Chapter 24 - The Prisoner Who Disappeared
Daniel Carter vanished from federal custody at 2:17 a.m.
No explosion.
No armed assault.
No tunnel.
He walked out.
Security footage showed a federal transport team entering his unit.
Correct uniforms.
Correct credentials.
Correct transfer paperwork.
Two officers signed him over.
The receiving team placed Daniel in restraints and escorted him into an armored vehicle.
Twenty-seven minutes later, the real transport team arrived.
By then, the vehicle was gone.
The credentials belonged to agents who had died years earlier.
The transfer order carried a federal judge's electronic signature.
Perfectly forged.
Priya stared at the report in disbelief.
"This network has access beyond anything we've mapped."
Reed said, "Or someone inside is helping them."
Claire felt almost nothing.
Daniel was gone.
Kidnapped.
Possibly willingly.
Possibly not.
Three months earlier, that news would have destroyed her.
Now it felt like another piece moving across a board she no longer trusted.
Meadow reacted differently.
"Are they going to hurt him?"
Claire looked at her.
"I don't know."
Meadow stared at the floor.
"I don't want him back."
"I know."
"But I don't want him dead."
"I know."
Meadow rubbed her arms.
"Can both be true?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
That was all.
The next communication arrived twelve hours later.
A photograph.
Daniel sitting in a chair.
Hands bound.
Face bruised.
Alive.
Behind him stood Walter.
This time there was no mask.
No attempt to conceal location.
Walter held a sheet of paper.
The message typed beneath the photograph read:
ONE FAMILY.
TWO DAUGHTERS.
ONE EXCHANGE.
Claire read it twice.
"No."
Priya looked at her.
"We haven't received demands yet."
"That's the demand."
Claire's voice hardened.
"He wants Wren traded for Daniel."
Reed shook his head.
"That makes no sense. They already have Wren."
Claire looked at him.
"Unless they don't."
Silence.
Priya's eyes narrowed.
"What if Wren escaped?"
The photograph of Walter in Croatia.
The video in Virginia.
The school fire.
The drainage tunnel.
The messages might not all have come from the same faction.
Claire looked at the words again.
ONE EXCHANGE.
"What if Margaret has Wren and Walter has Daniel?"
Priya said nothing.
"Different sides."
Reed looked toward the investigation board.
"Walter inherited Margaret's network. That doesn't mean they're still allied."
Priya began rearranging evidence.
Margaret appeared near Claire's house.
Walter appeared overseas.
Wren's first video warned Claire away.
The school contained Margaret and Wren.
Walter kidnapped Daniel afterward.
Two factions.
One child between them.
Claire whispered, "They're fighting over Wren."
The next message confirmed it.
This time the sender identified herself.
MARGARET.
A secure text appeared on Priya's device.
WALTER DOES NOT HAVE WREN.
Neither do you.
If you want Daniel alive, do not give Walter what he asks for.
Claire stared.
Priya typed:
WHERE IS WREN?
The reply came immediately.
SAFE.
Claire grabbed the phone.
"Ask her why she was at the school."
Priya typed.
Margaret answered:
TO REMOVE HER BEFORE WALTER ARRIVED.
Then:
YOU ARE STILL THINKING LIKE A MOTHER.
START THINKING LIKE A SUBJECT.
Claire felt a chill.
"What does that mean?"
Reed looked at the Pair 05 documents.
"The experiment isn't over."
Priya typed:
WHAT DOES WALTER WANT?
Margaret replied with one sentence.
HE WANTS MEADOW TO CHOOSE.
Claire's pulse jumped.
"Choose what?"
May you like
The answer arrived.
WHICH FATHER LIVES.
