Chapter 10 - Hangar 17
Hangar 17 looked abandoned from the outside.
Rust streaked the doors.
Grass pushed through cracks in the tarmac.
No exterior lights.
No guards.
Rachel knew immediately that it was active.
Abandoned military buildings collected dust unevenly.
This one had fresh tire marks.
Thomas stayed with Daniel and Caroline while Rachel entered with Officer Cole and two federal tactical agents.
The brass key opened a small personnel door.
Inside, the hangar was dark.
Rows of retired equipment stood beneath canvas.
Rachel moved deeper.
Then lights activated.
Not overhead.
Floor strips.
A path.
Someone wanted them to follow.
Cole whispered, "Trap."
"Obviously."
"Still going?"
"Obviously."
At the center of the hangar stood a modern glass enclosure completely hidden behind old equipment.
Inside sat Dr. Nathan Sloane.
Seventy-one.
Thin white hair.
Gray suit.
Hands folded.
No weapon visible.
Rachel entered.
Sloane smiled.
"Deputy Director Monroe."
"Doctor."
"I wondered whether you'd recognize me."
"From the ballroom?"
"From Prague."
Rachel stopped.
Prague.
Eleven years earlier.
A diplomatic conference.
She had been a major then.
A man at a railway café had given her an encrypted drive after pretending to spill coffee on her coat.
She had never learned his identity.
Sloane smiled.
"Blue coat."
Rachel remembered.
"You were the courier."
"One of them."
Rachel sat opposite him.
"Where is Frederick?"
"Nearby."
Daniel entered behind her.
Rachel turned sharply.
"I told you to stay outside."
Daniel looked at Sloane.
"You've had enough people deciding what I should know."
Rachel wanted to argue.
She didn't.
Sloane studied Daniel.
"You look like him."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Where is my father?"
"Closer than you think."
"Stop speaking like a spy novel."
Sloane laughed.
"Your father said the same thing."
Rachel placed the W-17 key on the table.
"Vale died to give us this."
Sloane's smile disappeared.
"Marcus is dead?"
"You didn't know."
"No."
Rachel watched his grief.
Real.
"Who activated Lantern?"
Sloane leaned back.
"Not Frederick."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Who modified the system six months ago?"
Sloane hesitated.
"I did."
Daniel stepped forward.
Rachel raised a hand.
"Why?"
"Because Frederick asked me to."
Rachel's eyes narrowed.
"He asked you to add his children to a kill condition?"
"No."
Sloane's expression changed.
"What kill condition?"
Thomas entered and showed him the screen.
Sloane stood.
"This isn't my code."
"Somebody altered your alteration."
"When?"
"After you."
Sloane grabbed the tablet.
He examined the metadata.
Then went pale.
"Root certificate."
Rachel leaned closer.
"What?"
"Whoever changed this used the original Crown root certificate."
"The Crown network?"
Sloane looked at her.
"The Crown isn't a network."
Rachel frowned.
"What is it?"
Sloane stared.
"It's one office."
"Which office?"
He laughed bitterly.
"The problem is we never knew."
Daniel slammed his palm against the table.
"My father."
Sloane looked toward him.
"Frederick has spent fifteen years trying to identify it."
"While pretending to be dead."
"Because the Crown office controls identity systems, military records, classified travel, procurement layers, intelligence compartmentation. Every time he surfaced, people died."
Daniel's voice cracked.
"So he abandoned me."
Sloane said nothing.
Daniel's eyes filled.
"You people always call abandonment protection."
Rachel looked down.
That sentence was for her too.
Sloane continued.
"Frederick's modifications were meant to dismantle Warden safely. He realized hereditary control was his greatest mistake."
Caroline entered.
"My existence was apparently another."
Sloane stared at her.
For the first time he seemed genuinely shocked.
"You shouldn't be here."
Caroline laughed.
"Wonderful greeting."
Sloane looked toward Hayes.
"You told her?"
"We had no choice."
Sloane shook his head.
"No, you don't understand. Frederick didn't list Caroline as secondary successor."
Rachel went still.
"The system did."
"I know."
"Then who?"
Sloane turned to Caroline.
"Frederick never confirmed you were his daughter."
Caroline stared.
"You said the biological test confirmed it."
Thomas checked the database.
Sloane grabbed the tablet.
"Run the reference sample."
Thomas did.
The result appeared.
Caroline's DNA had been compared against an archived sample labeled JONATHAN MERCER.
Sloane stared at the sample ID.
"That's not Frederick's genetic profile."
Daniel looked toward Rachel.
"Then whose is it?"
Sloane whispered, "I don't know."
Rachel felt everything shift.
"Daniel's test used the same reference."
Thomas checked.
Yes.
Both successors had been matched against a false or substituted genetic profile.
Daniel stared.
"So he may not be my father either?"
Sloane shook his head.
"No. Frederick is your father. I knew him before your birth."
"Then why fake the reference?"
"To make someone else qualify."
Caroline whispered, "Me."
Rachel understood.
Caroline had been inserted into the lineage.
Someone wanted her to be secondary successor.
Why?
Sloane suddenly turned toward the hangar doors.
A low mechanical sound had begun.
Rachel recognized it.
Hydraulic locks.
The hangar sealed.
Thomas checked communications.
"Jammed."
Lights went out.
A voice came through hidden speakers.
Male.
Distorted.
"You should have stayed at the ballroom, Deputy Director."
Rachel stood.
Daniel looked around.
The voice continued.
"Now all surviving successors are in one room."
Caroline whispered, "Surviving?"
Rachel drew her weapon.
Then the distorted voice said something that froze Daniel completely.
"Hello, son."
May you like
Daniel looked toward the speakers.
"Father?"
