Chapter 13 - The Freight Depot
Daniel didn’t rush blindly.
That was what William would have done.
He coordinated a controlled response and made sure Emily and Leo remained somewhere safe.
I stayed behind at first.
Then Daniel found a note specifically addressed to me.
SARAH MUST COME.
I hated it.
But Miriam had saved me at the storage building.
If she was in danger because of memories involving my family, I couldn’t pretend otherwise.
The freight depot looked dead.
Nathan waited inside.
Forty-three.
Thin.
Gray beginning near his temples.
Daniel stopped ten feet away.
Neither moved.
Then Nathan said:
“You got old.”
Daniel laughed once through tears.
“So did you.”
No hug.
Too much history stood between them.
Nathan looked at me.
“You’re Rabbit.”
I hated how immediately that childhood name made me remember him.
A teenage boy kneeling beside five-year-old me.
Giving me his jacket.
Telling me to go home.
“You were at the tunnel.”
“Yes.”
“You told me to leave.”
“Yes.”
Then I remembered something else.
Nathan wasn’t alone.
A girl stood behind him.
Miriam.
She gave me the split-circle necklace and said:
“If adults tell you we weren’t here, remember this.”
My memory had survived.
Just buried beneath everyone else’s certainty.
“Where is Miriam?”
Nathan pointed toward an office.
Empty.
A chair.
Cut restraints.
Cross had moved her.
Then Daniel asked:
“Why terrorize Sarah’s family?”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“I didn’t.”
“The notes?”
“Some.”
“Photographs?”
“Yes.”
“Power?”
“No.”
“Envelope?”
“Yes.”
“You crawled through her walls?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
Nathan understood.
Someone else had been using his presence as cover.
Cross.
He knew Nathan was watching the apartment.
He could mimic Nathan’s methods.
Create fear.
Make everyone blame the damaged missing brother.
Exactly the kind of narrative Cross had manufactured for decades.
Then we heard applause.
Slow.
Three claps.
An elderly man stepped onto the upper walkway.
Dr. Alan Cross.
Alive.
Aaron stood beside him.
I froze.
Aaron looked ashamed.
Daniel whispered:
“You brought him here?”
Aaron shook his head.
Cross smiled.
“My son has always been easy to bring home.”
Aaron’s expression collapsed.
Cross had contacted him after we left the storage building.
Claimed Miriam would die unless he cooperated.
Then Miriam appeared behind Cross.
Alive.
Hands free.
Not restrained.
Nathan went pale.
“Miriam?”
She looked down at him.
“I’m sorry.”
Cross smiled.
Nathan whispered:
“You’re working with him.”
Miriam shook her head.
“No.”
Then she looked at Daniel.
May you like
“I’m working against Nathan.”
Everything stopped.
