THE COFFIN MOVED

Rusk forced Noah to kneel beside the coffin.

The chapel doors were locked. Samuel Pike stood near the altar, pale and sweating, while two plainclothes officers emerged from behind the columns. One took Noah's phone. The other searched his hoodie and found the satellite device but missed Victor's watch beneath his sleeve.

"Open it," Rusk told Pike.

The funeral director hesitated.

Rusk raised his gun.

Pike released the hidden latch.

Claire lay under the veil, her wrists strapped beneath the satin folds. Her eyelids fluttered at the sound. A clear tube entered her arm and disappeared through a hole in the lining.

Noah lunged toward her.

Rusk caught him by the collar.

Claire's eyes opened.

"Noah," she breathed.

"I'm here."

The words broke something in her face. Tears slid toward her ears.

Rusk crouched beside them. "Touching. Now we can finish."

He placed a small recorder on Claire's chest and held a tablet in front of her. The screen displayed an authorization field for the Larkspur archive.

"Speak the release phrase," he said.

Claire stared at him.

"You have already refused for twelve hours. Your son changes the calculation."

"Leave him out of this."

"He entered the equation when you made him your heir."

Noah looked at the tablet. Beneath the authorization field was a biometric waveform labeled LIVE VOICE MATCH. Rusk needed Claire conscious and speaking.

"What happens if she gives it to you?" Noah asked.

"Your mother receives medical treatment. You return home. The funeral proceeds with an empty coffin."

"You're lying."

Rusk smiled. "Of course. But the quality of a lie depends on whether someone wants it to be true."

Claire looked at Noah. Her gaze dropped briefly to his watch.

She recognized it.

Victor had said the watch tracked the coffin. Perhaps it did more.

Claire whispered, "Orpheus returns alone."

Rusk frowned.

Noah pressed the watch face.

A hidden recording began.

Claire continued, her voice weak but deliberate. "The release phrase requires two parts. Mine and Noah's."

That was almost certainly false, but Rusk looked interested.

"What is his part?"

"He doesn't know it yet."

Claire turned her head toward Noah. "The midnight adventure. The place where the moon touched the water."

Noah remembered the treasure hunt. After finding the blue box, Claire had driven him to Lake Orison. They watched an old outdoor movie from a dock while moonlight crossed the water.

The film had been The Last Witness.

"Last witness," he said.

The tablet chimed.

One authorization field turned green.

Noah's breath caught. Claire had not been inventing a delay. She truly had built him into the system.

Rusk looked pleased. "And your part?"

Claire closed her eyes.

"No."

Rusk gripped Noah's injured hand and bent one bloodied finger backward.

Pain exploded through his arm.

Claire shouted, "Stop!"

"Your part," Rusk repeated.

The chapel's fire alarm suddenly roared.

Ward's diversion.

Red lights flashed. One officer moved toward the side door. Rusk ordered him to remain. Outside, pounding began as Evelyn demanded entry.

Noah pressed the watch again, hoping it transmitted some signal.

The face turned blue.

Victor's voice came through a hidden speaker, distorted but clear.

"Rusk, the federal warrant has been signed. Every word in that chapel is being recorded."

Rusk's composure vanished.

He fired at the watch.

The bullet grazed Noah's wrist and shattered the marble beside Claire's head. Noah fell backward. Pike screamed. The officers looked toward Rusk, suddenly uncertain.

"There is no warrant," Rusk said. "It is a bluff."

Victor's voice answered, "Then why are your men lowering their weapons?"

One officer did.

Rusk shot him in the chest.

Chaos erupted.

Pike threw himself behind the altar. Noah rolled beneath the coffin stand. The surviving officer fired toward Rusk, who overturned a pew and returned fire. Evelyn forced open the side door as Ward released smoke canisters into the nave.

Through the haze, Claire shouted Noah's name.

He crawled to the coffin, but the stand suddenly moved.

A motorized floor panel opened beneath it.

The entire casket began descending into darkness.

Rusk had prepared another escape route.

Noah grabbed the brass rail.