Chapter 12 - The Price of a Living Ghost
Silas moved so close to the monitor that his breath clouded the glass.
“Elias.”
The man in the wheelchair lifted his head.
His eyes searched the room beyond the camera.
He appeared unable to speak.
The woman behind him pressed the syringe closer to his neck.
“Do not make promises you cannot keep, Silas.”
“Who are you?”
“I am Lantern.”
“You said Lantern was a position.”
“Positions are occupied.”
“For how long?”
“As long as the system survives.”
Caleb stepped into view of the camera.
The woman’s hand stopped.
Elias reacted immediately.
His entire body tensed.
A sound escaped his throat.
Not a word.
A warning.
The woman behind him tightened her grip.
“So,” she said, “Anna succeeded.”
Caleb looked at the camera.
“You knew my mother.”
“I knew the person she pretended to be.”
“Why was my identity created before I was born?”
“To protect an investment.”
“I’m not an investment.”
“No. You became something more inconvenient.”
Silas raised the ledger backpack.
“You want this?”
Mara glanced sharply at him.
The original ledger was inside, wrapped in waterproof fabric.
The woman’s voice remained calm.
“Place it on the center bed and leave the building.”
“You release Elias first.”
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
“Neither are you. We copied every page.”
A pause followed.
The woman had expected that possibility.
“Copies lack authentication codes.”
Judge Avery had discovered the same problem. Each ledger page contained faint embedded markings that could verify its origin. Photographs might support an investigation, but the physical book remained the strongest evidence.
Silas lowered the backpack.
“Where do we exchange?”
“Here.”
“Elias isn’t here.”
The woman’s hand shifted.
The video angle widened.
Behind Elias, a window showed part of the Mercy Falls courtyard.
A stone angel stood beside a dry fountain.
Silas had passed that fountain on the way inside.
“He’s somewhere in this complex,” Mara said.
The screen went black.
Doors slammed throughout the building.
Steel shutters dropped over the windows.
Gas began hissing through the vents.
Caleb backed away.
“Again?”
Mara pulled a cloth over her mouth.
“Different system. We have less time.”
Silas grabbed a metal chair and smashed the monitor.
Behind it was a maintenance opening.
Wires ran upward through the wall.
Mara followed them into the corridor.
The hissing grew louder.
They entered a stairwell and climbed to the second floor.
Every door was locked.
At the end of the hall, Caleb saw a painted rooster above a fire extinguisher cabinet.
One eye had been scratched away.
He opened the cabinet.
Behind the extinguisher was a keypad.
0217 did not work.
Caleb remembered Jonah tapping four times.
He entered 4444.
The keypad turned green.
A hidden stairway opened.
Silas looked at him.
“Why four?”
“Jonah.”
They climbed toward the attic.
The hidden stairs ended inside an observation room overlooking the courtyard.
Elias was below.
Two attendants pushed his wheelchair toward a waiting medical van.
A woman in a white coat walked beside them.
Her hair was silver.
Her face was turned away.
Silas struck the glass.
“Elias!”
The man in the wheelchair looked upward.
The woman in white also turned.
She wore Anna’s face.
Older, thinner, but unmistakable.
Caleb stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
The woman stared at him.
For one moment, shock broke her control.
Then she motioned to the attendants.
They accelerated toward the van.
Caleb ran for the stairwell.
Silas caught him.
“That may not be her.”
“It’s her.”
“Caleb.”
“I watched her die.”
“Then think.”
Caleb struggled against him.
“I held her hand.”
“And someone created death records for people who were still alive.”
The words stopped him.
Mara smashed the observation room’s side window with a fire axe. Fresh air rushed in.
Outside, motorcycle engines roared through the front gate.
Ben and the riders had arrived.
The medical van sped toward the rear exit.
Riders blocked the driveway.
The driver turned across the lawn.
Silas and Caleb ran downstairs as the building alarms sounded.
They reached the courtyard.
The van had struck the dry fountain and stopped.
The attendants fled.
The woman in white stood beside Elias’s wheelchair.
She held a gun.
Caleb stepped forward.
“Mom.”
The woman looked at him.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Don’t come closer.”
Silas raised his hands.
“Anna?”
She looked at him.
“You were supposed to stay away.”
“You sent Caleb to me.”
“I sent him to the card.”
“I carry the card.”
“I hoped someone else had taken it from your body by now.”
Silas absorbed the words.
Caleb stared at her.
“You died.”
“I tried to.”
“What does that mean?”
The woman looked toward the approaching riders.
“There is no time.”
She pressed the gun against Elias’s shoulder.
Silas stepped forward.
“Do not hurt him.”
“I have protected him for twenty-eight years.”
“By keeping him in a hospital?”
“By keeping Lantern convinced he could still lead them to the ledger.”
Mara reached the courtyard from the opposite side.
Her weapon remained lowered.
“Who are you?”
The woman looked at Caleb.
“My name was Anna Rourke.”
“Was?”
“Anna died the day Caleb was born.”
Caleb shook his head.
“No.”
She reached into her coat and removed a chain.
A small hospital bracelet hung from it.
ANNA ROURKE.
Date of death: thirteen years earlier.
She threw it onto the grass.
Caleb picked it up.
The woman continued.
“I took her name because someone had to raise you.”
Caleb stared at her.
“You’re not my mother.”
“I was every day that mattered.”
“Who are you?”
Her expression broke.
“My name is Margaret.”
Silas’s half-sister.
Sheriff Hollis’s supposed mother.
The woman who had occupied the Lantern position.
Before anyone could speak, Elias suddenly moved.
His hand rose from the wheelchair.
He pointed behind Silas.
May you like
A red laser dot appeared on Caleb’s chest.
Margaret fired first.
