Chapter 10 - Margaret Graves
Margaret Graves looked nothing like a ghost.
She looked healthy.
Controlled.
Almost amused.
Elena stared at the woman whose grave she had visited every year for thirteen years.
Ryan kept his weapon raised.
Margaret looked at him.
"Andrew's boy."
"Don't call me that."
"You have his temper."
Elena stepped forward.
"I buried you."
"I know."
"You let me."
"Yes."
Elena struck her.
The sound echoed through the hallway.
Margaret's head turned.
She slowly looked back.
"I deserved that."
Elena's eyes burned.
"Where is Michael?"
Margaret's expression changed.
"I don't know."
Elena froze.
"You told Kessler he was dead."
"No."
"Kessler's records—"
"Were altered."
Ryan stepped closer.
"By you?"
"To protect Michael."
Elena laughed in disbelief.
"You expect me to believe you?"
"No."
Margaret looked toward the files downstairs.
"I expect you to verify everything."
They returned to the study.
Margaret unlocked a hidden cabinet.
Inside were drives, photographs, and handwritten journals.
She explained that Sentinel had split into two factions eighteen years earlier.
One faction wanted to terminate the project.
The other wanted to privatize it.
Michael and Andrew attempted to expose the second faction.
Andrew died.
Michael vanished.
Margaret staged her death after discovering that Elena had been placed under observation.
"Why Elena?" Ryan asked.
Margaret looked at her daughter.
"Because she was Michael's contingency."
Elena frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Michael believed if Sentinel survived long enough, you would eventually reach a command position capable of destroying it."
Elena stared.
"So my career—"
"Was yours."
Margaret interrupted firmly.
"Sentinel tried to influence it. Sometimes successfully. Sometimes not."
Ryan thought of his own career.
"And me?"
Margaret looked at him.
"You were never supposed to meet Elena."
Ryan laughed.
"Didn't go according to plan."
"No."
Margaret's eyes narrowed.
"Which is why I'm frightened."
Elena folded her arms.
"Of what?"
"The bar."
Margaret walked toward a computer.
She displayed the security footage from that night.
Ryan watched himself enter.
Jake.
Chris.
Matt.
Elena.
Then Margaret rewound.
Twenty minutes before Elena arrived, a man entered the bar.
He spoke briefly with the bartender.
Then left.
Margaret zoomed in.
Ryan recognized him.
Major Price's deputy.
Captain Nolan Reeves.
Margaret turned toward Elena.
"Your test was compromised before it started."
Elena's phone rang.
Major Price.
Elena answered.
Price didn't greet her.
"Commander, get out of that house."
Elena looked toward the window.
"Why?"
Price's voice trembled.
"Because Margaret Graves died thirteen years ago."
Elena looked at her mother.
May you like
Price continued.
"And I just opened the coffin."
