Chapter 12 - The Face at the Airfield
The woman wearing Nora’s face accepted the cake box from Malcolm.
Then she pointed toward the jet.
Malcolm did not board willingly.
Two men emerged from the shadows and forced him toward the stairs.
“He was not escaping,” Nora said. “He was delivering evidence.”
Grant called federal investigators he had been working with during the Halcyon negotiations. The airfield was outside local police jurisdiction, and the jet had filed a flight plan for Montreal.
They had twelve minutes before takeoff.
Nora noticed a second vehicle approaching the airfield on the surveillance feed.
Paige stepped out.
She had left the hospital.
“What is she doing?” Grant demanded.
Nora called Paige.
Her phone answered automatically, but Paige did not speak.
Through the connection, they heard wind and the distant sound of engines.
Then Catherine Lowe’s voice.
“You came alone?”
“Yes,” Paige replied.
“You have the authorization?”
“My mother’s.”
Grant looked at Nora.
Evelyn controlled another sixteen percent of Whitfield Meridian.
If Catherine obtained Evelyn’s code, Adeline’s shell company would control a majority.
Paige had not gone to surrender the authorization.
She had gone to trap Catherine.
A second voice spoke through the phone.
Malcolm.
“Paige, do not give it to her.”
A sharp impact followed.
Then silence.
Nora closed her eyes.
The scene remained visible on the monitor.
Paige stood several yards from the jet, holding a silver card.
The woman with Nora’s face extended her hand.
Paige snapped the card in half.
Security lights flooded the airfield.
Federal vehicles broke through the eastern gate.
The woman turned and ran toward the jet.
Malcolm threw the cake box onto the runway.
It broke open.
Inside was not the anniversary cake.
It contained computer drives.
Grant stared at the screen.
“She copied the Halcyon records into the box.”
The woman reached the aircraft stairs.
Nora heard Paige shout through the phone.
“Catherine!”
The woman stopped.
Paige continued.
“That is not your real face.”
Slowly, the woman removed a thin prosthetic layer from her cheek.
Nora’s features peeled away.
Beneath them was an unfamiliar face with dark hair and a narrow scar across one eyebrow.
She was not Mara.
She was not Adeline.
She was not anyone in the Whitfield records.
Federal officers surrounded the jet.
The woman raised her hands.
Malcolm collapsed beside the runway, conscious but injured.
Paige remained standing until officers reached her.
The crisis appeared finished.
Then the jet’s engines accelerated.
No pilot was visible through the cockpit windows.
The aircraft moved automatically.
Officers pulled the woman away as the jet crossed the runway and lifted into the darkness.
The computer drives inside the cake box remained on the ground.
But a blue signal flashed on Grant’s screen.
Someone had remotely copied their contents seconds before takeoff.
The jet was a decoy.
The records had already been transmitted.
At dawn, federal investigators secured the airfield.
The disguised woman identified herself as Elise Ward.
She had worked for Halcyon’s behavioral reconstruction division for seven years.
She refused to name her employer.
Malcolm was taken to the hospital under guard.
Paige returned to Evelyn’s room.
The anniversary poisoning had failed to transfer Evelyn’s shares, but Nora’s eleven percent remained controlled by Meridian Continuity Holdings.
Grant brought the original ledger to federal headquarters.
Nora remained with Malcolm.
He opened his eyes shortly after sunrise.
“You tried to steal the cake,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Elise said she had evidence identifying the account owner.”
“Who hired her?”
“I do not know.”
“You prepared the incapacity petition.”
“Because I knew they would create a reason to use it.”
“You could have warned me.”
“I did.”
“You threatened me.”
“I needed anyone listening to believe I was against you.”
Nora thought of Malcolm’s warning at the penthouse.
If Grant has contacted her, your anniversary is an execution date.
“Who controls Meridian Continuity Holdings?”
Malcolm looked toward the door.
“Not Adeline.”
“Then who?”
“The owner used Adeline’s identity after she disappeared.”
“Who has access to her authorization codes?”
“Only three people ever did. Thomas Hale. Adeline herself.”
“And the third?”
Malcolm’s monitor began beeping faster.
He gripped Nora’s wrist.
“Grant’s grandfather.”
“He is dead.”
May you like
Malcolm’s eyes filled with terror.
“No,” he whispered. “That is what we were paid to believe.”
