarged the document.
Her expression changed.
“It’s not another prison.”
“What is it?”
“A command center.”
The monitors switched again.
Live video appeared from Level X.
Grant dragged Lily into a room filled with servers, communication equipment, and wall-sized screens.
On those screens were live feeds from police stations, courthouses, government offices, and private homes.
Grant’s network was still watching people everywhere.
Lily struggled against him.
He forced her into a chair.
A metal device surrounded the headrest.
Elena looked up from Paul.
“What is he doing to her?”
Evelyn read the system notes.
“He’s using Lily’s biometric pattern to erase the archive.”
“Can he?”
“If he completes a second scan.”
Rachel ran toward the emergency stairs shown on the blueprint.
Price grabbed her arm.
“You can’t go alone.”
“You can barely stand.”
“Grant knows you’re coming.”
“He has Lily.”
Price released her.
Rachel took two weapons from the fallen gunmen.
Evelyn handed her the silver key.
“This may access Level X.”
The upload reached seventy-eight percent.
Rachel entered the stairwell.
The steps descended in a tight spiral.
The deeper she went, the warmer the air became.
Grant’s voice came from hidden speakers.
“You should have walked away at the hospital.”
Rachel kept moving.
“You should have stayed dead.”
“You think this ends with me?”
“It begins with you.”
“You saw the names. Judges. Officers. Politicians. You remove me, another man takes my place.”
“Then I’ll remove him too.”
Grant laughed.
“You still believe this is about justice.”
Rachel reached the final door.
A silver keyhole was set into the center.
She inserted Lily’s key.
The lock opened.
Inside, Grant stood behind Lily.
The metal scanner surrounded her head and hands.
A progress bar glowed on the main screen.
ARCHIVE DELETION: 12%.
Lily saw Rachel.
“Don’t come closer!”
Grant pressed a gun against the back of her chair.
“She gives the warning now.”
Rachel entered slowly.
“Let her go.”
“Place your weapons on the floor.”
Rachel set down one pistol.
Then the other.
Grant watched both.
“What about the gun at your ankle?”
Rachel removed it.
He smiled.
“You learn slowly.”
The deletion climbed.
Eighteen percent.
The upload above continued at eighty-two.
Two systems racing.
Release versus destruction.
“Why Lily?” Rachel asked. “Daniel built the archive. Elena protected it. Why make a child the key?”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“Because Daniel was sentimental.”
“No. Because he knew you would never understand sacrifice.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
Rachel continued.
“You use fear. Daniel used trust.”
“He used a child as a weapon.”
“He trusted his daughter to choose.”
Lily looked at the screen.
The deletion reached twenty-four percent.
Rachel met her eyes.
“Lily, listen to me.”
Grant moved the gun closer.
“Don’t.”
“You saved Leo when you called 911.”
“Rachel.”
“You saved everyone in those cells when you opened the doors.”
Grant shouted, “Stop talking!”
“You are not what Grant made you afraid of.”
Lily’s breathing slowed.
The scanner required her hands to remain flat.
She curled one finger.
The deletion paused.
Grant saw it.
He struck the side of the chair.
“Keep your hand still!”
Lily pulled both hands away.
The deletion stopped at twenty-nine percent.
Grant grabbed her wrist.
Rachel charged.
Grant fired.
The bullet tore across Rachel’s side.
She crashed into him.
The gun slid beneath the server console.
Lily screamed.
Rachel and Grant slammed into the floor.
He was stronger.
He struck Rachel across the face and wrapped both hands around her throat.
“You should have obeyed your captain.”
Rachel clawed at his wrists.
Behind them, Lily struggled free from the chair.
Grant tightened his grip.
Rachel’s vision darkened.
Then Lily picked up the silver key.
She drove it into the emergency release panel.
Every screen went white.
The deletion program vanished.
The upload jumped to ninety-one percent.
Grant looked up.
“No.”
Rachel drove her knee into his stomach.
He released her.
She rolled toward the fallen gun.
Grant reached it first.
He aimed at Lily.
Rachel threw herself between them.
Before he could fire, a gunshot thundered from the doorway.
Grant staggered.
Blood spread across his back.
Elena stood at the entrance holding a pistol.
Her hands shook violently.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Grant turned.
“Elena.”
She fired again.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He fell against the server console.
Elena ran to Lily.
Grant reached for the gun on the floor.
Rachel kicked it away.
The upload reached ninety-six percent.
Grant looked at the main screen.
His network was collapsing.
Names and evidence were being copied across thousands of servers.
News alerts began appearing.
MASSIVE CORRUPTION ARCHIVE LEAKED
DETROIT OFFICIALS NAMED IN DISAPPEARANCE NETWORK
FEDERAL EMERGENCY INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY
Grant began laughing.
Rachel stared at him.
“What’s funny?”
He wiped blood from his mouth.
“You think the archive was Daniel’s weapon.”
“It was.”
“No.”
The upload reached ninety-eight percent.
Grant leaned against the console.
“It was mine.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“I let Daniel build it.”
Rachel shook her head.
“You spent years trying to find it.”
“I spent years making everyone believe I was trying to destroy it.”
