Chapter 10 - THE BROTHER WHO REFUSED TO STAY DEAD
Nathan Brooks looked older than the security footage.
Gray at the temples.
Scar along his jaw.
But there was no doubt.
Sterling’s brother was alive.
Hale aimed his weapon.
“Drop the gun.”
Nathan smiled.
“There are six shooters outside.”
“And twenty federal agents surrounding this building.”
“Are they federal?”
That stopped everyone.
Nathan slowly lowered the gun.
“Exactly.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
“To prevent Charles from taking your child.”
Sterling stared at his brother.
“You worked for him.”
“Yes.”
“You entered David’s house.”
“Yes.”
“The day he died.”
“Yes.”
Sterling’s voice cracked.
“Did you kill him?”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“No.”
“Did you touch him?”
“I tried to save him.”
Sarah’s body went rigid.
“What happened?”
Nathan looked toward her.
“David called me.”
Sarah stared.
“He knew you were alive?”
“For eleven years.”
Sterling looked devastated.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“And he never told me?”
“I asked him not to.”
Sterling lunged forward.
Hale stopped him.
Nathan continued.
“David discovered Northbridge when he was twenty-nine. He found me inside the program.”
“Why fake your death?”
“Because Charles wanted me dead.”
Sarah’s patience snapped.
“Tell me what happened to my husband.”
Nathan looked at her for several seconds.
“David had developed a plan.”
“What plan?”
“To expose everything.”
“He was already working with federal investigators.”
Nathan shook his head.
“He didn’t trust federal investigators.”
Hale’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Northbridge has people inside law enforcement.”
Everyone looked around.
Suddenly every agent outside felt questionable.
Sarah said, “The security technician.”
“That was me.”
“What did David call you about?”
“He believed someone had entered the house.”
“When you arrived?”
“He was alive.”
Sarah’s throat tightened.
“Then?”
“He showed me a device he found beneath his desk.”
Nathan pulled a photograph from his pocket.
A small black transmitter.
“Remote cardiac disruptor.”
Hale frowned.
“That sounds like science fiction.”
“It’s not.”
Nathan explained that certain experimental medical devices could trigger lethal arrhythmias through targeted electrical stimulation.
David had discovered an implant.
Sarah stared.
“Implant?”
“In his neck.”
She remembered Greeley mentioning the burn mark.
“When was it implanted?”
“Switzerland.”
At seventeen.
The treatments.
Sarah felt sick.
“They put something inside him when he was a child?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Control.”
Nathan’s voice hardened.
“R-17 subjects were valuable. Charles wanted insurance.”
Sarah’s hands curled into fists.
“David lived with a kill switch in his body for twenty-three years?”
Nathan nodded.
“He didn’t know until recently.”
Sterling turned away.
Sarah asked, “Who activated it?”
Nathan’s expression became grim.
“I don’t know.”
“Lie.”
“I don’t.”
“You were there.”
“I arrived after the signal.”
“Then why did toxicology show digoxin?”
“Cover story.”
“Who planted it?”
Nathan looked toward Sterling.
“I did.”
Sterling stared.
“What?”
Nathan continued.
“David was already dying. He told me to contaminate the medication.”
Sarah could not understand.
“Why would he ask you to frame me?”
“He wasn’t framing you.”
Nathan looked at her.
“He was creating evidence Eleanor would use.”
Silence.
Sarah slowly understood.
David had predicted his mother would try to remove Sarah.
He knew Eleanor had access to the manipulated autopsy system.
He gave her bait.
Sterling whispered, “So Eleanor thought she was framing Sarah with evidence she controlled.”
Nathan nodded.
“But David wanted her to expose herself.”
Sarah felt grief turning into something more complicated.
David had spent his final minutes building a trap.
For the living.
“What were his last words?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Tell me.”
“He said, ‘Keep Sarah angry.’”
Sarah closed her eyes.
A broken laugh escaped.
That sounded exactly like him.
Nathan continued.
“He knew grief would make you vulnerable.”
“So he wanted me furious.”
“He said you were terrifying when angry.”
Despite everything, Sarah smiled through tears.
Then Nathan’s expression darkened.
“But we have a bigger problem.”
“My daughter.”
“Yes.”
“What did David mean when he said her genetics were unexpected?”
Nathan looked toward the laboratory.
“The program expected a specific combination of markers.”
“R-17A.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
“Your child doesn’t carry it.”
Sarah almost felt relief.
Then Nathan continued.
“She carries something else.”
“What?”
“We don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Because no one has seen it before.”
Hale frowned.
“Mutation?”
“Possibly.”
Nathan looked directly at Sarah.
“Your military genetic screening was incomplete.”
“Meaning?”
“You were never S-4.”
Sarah stared.
“My file says—”
“Your file was falsified.”
“By whom?”
“David.”
Sarah stopped.
Nathan continued.
“He changed your records years ago.”
“Why?”
“To hide what you actually are.”
Sarah hated that sentence.
“I’m a person.”
“I know.”
“Then stop talking about me like a specimen.”
Nathan nodded.
“You’re right.”
He took a breath.
“Your father participated in a classified medical trial before you were born.”
Sarah froze.
“My father was an Army helicopter pilot.”
“Yes.”
“He died when I was sixteen.”
“Yes.”
“What trial?”
Nathan looked at Hale.
“Project Aegis.”
Hale’s expression changed.
“I’ve heard that name.”
“Then you know why Charles wanted Sarah.”
Hale shook his head.
“Rumors. Cold War resilience research.”
Nathan nodded.
“Sarah is the child of an Aegis subject.”
Sarah’s mind raced.
“And my baby?”
Nathan looked at her stomach.
“David’s R-17 line and your Aegis line were never supposed to intersect.”
“Why?”
“Because the only previous pregnancy combining both ended in disaster.”
Sarah went still.
“When?”
Nathan answered:
“Thirty-six years ago.”
Sarah’s age.
Her mouth went dry.
“Who was the baby?”
May you like
Nathan stared at her.
“You.”
