Chapter 12 - THE TWO FATHERS
Thomas pushed Maya into the room.
Two armed men followed him.
Richard aimed his pistol, but one of Thomas’s men fired first. The bullet struck Richard’s hand, sending the weapon across the floor.
Emma moved toward Maya.
Thomas raised his gun.
“Stay where you are.”
“You attacked a federal team,” Emma said. “There is no version of this where you walk away.”
Thomas smiled.
“You still believe governments control what happens in rooms like this.”
He looked at the memory interface.
“Evelyn built something greater than any government.”
“She built it to expose people like you.”
“She built it because of me.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“Your mother and I wanted to make truth permanent. Daniel became frightened by what truth required.”
“You turned it into blackmail.”
“I used it to survive.”
“You murdered people.”
“So did Daniel.”
Emma looked at him.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you worshipped him.”
“He raised me.”
“He stole you.”
Thomas removed a small vial from his coat and tossed it onto the table.
Inside was a preserved blood sample labeled Daniel Mercer.
“I kept it from the crash investigation.”
Emma stared at the vial.
“Why?”
“To prove what Evelyn refused to admit.”
He placed a portable genetic reader beside it.
“Your blood and Daniel’s. We can settle the question now.”
Emma did not move.
Thomas’s expression softened.
“You are my daughter.”
“Then why did Evelyn tell Daniel I was his?”
“To make him protect you.”
“Or because he was my father.”
Thomas’s smile vanished.
Maya spoke calmly.
“Emma, he wants you focused on the paternity question because he needs time.”
Thomas struck Maya across the face with the gun.
Richard moved, but the armed men restrained him.
Emma looked toward the screen.
An upload meter had appeared.
Thomas had connected a device to the archive.
He was copying data.
Emma took a step toward the interface.
Thomas aimed at Richard.
“Touch it, and your husband dies.”
Emma looked at Richard.
For seven years, that threat would have stopped her.
Richard understood the change in her face.
“Do it,” he said.
Thomas frowned.
Richard looked at Emma.
“Whatever happens, don’t let him take it.”
One of Thomas’s men hit Richard in the stomach.
Emma reached for the emergency command on the screen.
Thomas fired.
The bullet struck Richard below the ribs.
He collapsed.
Emma pressed the command.
ARCHIVE PURGE INITIATED.
Thomas shouted and rushed toward her.
Maya swept his legs from behind. He fell against the chair.
Emma grabbed his dropped gun.
The two armed men raised their weapons.
Before they could fire, federal agents breached the passage.
Gunshots filled the chamber.
One man fell.
The other surrendered.
Thomas crawled toward his data device.
Emma aimed at him.
“Stop.”
He looked up at her.
“If you purge the archive, you destroy evidence against hundreds of criminals.”
“You also lose your weapon.”
“You think that makes you better than me?”
“No.”
The upload meter reached eighty-seven percent.
The purge countdown showed ten seconds.
Thomas smiled.
“You’re too late.”
Emma looked at the copying device.
Then at the three memory categories.
The system had offered choices because it could separate evidence.
She changed the command.
PURGE PRIVATE SUBJECT DATA.
PRESERVE CRIMINAL EVIDENCE.
The archive responded.
AUTHORIZATION REQUIRES SECOND FOUNDER KEY.
Thomas laughed.
“Only Evelyn and I had founder access.”
A voice came from the passage.
“And me.”
Jonathan Hale entered.
He was injured, supported by an agent, but conscious.
He placed his hand on the panel.
Founder identity confirmed: Jonathan Cross.
Thomas stared at him.
“You were never a founder.”
“Evelyn added me after she learned what you had become.”
Hale approved the command.
The archive began separating data.
Thomas lunged for the device.
Emma fired into the floor beside his hand.
“Don’t.”
He froze.
The purge completed.
Thomas’s copied data became unreadable.
Federal agents restrained him.
Richard lay on the floor, losing blood.
Emma knelt beside him.
His eyes opened.
“Did you save it?”
“I saved the evidence.”
He gave a faint laugh.
“Always the compliance officer.”
Paramedics entered.
As they lifted Richard onto a stretcher, he caught Emma’s wrist.
“My mother has the hospital key.”
“What hospital key?”
“The pediatric wing wasn’t a charity project. There’s another chamber beneath it.”
“What’s inside?”
Richard struggled to speak.
“The living records.”
His hand slipped from hers.
Paramedics carried him away.
Thomas watched from the floor.
For the first time, he looked genuinely afraid.
“You don’t know what he means,” Emma said.
Thomas said nothing.
She crouched in front of him.
“What are the living records?”
Thomas smiled slowly.
“People Evelyn changed.”
“Like Alice?”
“Alice was only the first survivor.”
Emma remembered the repeated Northstar payments marked R7.
Room Seven had not ended with one child.
“How many?”
Thomas leaned closer while agents pulled him upright.
“Ask your mother.”
Emma stared at him.
“My mother is dead.”
May you like
Thomas’s smile widened.
“That is what Daniel wanted you to believe.”
