Chapter 3 - THE SISTER IN THE GARAGE
Thomas replayed the footage three times.
Ava did not need three viewings.
She had memorized Evelyn's face from the passport.
The woman walking beside Claire's wheelchair was unmistakably her.
"She kidnapped Claire."
Thomas shook his head.
"We don't know that."
"Claire vanished from a hospital room and is being wheeled through an underground garage by Malcolm's people."
"Claire is sitting upright."
"That makes it better?"
"No. It makes it unclear."
Ava turned toward him.
"You've spent sixteen years looking for Evelyn. What do you know about her?"
"Very little."
"Try me."
Thomas opened a database.
"Evelyn Mercer was born Evelyn Rose Mercer according to one sealed document. Two days later her birth certificate was voided. She was reassigned through the Northstar network and raised under three different surnames."
"Why three?"
"Her adoptive father died when she was four. Her second guardian disappeared when she was twelve. At seventeen, Evelyn entered the foster system under the name Ward."
"The same last name as your investigator."
"Coincidence or design. I never determined which."
"What does she do?"
"Officially? Medical logistics consultant."
"Unofficially?"
Thomas hesitated.
"She moves people."
Ava looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"Witnesses. Patients. Runaways. People who need new identities."
"For criminals?"
"Sometimes."
Ava turned back to the monitor.
Claire's wheelchair entered a service elevator.
The camera angle ended.
"We find her."
"Police first."
"You trust the police?"
"Some of them."
"You faked your death because people tried to kill you and now you're recommending law enforcement?"
"Because if we chase Evelyn blindly, we'll lose Claire."
Ava called Ryan.
He answered immediately.
"Tell me where she is."
"We saw her leaving the hospital."
"With who?"
"I don't know yet."
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Ava."
"Ryan, if you come here, you make yourself another target."
"My wife is missing."
"Your wife was sleeping with Malcolm."
"She's still my wife."
Ava closed her eyes.
There it was.
The terrible complexity of love.
Betrayal did not automatically erase fear.
"I'll send you somewhere safe."
"I don't want safe."
"You have two children at home."
That stopped him.
Ryan and Claire had two daughters.
Sophie, eight.
Emma, five.
Both were sleeping at Ryan's mother's house.
"Go to the girls," Ava said.
Ryan whispered:
"If Claire chose Malcolm..."
"She didn't choose whatever happened tonight."
Ryan exhaled.
"Find her."
"I will."
Thomas interrupted.
"We need to move."
He pointed toward the security feed.
A man had appeared at the far end of the industrial building's hallway.
Tall.
Dark jacket.
Gun.
Ava stared.
"How did they find us?"
Thomas was already closing files.
"They didn't find us."
"What?"
"They found me."
The man outside reached the office door.
Thomas drew a pistol.
Ava stepped back.
The door opened.
"Don't shoot."
A woman entered behind the armed man.
Ava recognized her immediately.
Dr. Helen Pierce.
Former Chief Medical Officer of Halcyon Dynamics.
Ava had fired her eighteen months earlier for falsifying trial data.
Helen looked exactly as Ava remembered.
Silver hair.
Cold blue eyes.
Controlled contempt.
"You."
Helen gave a thin smile.
"I see Thomas finally decided family reunions were unavoidable."
Ava stared at her father.
"You know her?"
Thomas lowered his weapon.
"Unfortunately."
Helen entered.
The armed man closed the door.
"Claire Rollins isn't being kidnapped."
Ava moved closer.
"Then where is she?"
"Being protected."
"By Evelyn?"
"Yes."
"Protected from whom?"
Helen looked at Thomas.
"You haven't told her."
"I've told her enough."
"No. You've told her history."
Helen turned to Ava.
"Your husband is dying."
Ava almost laughed.
"He looked healthy enough to destroy two marriages."
"I'm not talking about tonight's episode."
Helen opened a tablet.
A brain scan appeared.
"Malcolm has a progressive neurological condition. Rare. Aggressive. Untreated, he has perhaps eighteen months."
Ava's anger flickered.
She hated that a part of her still reacted to the word dying.
"Why should I care?"
"Because Malcolm believes you can save him."
Ava stared.
"How?"
Helen zoomed into a genetic report.
"You and Malcolm share a biological marker."
Thomas swore.
Ava looked between them.
"What marker?"
Helen didn't answer directly.
"Remember the Northstar program? It wasn't only about embryos."
"What else?"
"Gene-line compatibility."
Ava felt the room tilt.
"No."
Helen's eyes held hers.
"Malcolm wasn't recruited because he married you."
She paused.
"He married you because he had been selected years earlier."
Ava whispered:
"Selected for what?"
Helen looked at the medical report in Ava's hand.
"For you."
Ava felt nauseated.
Thomas stepped forward.
"We don't know that."
Helen looked at him.
"I do."
"How?"
"Because I was there when they matched them."
Ava stared.
"Who is they?"
Helen's expression changed.
For the first time, fear entered her face.
"The people who built Northstar never disappeared. They simply changed names."
She opened another document.
At the top was a symbol Ava recognized from Malcolm's hidden safe.
A black circle intersected by three vertical lines.
Under it were two words.
THE LEDGER.
May you like
Helen whispered:
"And your family has been inside it for three generations."
