Chapter 8 - THE DEAD MAN IN THE TUNNEL
Nell forgot how to breathe.
The man stood twenty feet away, partially hidden by dust.
His hair had gone gray at the temples. A scar crossed his chin. His shoulders were thinner than she remembered.
But she knew his face.
“Dad?”
Piper raised the metal stool.
The man lifted both hands.
“Nell, stay where you are.”
Her legs moved before her mind could stop them.
She took one step.
Then another.
Piper caught her arm.
“Make him prove it.”
Nell looked at her.
“That’s my father.”
“You thought the man behind the glass was Evan.”
The warning cut through the shock.
Nell stopped.
The man’s expression filled with pain.
“Piper is right.”
He removed the watch and placed it on the ground.
“What did you tell me after my first debate competition?” Nell asked.
The man smiled faintly.
“You lost because you tried to win every argument instead of answering the question.”
“What did I say?”
“You said answering questions was boring.”
Nell’s eyes burned.
Only her father would know that.
“What did you call Evan when he broke the kitchen window?”
“Your mother called him irresponsible. I called him Left Foot because that was the foot he used to kick the ball.”
Nell pulled free from Piper.
She crossed the distance and threw her arms around him.
Michael Carter held her tightly.
For several seconds, the tunnel, the school and the danger disappeared.
Then Nell remembered the coffin.
She stepped back and struck him across the chest.
“You were dead.”
“I know.”
“We buried you.”
“The body was not mine.”
“Mom cried every night for a year.”
“I know.”
“Evan thought he had to protect us because you were gone.”
“I know.”
“You do not get to say that.”
Michael lowered his head.
“No. I don’t.”
Piper watched them from a distance.
“Were you part of the program?”
Michael looked at her.
“I helped build its data architecture before I understood what it was becoming.”
“And then?”
“I tried to destroy it.”
Nell wiped tears from her face.
“Why fake your death?”
“Marcus Vale discovered I had copied the master index. He threatened you, Evan and your mother. Adrian arranged the accident so I could disappear.”
“Adrian helped you?”
“He wanted to expose Marcus too.”
“Then why has he been pretending to be his brother?”
“Because Daniel Rowan was one of the program’s public administrators. His identity provided access.”
Nell’s anger sharpened.
“You had six years to expose them.”
“Every copy I released was replaced with altered data. Witnesses vanished. Investigators were bribed. I needed the original archive and both biometric keys.”
“Evan and me.”
“Yes.”
“You used us.”
“I tried to keep you outside it.”
“You enrolled us as children.”
Michael’s expression changed.
“I did not.”
“Elena said we were subjects 41A and 41B.”
“You were listed as subjects because Marcus wanted leverage against me. I secretly changed your classification. You were not conditioned.”
Piper looked away.
“Unlike me.”
Michael said nothing.
The silence answered her.
A crackle came through a radio clipped to Michael’s belt.
“Asset located near the east junction.”
A man’s voice.
Michael grabbed the radio and turned down the volume.
“They are close.”
“Who?” Nell asked.
“Marcus’s security team.”
“Do they have Evan?”
“Not yet.”
“The monitor showed him being captured.”
“Prerecorded footage.”
Nell frowned.
“Elena said it was live.”
“Elena wants the compass moved to B3.”
Piper’s face hardened.
“She told us B3 was a trap.”
“It is. But she still needs you to reach it.”
“Why?”
Michael looked at Nell.
“Because Elena does not want to destroy the Continuity Program.”
From behind the collapsed passage, Adrian shouted for Nell.
Elena called too.
Michael pulled Nell farther down the tunnel.
“Do not tell them you found me.”
Nell resisted.
“They helped us.”
“Adrian helped me once. I don’t know who he serves now.”
“And Elena?”
“Elena believes the program can be used to punish everyone responsible.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“She does not mean through courts.”
Piper moved closer.
“What does she mean?”
“She plans to release every private file publicly. Not only the crimes. Medical records. Family secrets. Childhood recordings. Every vulnerable moment collected over thirty years.”
Piper went pale.
Michael continued.
“Thousands of innocent people would be destroyed alongside the guilty.”
“The blue box releases the files,” Nell said.
“The box controls which version is released. Marcus wants the altered archive. Elena wants everything. Evan wants only verified evidence of crimes sent to investigators.”
“And what do you want?”
Michael looked at the compass around Nell’s neck.
“I want the archive erased completely.”
“Even the evidence about Evan’s kidnapping?”
“Even the evidence about my own false death.”
Nell stepped back.
“No.”
“Nell.”
“No. People suffered. Piper’s mother lost seventeen years. Evan lost eight months. You abandoned us for six years. You do not get to erase the truth because it is complicated.”
“If the archive opens, no one controls what follows.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that when you built it.”
Footsteps approached from the darkness behind Michael.
He switched off his flashlight.
“Hide.”
They moved into a narrow maintenance recess.
Three armed guards passed through the tunnel.
One spoke into a radio.
“Cross and Elena survived the collapse. Hale is injured but mobile. Carter’s daughter is missing.”
Another answered.
“Vale wants the girl alive. Piper is expendable.”
Piper’s body stiffened.
Michael placed a finger against his lips.
The guards continued.
After they disappeared, Piper whispered, “My father ordered them to kill me?”
“He expects fear to bring you back under control,” Michael said.
“He does not know me anymore.”
“He may know you better than you know yourself.”
Piper raised the stool toward him.
“Say that again.”
Nell stepped between them.
“We need Evan.”
Michael pointed toward a ladder leading upward.
“The North Residence is directly above us.”
They climbed into the basement of an old house.
Dusty furniture filled the rooms. Portraits of former headmasters hung on the walls.
At the top of the stairs, they found blood on the floor.
A trail led toward a locked study.
Michael used the watch to open it.
Inside, Evan sat beside a desk, pressing a cloth against his wounded arm.
Nell ran to him.
This time, before touching him, she asked, “What was engraved on Dad’s watch?”
Evan looked at Michael behind her.
His face filled with disbelief.
Then anger.
“Two hands find north.”
Nell embraced him.
Evan held her with one arm.
Over her shoulder, he stared at their father.
“You were supposed to stay dead.”
Michael closed the door.
“You were supposed to leave the archive alone.”
Evan’s expression became cold.
“I did.”
Everyone looked at him.
Evan removed the watch from his wrist and placed it beside Nell’s compass.
“I already opened it.”
Far beneath the house, a powerful machine came alive.
The blue box timer jumped forward.
00:59:59.
00:59:58.
00:59:57.
May you like
Evan looked at Nell.
“In one hour, every secret at Westbridge will be released.”