“Why?”
“Because fear keeps weak partners loyal. But sooner or later, weak partners become liabilities.”
The upload reached ninety-nine percent.
Grant smiled.
“I needed every name released.”
Rachel looked at the screens.
Judges.
Officials.
Police commanders.
All exposed.
“You wanted your own network destroyed?”
“I wanted the old network destroyed.”
The upload completed.
ARCHIVE RELEASE: 100%.
Across the monitors, accounts froze.
Arrest warrants appeared.
Government offices went into lockdown.
Grant watched it all with satisfaction.
Elena clutched Lily.
“You sacrificed everyone who protected you.”
“They had become inconvenient.”
Rachel felt a new kind of fear.
“What did you replace them with?”
Grant’s smile disappeared.
“Something that doesn’t need bribes.”
The servers changed screens.
A map of the city appeared.
Hundreds of red points blinked across Detroit.
Police databases.
Traffic systems.
Hospital networks.
Emergency dispatch centers.
Power stations.
The archive had not only released evidence.
It had opened doors.
Evelyn’s voice came through the intercom from the level above.
“Rachel, something is wrong! The upload carried a second program!”
Grant laughed again.
On the map, more red points appeared.
Chicago.
New York.
Washington.
Cities across the country.
Rachel looked at Grant.
“What did you release?”
“A contingency.”
The lights flickered.
Every monitor displayed the same message:
MERCURY PROTOCOL ACTIVE.
Elena stared at the words.
“Daniel mentioned Mercury once.”
“What is it?” Rachel asked.
“He said it was Grant’s final plan.”
Grant pushed himself upright despite his wounds.
“The people named in the archive believed they owned the system.”
He looked at the map.
“They never understood that the system could own them.”
Across the country, emergency communication networks began failing.
Traffic lights switched off.
Prison gates unlocked.
Police evidence records disappeared.
Hospital systems crashed.
Grant had used Daniel’s archive as a delivery mechanism.
He had not been trying to prevent its release.
He had been waiting for Lily to activate it.
Rachel grabbed him by the collar.
“How do we stop it?”
“You don’t.”
She slammed him against the console.
“How?”
Grant looked past her toward Lily.
“The same way it started.”
Rachel followed his gaze.
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
Elena moved in front of her daughter.
“You will never touch her again.”
Grant’s voice became calm.
“Mercury is connected to her biometric sequence. Only Lily can shut it down.”
Rachel released him.
“Then she shuts it down.”
Grant smiled.
“There’s a complication.”
“What complication?”
“The shutdown requires two authorized bloodlines.”
Elena stared at him.
“Daniel and Grant.”
Rachel understood.
“Lily carries Daniel’s.”
Grant nodded.
“And the second?”
A new camera feed appeared on the central screen.
The hospital.
Leo’s room was empty.
Price appeared on-screen from the prison level, carrying the toddler through the corridor.
“He’s with us,” Rachel said.
Grant shook his head.
The footage zoomed closer.
A small tracking light blinked beneath Leo’s hospital bracelet.
Grant had planted something on him.
A biometric transmitter.
Rachel looked at Elena.
“You said Leo was Paul’s son.”
“He is.”
Grant smiled.
“No, Elena.”
Her face went white.
“You never checked.”
Paul Renner’s weak voice came through the intercom above.
“Elena…”
She looked at the speaker.
Grant continued.
“Paul believed the child was his because you told him what he needed to hear.”
Elena shook her head.
“You’re lying.”
“Leo carries my blood.”
Lily looked toward her mother.
Elena began trembling.
Grant had known all along.
Leo was not merely bait.
He was the second key.
On the screen, the Mercury Protocol displayed a countdown.
SYSTEM LOCK: 14 MINUTES, 59 SECONDS.
Rachel looked at Grant.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
“All access becomes permanent.”
“And if Lily and Leo shut it down?”
Grant smiled at the two children.
“The protocol requires both biometric keys to be scanned simultaneously.”
“That’s possible.”
“Yes.”
His smile widened.
“But the scanners are not in the same place.”
A map appeared.
Lily’s scanner was inside Level X.
Leo’s scanner was located somewhere else.
The map zoomed across the city.
Then stopped on a building Rachel recognized.
Detroit’s emergency dispatch center.
Marcus Thorne’s workplace.
The same place where Lily’s 911 call had begun.
Rachel stared at the countdown.
Fourteen minutes remained.
Then Marcus appeared on the screen.
He was tied to a chair inside the dark dispatch center.
A masked man stood behind him with a gun.
Grant looked at Rachel.
“One child stays here.”
He turned toward Elena.
“The other goes to Marcus.”
Then he gave them the choice no parent or police officer should ever have to make.
“You can stop Mercury,” Grant said, “but only if you divide the family again.”
The countdown reached thirteen minutes.
Lily took Rachel’s hand.
On the screen, Leo began crying for his sister.
And from somewhere inside the dispatch center, the masked man removed his hood.
Rachel recognized him immediately.
It was Captain Howard Vance.
The man she had watched die in the warehouse.
He looked directly into the camera and smiled.
Then he pressed a gun against Marcus’s head.
LAST PART…
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
