Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN THEY ERASED
Sarah Mason had officially died in 2001.
Car accident.
Virginia.
Age twenty-nine.
Except Daniel Mason had identified no body.
He had been deployed overseas.
By the time he returned, she had been cremated.
Mason said he had always accepted it because there seemed no reason not to.
Vale disagreed.
“There was every reason.”
Mason looked at him with hatred.
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe she was dead.”
“Yes.”
Mason struck Vale.
Ethan did not interfere.
Vale wiped blood from his lip.
“I deserved that too.”
“Where was she?”
“Working for LANTERN.”
“Doing what?”
“Internal psychology.”
Mason looked sick.
“She was a clinical psychologist.”
“I recruited her.”
“You recruited my sister into illegal human experimentation.”
“She thought it was trauma treatment.”
“And when she learned otherwise?”
Vale’s silence answered.
Mason’s voice dropped.
“She tried to leave.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“We staged her death.”
Mason lunged again.
Ethan stopped him.
“Not yet.”
Mason glared.
Ethan looked at Vale.
“Sarah was at Site Twelve the night of the fire.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She was helping you.”
Ethan frowned.
“How?”
“She discovered JANUS was being used to hide the Cross identity inside your memory.”
“Frank wanted it out.”
“Yes.”
“Sarah wanted it protected.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Cross’s network had penetrated federal agencies. If we extracted the name, Frank would deliver it upward.”
Mason whispered, “To Cross himself.”
Vale nodded.
“Sarah believed the only safe place for the information was inside Ethan.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“So everyone wanted something from my brain.”
Vale accepted that.
“Yes.”
“What happened during the fire?”
“Sarah planned your escape.”
“With Caleb?”
“Yes.”
“Why Caleb?”
“Because she loved him.”
Mason looked at Vale.
“My sister knew your son?”
Vale’s face softened.
“She cared for him when I was absent.”
“Were they together?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Mason noticed.
“Were they?”
Vale looked away.
“Briefly.”
Mason stared in disbelief.
“Your son called my sister Aunt Sarah because she was sleeping with you?”
Vale sighed.
“That is an aggressively simplified version.”
Ethan cut in.
“Focus.”
Vale nodded.
“Sarah sabotaged the lower-level power grid. She intended to free Ethan and Caleb during the blackout.”
“The explosion?”
“Not planned.”
“Who caused it?”
“I believed Frank.”
“Christine says Frank blamed me.”
“He blamed everyone depending on the audience.”
Ethan looked at Mason.
“Sarah survived?”
Vale shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“I lost consciousness.”
“Who was the burned man?”
Vale became silent.
Ethan stepped closer.
“You know.”
“No.”
“Vale.”
“I have a theory.”
“Say it.”
Vale looked at Mason.
“Daniel.”
Mason frowned.
“What?”
“The body they found twelve miles away.”
Mason stared.
“No.”
“You were injured that night.”
“I was outside.”
“Were you?”
Mason opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
Ethan watched him.
“Your memory is missing too.”
Mason sat slowly.
“I woke in a hospital three days later.”
“Burns?”
“No.”
“Any surgery?”
Mason touched his jaw unconsciously.
Vale noticed.
“What?”
Mason said, “Reconstructive surgery.”
Ethan went still.
“Why?”
“They said vehicle accident.”
Vale whispered, “Daniel.”
Mason stood.
“No.”
Vale approached.
“Do you have original dental records from before 2004?”
Mason stared at him.
“No.”
Ethan felt cold.
The corpse in Christine’s trunk had Ethan’s reconstructed dental profile.
The burned man in Frank’s basement had been called Ethan.
Mason woke after the fire with reconstructive surgery.
Three identities.
Three manipulated histories.
Frank had been moving names like pieces on a board.
Rachel entered carrying a tablet.
“You all need to see this.”
She placed it on the table.
Lab results from the corpse.
Advanced DNA reconstruction.
Ethan scanned the page.
“No database match?”
“There is one.”
“Who?”
Rachel looked at Mason.
“The body in Christine’s trunk is genetically related to you.”
Mason sat down.
“How related?”
Rachel answered carefully.
“Sibling-level probability.”
Mason stopped breathing.
“My sister.”
Rachel nodded.
“Most likely.”
Sarah Mason.
Dead in 2001.
Alive in 2004.
Dead now.
A corpse disguised as Ethan Walker.
Ethan stared at the report.
“Frank wanted us to think I was dead using Sarah’s body.”
Vale looked horrified.
“Why now?”
Mason whispered, “To close the file.”
Ethan looked at him.
“No.”
He understood suddenly.
“To open another one.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Frank knew DNA would eventually identify Sarah.”
Mason frowned.
“So?”
“So he wanted you to find her.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked toward Vale.
“Because Sarah knew what happened at Site Twelve.”
Vale whispered, “She can’t tell us now.”
Ethan stared at the report.
“Maybe she already did.”
Rachel frowned.
“How?”
Ethan remembered something from the hospital.
The corpse had been wearing an old military identification tag.
He called the evidence technician.
“Read me everything engraved on Sarah’s tag.”
A minute passed.
The technician answered.
“Name Ethan Walker. Service number. Blood type.”
“Anything else?”
“Small scratches.”
“What scratches?”
“Could be damage.”
“Read them.”
The technician magnified the image.
“Letters. Maybe numbers.”
“Say them.”
“C... R... O... W.”
Ethan went still.
“Anything else?”
“One number.”
“What?”
“17.”
Mason whispered, “Crow Seventeen.”
Vale looked terrified.
“What is Crow Seventeen?”
Mason answered.
“A dead drop.”
“Where?”
May you like
Mason looked at Ethan.
“A bank vault in Washington.”
