Chapter 8 - LOCKER 218
Denver Union Station was already crowded when Ava and Ryan arrived.
Thomas wanted to come.
Ava refused.
If someone wanted the Mercer file, she would control what they received.
She brought copies.
Nothing original.
Ryan walked beside her beneath the high terminal ceiling.
"You think Claire will forgive me?"
Ava looked at him.
"Wrong question."
He sighed.
"You think I'll forgive her?"
"Also wrong."
"What's the right question?"
"Do you want the truth before you decide?"
Ryan nodded.
"Yeah."
"Then start there."
Locker 218 stood in a lower transit corridor.
Ava entered the code written on the photograph.
The date of her unauthorized procedure.
She hated Malcolm for turning pain into passwords.
The locker opened.
Inside sat a black duffel bag.
Ryan unzipped it.
Money.
Approximately fifty thousand dollars.
A pistol.
A passport bearing Adrian Cole's name.
And a voice recorder.
Ava pressed play.
A man's voice spoke.
If you're hearing this, Malcolm found me before I found you.
Ryan gripped the locker.
The voice sounded eerily similar to his.
My name is Adrian. I believe I'm your twin brother.
Ryan shut his eyes.
I don't know who our biological parents were. Northstar moved us as infants. I spent twenty years believing I had no living family.
Ava looked around the station.
Someone might be watching.
Adrian continued.
Six years ago I discovered Northstar and tried to expose them. They staged my death. I've been underground since.
Ryan whispered:
"Another fake dead relative."
Ava almost smiled.
The recording continued.
Malcolm Hayes found me eight months ago. He offered a deal. Help him destroy Eleanor Hayes and he would give me the original birth records.
Ava's expression hardened.
I refused.
Because Malcolm isn't trying to destroy Northstar.
He's trying to own it.
Ava froze.
Malcolm had positioned himself as victim, rebel, puppet.
But power fit him better than any of those roles.
Adrian continued.
Eleanor controls the Ledger now. Malcolm wants control transferred to Ava.
Ryan looked at her.
"Why you?"
The recorder answered.
Because Ava Mercer Hayes is the only living person whose biometric signature can open Samuel Mercer's inheritance archive.
Ava stared.
Biometric signature.
She remembered Northstar's obsession with genetics.
Adrian continued.
Malcolm needs Ava to open it willingly. He cannot force access. The system was designed to detect stress markers and coercion.
Ava almost laughed.
"My grandfather built a safe that cares about feelings."
Ryan didn't smile.
The recording continued.
Inside Samuel's archive is the list.
Every child Northstar moved.
Every family that bought one.
Every judge, doctor, senator, CEO, and donor who participated.
Silence.
Ava imagined the consequences.
Thousands of identities destroyed.
Families shattered.
Criminal charges.
Political collapse.
Adrian's voice softened.
That list can destroy Northstar.
Or control it.
Malcolm wants the second option.
The recording clicked.
Then Adrian's tone changed.
Ryan, if you want to know whether I'm alive, look across the station.
Ryan lifted his head.
A man stood on the opposite mezzanine.
Dark coat.
Blue eyes.
Ryan's face.
Older around the edges.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Adrian.
Ryan stopped breathing.
The brothers stared at each other across the crowd.
Then Adrian turned.
"Wait!"
Ryan ran.
Ava followed.
They pushed through commuters.
Adrian disappeared down a staircase.
Ryan reached the lower platform.
"Adrian!"
A train roared past.
For three seconds, the platform vanished behind motion and steel.
When the train cleared, Adrian was gone.
But someone else stood there.
Malcolm.
The real Malcolm.
Black wool coat.
No hospital gown.
No illness visible.
Ava stopped.
Ryan lunged.
Malcolm raised both hands.
"Before you hit me, you should know Claire is alive because of me."
Ryan punched him anyway.
Malcolm fell against a bench.
Blood appeared on his lip.
"That felt deserved," Malcolm muttered.
Ryan grabbed his collar.
"Where's my wife?"
"Safe."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Ryan hit him again.
Ava pulled Ryan back.
"Enough."
Malcolm looked at her.
For one terrible second, Ava saw the man she had loved.
Then she remembered the medical report.
"You sterilized me."
Malcolm's face changed.
"I prevented Northstar from implanting an embryo."
Ava stared.
"What?"
"They weren't planning for you to conceive naturally."
"You're lying."
"No."
Malcolm wiped blood from his mouth.
"The procedure wasn't to stop you from having children forever. It was to stop Eleanor from using you before I could get you out."
"You forged my signature."
"Yes."
"You let me believe I was infertile."
"Yes."
"You watched me suffer."
His face tightened.
"Yes."
Ava slapped him.
Malcolm accepted it.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Northstar monitored you."
"Convenient."
"Because if they thought you knew, they'd kill you."
"They're doing a poor job keeping me safe now."
Malcolm looked toward the mezzanine.
"They're not trying to kill you anymore."
"Why?"
"Because Samuel's archive has activated."
Ava remembered the storage unit.
"How?"
"You opened the medical envelope."
She stared.
"The envelope?"
"A biometric fiber seal."
Malcolm gave a tired laugh.
"Samuel was paranoid."
"So you needed me to open it."
"Yes."
"You staged the hospital scene."
"I arranged for the duplicate to be there."
"Duplicate."
"A man named Peter Sloan. Reconstructive surgery. Voice training."
Ryan looked disgusted.
"And Claire?"
"Claire wasn't supposed to be there."
Ava frowned.
"Then why was she?"
Malcolm's expression darkened.
"Eleanor put her there."
"Why?"
"To force you to destroy me publicly before I could move against her."
Ava stared.
"So both of you used the same hospital room to manipulate me."
Malcolm nodded.
"Basically."
Ava almost admired the absurdity.
"Where is Eleanor now?"
Malcolm's face became serious.
"Going after your mother."
Ava's blood turned cold.
She grabbed her phone.
No answer from Marianne.
Thomas didn't answer either.
Then Ava received a photograph.
Her mother's kitchen.
Empty.
A broken chair on the floor.
Blood beside the refrigerator.
A message beneath it:
May you like
BRING AVA TO NORTHSTAR.
OR MARIANNE MERCER DIES AT MIDNIGHT.
