Chapter 10 - THE MISSION AND THE FIRE
Andrew woke in the recovery unit with a bullet lodged near his shoulder blade and a detective standing beside his bed.
The detective introduced himself as Lieutenant Conrad Shaw from the state police.
Andrew recognized the name.
Shaw had worked the Hartley fire investigation twelve years earlier.
“You,” Andrew said.
Shaw smiled.
“Still difficult to kill.”
Andrew reached toward the call button.
Shaw unplugged it.
“Officer Brooks is occupied.”
“With Ashley?”
“Perhaps.”
Andrew tried to move, but restraints held his right wrist.
He looked down.
“That’s not hospital procedure.”
“No.”
Shaw closed the privacy curtain.
“You should have drowned.”
Andrew remembered the words stitched onto the mitten.
He studied Shaw’s face.
“You were on the bridge?”
“No. Voss handled that.”
“You ordered it.”
“I corrected an old mistake.”
Andrew pulled against the restraint.
“You worked for Hartley.”
“I worked for people who understood the value of Hartley.”
“Children died.”
“People die every day. Most deaths produce nothing.”
Andrew’s eyes filled with hatred.
Shaw sat calmly.
“Malcolm believes Emma’s blood still contains the adaptation.”
“Her name is Ashley.”
“Names are convenient labels.”
“What do you want?”
“The original trial records.”
“They burned.”
“Rachel took them.”
“Then ask Rachel.”
“We have. For twelve years.”
Andrew stopped.
“You know she’s alive.”
“We always knew.”
“Where is she?”
Shaw smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
At Lake Mercer, Rachel kept her gun aimed at Malcolm while Natalie worked toward a clear shot.
Ashley remained beneath the scalpel.
Elias was losing blood. His grip on his weapon weakened.
Malcolm looked at Rachel.
“Tell them why Andrew was at Hartley.”
Rachel said nothing.
“He was military,” Malcolm continued. “A private unit used for operations that governments preferred not to acknowledge.”
Natalie remembered Andrew’s scars.
“Is that true?” she asked.
Rachel’s silence answered.
Malcolm’s voice became triumphant.
“A pharmaceutical competitor hired him to steal our data and eliminate me.”
Andrew had told Natalie he repaired locks.
He had not mentioned guns, missions, or assassination.
“He entered under a false identity,” Malcolm said. “Maintenance assistant. Such a humble disguise.”
Rachel looked shaken.
“You told me you had left the army.”
“He told many lies.”
Ashley shook her head.
“My daddy is good.”
Malcolm looked down at her.
“Your father came to Hartley House carrying explosives.”
Rachel fired.
The bullet struck the scalpel from Malcolm’s hand.
Natalie moved at the same moment.
She crossed the room, grabbed Ashley, and rolled behind the bed.
Mason fired at Elias’s weapon.
It flew from his hand.
Rachel struck Malcolm across the face and forced him to the floor.
For several seconds, the room became a chaos of shouting, alarms, and breaking glass.
Then Malcolm laughed.
Everyone stopped.
A red light flashed on the wall.
FACILITY PURGE INITIATED.
Rachel looked at the timer.
Four minutes.
“You armed the charges?” she demanded.
Malcolm wiped blood from his mouth.
“I will not allow Hartley’s work to become evidence.”
Natalie cut Ashley’s restraints.
“Where’s the exit?”
Rachel pointed toward the hidden corridor.
“The control room connects to the north shaft.”
Mason pulled Elias upright.
Malcolm remained on the floor.
“Take him,” Natalie ordered.
Rachel shook her head.
“He’ll slow us down.”
“He’s under arrest.”
“You have four minutes.”
“He comes with us.”
Mason dragged Malcolm toward the corridor.
Rachel lifted Ashley into her arms.
Ashley stiffened.
“You’re my mommy?”
Rachel looked at her daughter for the first time without glass, distance, or darkness between them.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come get me?”
The question struck harder than any bullet.
Rachel opened her mouth.
No answer came.
The ceiling shook.
Concrete cracked.
Natalie pushed them forward.
“Move!”
They ran through the control room as water burst from a pipe. Elias stumbled beside Mason.
At the north shaft, an old lift waited behind steel gates.
Rachel entered a code.
Access denied.
She tried again.
Denied.
The timer reached two minutes.
Malcolm laughed from the floor.
“You still use her birthday.”
Rachel turned toward him.
“What did you change it to?”
“Something only Andrew knows.”
Natalie grabbed Malcolm by the collar.
“Tell me.”
“No.”
Ashley looked at the keypad.
“What does Daddy know?”
Malcolm smiled at her.
“The day he became a murderer.”
The timer showed one minute and thirty seconds.
Rachel stared at the numbered buttons.
Then understanding crossed her face.
“The fire.”
She entered the date of the Hartley fire.
The gate opened.
They crowded into the lift.
Mason pulled Elias inside.
Natalie dragged Malcolm.
Rachel held Ashley.
The lift began rising.
May you like
Below them, the facility exploded.
The shaft filled with fire.
