Chapter 9 - The Sister at the Ball
Caroline slapped her father.
The sound echoed through the secure room.
General Hayes did not react.
Daniel stared at Caroline as though reality had become something physical and unstable.
Caroline's hands shook.
"You told me my mother had an affair with a civilian contractor."
Hayes whispered, "She did."
"With him?"
"Yes."
"With Frederick Whitmore?"
"Jonathan Mercer."
Caroline covered her mouth.
Daniel sat down.
Rachel watched both of them.
Half siblings.
Two biological heirs to Project Warden.
Victoria had tried to maneuver them into proximity without telling either one.
Whether she intended romance or merely political partnership did not matter.
The violation was grotesque.
Daniel looked at his mother.
"You knew."
Victoria whispered, "Frederick told me Caroline might be his."
"Might be?"
"I never had proof."
"And you encouraged me to spend time with her."
"Not romantically."
Caroline laughed in disbelief.
"You told me Daniel's marriage was failing."
Victoria said nothing.
Daniel's face became cold.
"Get her out."
Rachel nodded to Officer Cole.
Victoria protested.
"Daniel."
"Out."
She was escorted away.
Caroline turned to Hayes.
"Did my mother know?"
"Eventually."
"Is that why she left?"
Hayes looked away.
Caroline understood.
Her mother had died five years earlier.
A woman Caroline had spent years blaming for abandoning the family before returning ill and broken.
Another lie.
Rachel hated Frederick more with every revelation.
Thomas interrupted.
"We need Caroline's authorization."
She looked at him.
"For what?"
Rachel explained the secondary successor lock.
Caroline stared at the screen.
"So the lunatic dead man who fathered us built a private army that needs our DNA."
"Not exactly," Thomas said.
Daniel glared.
"Thomas."
"Yes. Essentially that."
Caroline laughed despite herself.
Then started crying.
Daniel stood awkwardly.
For a moment neither knew how to look at the other.
Rachel stepped away, giving them space.
It lasted five seconds.
The countdown continued.
Caroline wiped her eyes.
"What do you need?"
"A biological sample and voice authentication."
She nodded.
The system accepted her immediately.
SECONDARY SUCCESSOR CONFIRMED: CAROLINE E. HAYES.
The target list unlocked.
Rachel opened it.
Twenty-three names appeared.
Several were senior defense officers.
Two were intelligence officials.
One was a senator.
One was a federal judge.
Lieutenant General Hayes was number four.
He stared.
Caroline looked at him.
"Dad."
Hayes sat down.
Daniel read another name.
"General Andrew Cole."
Rachel knew him.
Retired chairman.
Respected nationally.
Thomas pointed.
"Three civilians are defense contractors."
Rachel scrolled.
Then stopped.
Target seventeen.
RACHEL MONROE.
Daniel looked at her.
"Vale said you weren't the target."
Rachel examined the coding.
"My designation is different."
Twenty-two names were marked REMOVE.
Rachel's was marked RECOVER.
Daniel whispered, "Recover what?"
The Crown Ledger.
Rachel knew without saying it.
Then she noticed one final entry.
Target twenty-four.
Not visible before.
STATUS: CONDITIONAL.
NAME: DANIEL F. WHITMORE.
Caroline whispered, "You're on your own target list."
Daniel stared.
Rachel opened the condition.
IF PRIMARY SUCCESSOR REFUSES TRANSFER, TERMINATE SUCCESSION.
Caroline's name had the same instruction.
Rachel stepped back.
"This isn't your father's system anymore."
Hayes nodded slowly.
"Someone modified Warden."
"When?"
Thomas ran version history.
"Six months ago."
Rachel looked at Victoria's timeline.
Frederick contacted her three months earlier.
Meaning someone altered Warden before Frederick resurfaced.
Maybe Frederick had returned because he discovered it.
Not because he controlled it.
Rachel considered a possibility she hated.
"What if Frederick isn't our enemy?"
Daniel looked at her.
"You cannot be serious."
"He lied, manipulated your mother, helped build an illegal command network, and participated in Grayhaven. That makes him many things."
"But?"
"But someone modified his system to kill both successors."
Daniel stared.
"And recover you."
"Yes."
Thomas said, "Which means the person who initiated Lantern wants the successors activated and then eliminated."
Caroline looked sick.
"So who inherits after us?"
Everyone turned toward Hayes.
He whispered, "Nobody."
Rachel frowned.
"That doesn't make sense."
Hayes looked at the screen.
"Warden was designed to terminate if the lineage ended."
Thomas opened succession protocol.
Hayes was right.
No successor.
Project dissolution.
Rachel suddenly understood.
"They don't want Warden."
Daniel looked at her.
"Then what?"
"They want it destroyed."
Caroline asked, "Why activate it first?"
Rachel pointed at the target list.
"Because before Warden dies, it eliminates everyone who knows how the Crown network works."
Thomas nodded slowly.
"A cleanup."
Operation Lantern was not a coup.
It was an eraser.
Someone wanted twenty-three people removed, Warden destroyed, and whatever Rachel supposedly possessed recovered.
The Crown Ledger.
Daniel looked at the countdown.
Seven hours.
"How do we stop the cells?"
Rachel examined the protocol.
"If the successors jointly issue a countermand during execution phase."
"When is execution phase?"
Thomas read the system.
"Thirty minutes before activation."
"So we wait six and a half hours?"
"No," Rachel said. "We find whoever controls the payload before then."
Caroline looked toward her father.
"Who could modify Warden?"
Hayes whispered three names.
"Frederick. Vale. And Dr. Nathan Sloane."
Thomas searched.
Nathan Sloane.
Civilian cryptographic architect.
Founder of multiple defense software companies.
Current location unknown.
Rachel read his biography.
Then saw the photograph.
She recognized him.
He had been at the gala.
The quiet elderly man sitting beside the stage.
The man who had left ten minutes before Victoria tried to have Rachel arrested.
Thomas checked departure footage.
Sloane entered a black sedan.
Vehicle registration belonged to a government contractor.
The sedan had not left Fort Alden.
It drove toward an abandoned section of the installation.
Rachel enlarged the route.
Old airfield.
Hangar 17.
Daniel looked at the brass key taken from Vale.
W-17.
May you like
Rachel closed her hand around it.
"We're going to the airfield."
