Chapter 10 - The Archive Nobody Was Supposed to Open
Blackridge Archive Site Twelve sat beneath a decommissioned weather station forty miles outside the city.
No network connection.
No public map.
No staff.
Exactly why Ward wanted it.
Kincaid met us at the access road.
Sixty now.
Steel-gray hair.
Cane in one hand.
Pistol in the other.
“You brought Lily?”
“She stays outside.”
Lily immediately said, “No.”
I looked at her.
She crossed her arms.
Eleven years old.
My daughter.
Unfortunately mine.
“You were kidnapped today.”
“And everybody keeps lying to me.”
Fair point.
Still no.
Marcus volunteered to stay with her.
That surprised me.
A few hours earlier he had threatened me in front of her.
Now he would not meet her eyes.
“Lily,” he said awkwardly, “I’m sorry about what I said.”
She stared at him.
“Which part?”
Rachel almost smiled.
Marcus did not.
“All of it.”
Lily hugged the rabbit.
“You scared me.”
“I know.”
“Mom scared you back.”
“Yes.”
A beat.
“That was kind of funny.”
Marcus actually laughed.
Then she added:
“I still don’t like you.”
“Fair.”
Not forgiveness.
A beginning maybe.
Kincaid, Nadia and I entered the archive.
The first biometric accepted Kincaid.
The second accepted mine.
Third required Ward.
We waited.
He appeared from the darkness alone.
No weapon visible.
“Major.”
“Colonel.”
Old habits.
Nadia stepped forward.
Elias looked at her.
Twenty years of grief passed across his face.
She did not move.
“You knew,” she said.
“Eventually.”
“You sent the letters.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated Rachel.”
“Yes.”
“You kidnapped Lily.”
“I moved her.”
I almost hit him for the phrasing.
Ward raised his hands.
“I never intended to hurt her.”
“That sentence is popular among people who use children.”
His eyes hardened.
“Open the archive.”
“Why?”
“Because Blackridge wasn’t destroyed by Warren.”
Warren had sold identities.
But someone inside government chose which identities to buy.
Someone authorized Nadia’s disappearance.
Ward’s fake death.
My retirement profile.
Years of cover-ups.
“Who?”
“The archive has the original payment ledger.”
“Then why not ask me?”
“Because if I asked, Kincaid would know.”
Kincaid turned.
There it was.
Ward believed Sarah Kincaid was the traitor.
She laughed once.
“You idiot.”
Then the archive alarm sounded.
Someone outside had activated the hereditary recovery key.
Lily.
I ran.
Marcus lay unconscious beside the vehicle.
Rachel was screaming.
Lily was gone.
On the hood of my SUV sat her white rabbit.
Pinned beneath one ear was a note.
You trained soldiers to watch the obvious threat.
You never taught your daughter to watch family.
Signed:
Rachel Caldwell.
I looked up.
May you like
My sister had stopped screaming.
And slowly smiled.
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