Chapter 10 - THE ASSISTANT WHO KNEW EVERYTHING
Daniel Cross had known when Ava's fertility appointments were scheduled.
He had rearranged board meetings around them.
He had sent flowers after failed treatments.
He had brought Ava tea the morning she returned to work after surgery.
Now Ava knew he might have been Malcolm's biological twin.
And possibly Eleanor's operative.
She opened old employee records.
Daniel's background was impeccable.
Too impeccable.
University transcripts.
Previous employers.
References.
Every company had since dissolved or merged.
A manufactured identity.
"He had access to everything," Ava said.
Malcolm sat opposite her in Helen's safe apartment.
"That's why Eleanor placed him near you."
"You knew he was your brother?"
"No."
"When did you find out?"
"Two months ago."
"And you didn't tell me."
Malcolm gave her a tired look.
"That sentence is going to appear frequently today."
Ava ignored him.
"What made you suspicious?"
"I found a childhood medical image in Eleanor's files. Two infants. Matching bone abnormality in the left wrist."
Malcolm pulled back his sleeve.
A faint surgical scar crossed his wrist.
"Daniel had the same scar."
Ava remembered.
Daniel used to wear a watch over his left wrist.
"Did you confront him?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
"He laughed."
"That's it?"
"He said, 'You were always the obedient one.'"
Malcolm's jaw tightened.
"He knew everything about Northstar."
"Where is he now?"
Malcolm pointed toward the photograph of Marianne.
"Apparently with Eleanor."
Thomas arrived an hour later with his shoulder bandaged.
Ava hugged him despite herself.
Then immediately stepped away.
"Don't interpret that as forgiveness."
"I wouldn't dare."
Ryan joined them.
So did Helen.
For the first time the entire broken alliance occupied one room.
Thomas.
The father who helped Northstar before fighting it.
Helen.
The doctor who infiltrated Ava's company.
Malcolm.
The husband who manipulated Ava's life while claiming to protect it.
Ryan.
The brother whose identity might be another Northstar fabrication.
And Ava.
The woman everyone believed could open the Ledger.
Ava stood before them.
"No more partial truths."
Malcolm opened his mouth.
She pointed.
"Especially you."
He shut it.
"Tell me everything you know about Nathan."
Malcolm began.
"Nathan and I were raised together until age five."
"You remember him?"
"Pieces. A boy who looked like me. Eleanor told me he was a cousin."
"Then?"
"He vanished."
"Where?"
"Northstar moved him through military families. Psychological conditioning, language training, surveillance work."
Ava felt disgust.
"They trained a child to spy."
"Eventually."
Thomas added:
"Northstar used displaced children as assets. Clean identities. Deep loyalty structures."
Ryan crossed his arms.
"You're saying my twin might have been one too."
"Possibly."
Ava looked at Malcolm.
"Why was Nathan assigned to me?"
"To watch whether I completed my role."
Ava stared.
"Your role."
"Marry you. Keep you away from Northstar's archive. Prevent pregnancy. Maintain access."
"Then why turn against Eleanor?"
Malcolm's face hardened.
"Because I discovered what she planned to do once the archive opened."
"What?"
"Harvest you."
Silence.
Ava felt cold.
"Explain that word very carefully."
Helen answered.
"Repeated marrow extraction. Oocyte retrieval. Cellular tissue collection."
Ryan stood abruptly.
"No."
Helen continued.
"With enough biological material, Northstar could maintain the Mercer line without Ava herself."
Ava looked at Malcolm.
"So I become disposable."
"Eventually."
"And you?"
Malcolm looked away.
"My disease made me disposable too."
Ava hated that part of her understood.
"That's why you're dying."
"Yes."
"Northstar caused it?"
"Probably."
Helen nodded.
"Long-term experimental treatments."
Ava stared at Malcolm.
"Why did you take them?"
"Because Eleanor told me they would keep me compatible with you."
The horror deepened.
Two children engineered toward each other.
One told to marry.
One watched.
Both modified.
Ava sat.
For the first time, Malcolm looked less like her betrayer and more like another damaged piece of Northstar's design.
It did not absolve him.
Nothing could.
But it complicated hatred.
Thomas spread a map across the table.
"St. Vincent Clinic has underground levels not shown on public plans."
Helen marked an entrance.
"Emergency tunnel here."
Ryan said, "We go in."
Ava shook her head.
"They want me alone."
"You're not going alone."
"I'll appear alone."
Malcolm looked at her.
"Bad idea."
"So was marrying you."
Ryan coughed to hide a laugh.
Ava continued.
"We give Eleanor what she expects. Meanwhile you enter through the tunnel."
Thomas nodded slowly.
"Could work."
Malcolm said, "Nathan will anticipate it."
Ava looked at him.
"Would you?"
"Yes."
"Good."
She smiled.
"Then we'll give him something else to anticipate."
At 11:05 p.m., Ava sent Eleanor a message.
I'LL COME.
PROOF MY MOTHER IS ALIVE FIRST.
Three minutes later, a live video call arrived.
Marianne appeared.
Bruised.
Terrified.
But alive.
Behind her, Nathan stood with the gun.
He looked exactly like Daniel Cross.
Because he was Daniel Cross.
"Ava," Marianne whispered, "don't come."
Nathan leaned into frame.
"Eleven fifty-five."
Ava stared at the man who once ordered her lunch and booked her flights.
"Hello, Daniel."
He smiled.
"That name was getting boring."
"Nathan, then."
His smile disappeared.
"So Malcolm finally told you."
"Malcolm tells me things eventually."
Nathan glanced off camera.
"You always did have bad taste in men."
Malcolm watched silently from across the room.
Ava said:
"Hurt my mother and I'll burn Northstar to the ground."
Nathan smiled again.
"That's exactly what we're hoping you'll do."
The call ended.
Thomas frowned.
"Why would they want that?"
Ava looked toward Malcolm.
He understood.
"The Ledger isn't Northstar's weakness."
Helen whispered:
"It's bait."
May you like
Ava nodded.
"They want me to open something worse."
