Chapter 14 - the man behind the camera)
Thomas Reed did not run.
That frightened Claire more than if he had.
Federal agents searched him.
No weapon.
No second phone.
Nothing.
Hayes stared at him.
“Start talking.”
Thomas looked at Claire.
“Daniel saved my life.”
“The man Sophie met said the same thing.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“Yes.”
Thomas slowly rolled up his sleeve.
The scar extended farther than Claire expected.
Burn damage covered part of his forearm.
“Five years ago Daniel discovered I had been assigned to monitor him.”
“By whom?”
“The Continuity board.”
“Margaret?”
“No.”
“Arthur?”
“No.”
“Preston?”
Thomas shook his head.
“That is what Daniel couldn’t understand.”
Hayes asked, “Who gave you orders?”
“A voice. Encrypted communication. Payments routed through shell companies.”
“You worked for someone you never met?”
“For six years.”
Claire felt disgust.
“And then Daniel saved you?”
Thomas nodded.
“There was a warehouse fire. It was supposed to kill both of us. Daniel dragged me out.”
“Why?”
“Because he was Daniel.”
Claire’s eyes filled despite herself.
Thomas continued.
“After that I helped him.”
“With Emily?”
“Yes.”
Claire stepped forward.
“You knew my daughter was alive.”
“I knew there was a second child. I did not know her location.”
“You saw me for years.”
“I never saw you after Daniel died until Vanessa’s wedding.”
Claire remembered Thomas’s face when Sophie mentioned Carter and seventeen.
“You recognized the box.”
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“A token.”
“What token?”
“A digital trust authenticator. Preston wanted Sophie to carry it because surveillance systems would register a Carter child handling the object.”
Claire frowned.
“Why?”
“To test whether the trust responded to Sophie’s biometrics.”
Hayes asked, “Did it?”
“No.”
Thomas looked at Claire.
“That proved Sophie wasn’t the designated heir.”
“Emily was.”
“Yes.”
“And Preston realized Emily exists.”
“He already suspected.”
Vanessa’s voice hardened.
“Why help us?”
Thomas looked toward her.
“Because Daniel made me promise.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“Promise what?”
“If the Continuity system activated, I was supposed to protect both girls.”
“Then where is Emily?”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“I don’t know.”
Claire nearly struck him.
Hayes intervened.
“Anything useful, Reed?”
Thomas nodded.
“The biometric authorization cannot happen anywhere.”
“Where?”
“A Continuity terminal.”
“Briarwood?”
“Destroyed.”
“Blackwood Capital?”
“No.”
Thomas walked to a map.
“There were four terminals.”
He marked Connecticut.
New York.
Virginia.
And Washington, D.C.
“Daniel disabled three.”
Claire stared at the fourth.
“Which remains?”
Thomas pointed to Washington.
“Federal Trust Archives.”
Hayes frowned.
“That doesn’t exist.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Not publicly.”
Vanessa whispered, “Who can access it?”
Thomas met Claire’s eyes.
“A trustee.”
“Who?”
He hesitated.
“Margaret.”
Margaret was in federal custody.
Claire understood.
“They’re going to need her.”
Thomas nodded.
Hayes immediately called the detention center.
No answer.
Then another line.
No answer.
Then dispatch.
Her expression changed.
“What happened?”
Hayes listened.
“Say that again.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
A transport vehicle carrying Margaret Blackwood had crashed twenty minutes earlier.
Two marshals injured.
Margaret gone.
No body.
Thomas looked at the map.
“They have her.”
Claire stared at Washington.
“Then they’re taking Emily there.”
Thomas nodded.
“Probably.”
Claire grabbed her coat.
Hayes stopped her.
“No.”
Claire looked at her.
“My daughter is in that vehicle.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know enough.”
Vanessa stepped beside Claire.
“I’m going too.”
Michael objected.
Vanessa silenced him with one look.
Thomas said, “There is another problem.”
Claire stared.
“What?”
“If Emily authorizes the trust while Margaret is present, control transfers immediately.”
“To Emily?”
Thomas shook his head.
“To her legal guardian.”
Claire froze.
“Elizabeth?”
“No.”
Claire’s voice became quiet.
“Who is listed as guardian?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Daniel changed it.”
Claire’s heart pounded.
“To whom?”
Thomas looked almost afraid to answer.
“Claire Carter.”
Nobody spoke.
Claire stared.
“So they need me.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Daniel added a death-contingency clause.”
Claire’s mouth went dry.
“If Emily’s legal guardian is dead at activation, control passes to the Continuity executor.”
Hayes asked, “Who is the executor?”
Thomas opened Daniel’s scanned trust amendment.
One line appeared.
EXECUTOR:
DANIEL CARTER.
Claire stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
Thomas said nothing.
Claire looked at him.
“My husband is dead.”
“I saw his body,” Vanessa whispered.
Thomas’s face became strange.
“Did you?”
Vanessa stopped.
Claire remembered the closed coffin.
The severe crash.
The identification performed using dental records.
Just like Arthur.
A substitution.
A name as a uniform.
Claire’s hands began trembling.
Thomas leaned closer.
“Daniel understood the Continuity Program better than any of us.”
Claire could barely speak.
“Are you saying my husband could be alive?”
May you like
Thomas answered carefully.
“I’m saying I never saw him die.”
