Chapter 8 - The Father Behind the Camera
The video was not live.
Mara’s technicians proved that within twenty minutes.
It had been recorded two days earlier and routed through the Hawthorne server to create the appearance of a live transmission.
But Thomas was alive when the footage was made.
Liam watched the video repeatedly, searching for clues.
A train horn sounded in the background.
Water dripped somewhere beyond the camera.
Behind Thomas stood a concrete pillar marked with faded blue paint.
Claire focused on the floor.
“There.”
A narrow line of white powder ran beneath Ethan’s shoe.
Hargrove identified it as industrial lime.
Mara cross-referenced abandoned warehouses near active train lines, water sources, and former lime-processing facilities.
Four possibilities remained.
Before police could move, Ethan sent a message directly to Claire’s hospital tablet.
BRING THE ORPHEUS FILES TO NORTH PIER 6.
NO POLICE.
NO HARGROVE.
BRING LIAM.
Claire read the message twice.
“He doesn’t know the files have already been copied.”
“He may not care,” Mara said. “He wants both of you in one place.”
Liam looked at Thomas’s face frozen on the video.
“We’re going.”
Mara began to object.
“We use the meeting,” Liam continued. “We let him believe he controls it.”
A plan was created.
Claire would remain hidden in an armored vehicle while Liam approached the pier carrying a duplicate drive.
Police snipers positioned themselves on nearby roofs.
A marine unit waited beneath the dock.
Hargrove was ordered to stay behind.
At midnight, Liam walked onto North Pier 6.
Fog covered the water.
A shipping container stood open near the end of the pier.
Inside was a chair.
Thomas sat in it.
His hands were tied.
Liam stopped.
“Dad?”
Thomas lifted his head.
Age had changed him, but not enough to erase the man Liam remembered.
“Liam.”
The sound of his voice nearly broke something inside him.
Liam stepped forward.
Thomas shook his head.
“Don’t.”
A figure moved behind the container.
Ethan emerged holding a gun.
“Where’s Claire?”
“She’s too injured.”
“Then you wasted everyone’s time.”
“I brought the files.”
Ethan looked at the drive in Liam’s hand.
“Throw it inside.”
Liam did.
Ethan picked it up.
“You should thank me,” he said. “Without me, you would still believe your father was a dead accountant.”
“You tried to kill my sister.”
“I tried to control a collapsing situation.”
Thomas’s face twisted with disgust.
“You sound like Meridian.”
Ethan struck him with the gun.
Liam moved forward.
A red laser appeared on his chest.
Ethan smiled.
“Your police friends should lower their weapons.”
Mara’s voice came through Liam’s hidden receiver.
He knows.
Ethan looked toward one of the distant rooftops.
“I helped design the city’s tactical surveillance network. Did you really believe I wouldn’t recognize a police operation?”
Lights came on across the pier.
Men appeared behind cargo stacks.
The police units had been surrounded.
Claire’s armored vehicle was suddenly struck from the side by a truck.
Liam turned toward the sound.
Ethan fired.
The bullet struck Liam’s shoulder and spun him to the ground.
Police opened fire.
The pier erupted.
Thomas knocked his chair sideways and kicked Ethan’s leg.
The gun fell.
Liam crawled toward it.
Ethan reached first.
Before he could fire, Claire drove the damaged armored vehicle directly through the container wall.
Metal screamed.
Ethan jumped aside.
Mara’s team advanced through the confusion.
Liam cut Thomas’s restraints.
“Can you walk?”
Thomas nodded.
They moved toward the vehicle.
Then Thomas stopped.
“That’s not Ethan.”
Liam turned.
The man police were wrestling to the ground looked exactly like Claire’s husband.
But Thomas pointed toward a thin line behind his ear.
“A surgical seam.”
The captured man smiled.
He pulled a false dental plate from his mouth.
Beneath it was a transmitter.
Mara tore it away.
The entire pier went dark.
When backup power returned, the man was unconscious.
His fingerprints did not match Ethan Vale.
The real Ethan had never come to the pier.
Thomas looked at Claire.
“He’s at the hospital.”
May you like
Claire’s face went white.
“With Mom.”
