Chapter 8 - MARGARET'S REAL NAME
The black SUV swerved in front of them.
Ramirez cursed.
“What the hell?”
Margaret’s vehicle turned sharply onto a service road.
The second SUV remained behind Claire.
Ramirez had seconds to decide.
Claire shouted, “Follow her!”
“That could be exactly what they want.”
“Daniel told me to listen to her.”
Ramirez turned.
They left the highway.
The second SUV followed for another half mile.
Then suddenly disappeared.
Margaret’s vehicle stopped beneath an abandoned overpass.
Ramirez pulled up twenty yards behind it.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“I am not sitting in a van waiting for another stranger to decide what happens to my family.”
She opened the door.
Margaret stepped out of the SUV.
The cuffs were gone.
She was accompanied by an older man wearing a baseball cap.
Ramirez drew her weapon.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Margaret raised both hands.
“I’m not your enemy.”
“You were in federal custody.”
“No. I was in Hale’s custody.”
“Where are the agents?”
“They weren’t agents.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Who are you?”
Margaret looked at her.
“My real name is Margaret Mercer.”
Claire felt a chill.
“Mercer.”
“Daniel was my younger brother.”
Emma gasped.
Margaret looked at her.
“Hello, Emma.”
Emma hid behind Claire.
Margaret’s face tightened with pain.
“I understand.”
Claire’s anger rose.
“You humiliated my daughter on that plane.”
“Yes.”
“You shoved our boarding passes onto the floor.”
“Yes.”
“You told us to go away.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were never supposed to sit beside me.”
Claire stared.
Margaret continued.
“I boarded Flight 417 under Collins because I was carrying Daniel’s credential and message to Washington. I believed you were still in Denver.”
“Then why were they addressed to me?”
“Because I was supposed to deliver them to a secure attorney.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at the older man.
He removed his cap.
Claire recognized him.
Alan Reed.
Daniel’s former estate attorney.
The man who had handled his will.
Claire backed away.
“You.”
Alan looked ashamed.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“You signed the death paperwork.”
“Yes.”
“You sat in my living room and told my daughter her father was gone.”
“I know.”
“Was he?”
Alan didn’t answer.
Claire lunged.
Ramirez caught her.
“Claire.”
“Tell me!”
Alan looked her in the eyes.
“No.”
Emma began sobbing.
Claire felt the world split open.
Daniel was alive.
Somewhere.
He had allowed them to bury an empty coffin.
He had allowed Emma to wake screaming for months.
He had allowed Claire to give birth without him.
“Where is he?”
Margaret answered.
“We don’t know.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“Hale does.”
“Then take me to Hale.”
“You don’t understand him.”
“I understand that everyone keeps telling me what I don’t understand.”
Margaret approached slowly.
“Victor Hale built Continuity.”
Claire stopped.
“He wasn’t one of Daniel’s coworkers. He was Daniel’s handler.”
“Handler?”
“Daniel infiltrated Northstar for the Department of Internal Analysis. Hale supervised him.”
“So Hale was government.”
“Originally.”
“And now?”
Margaret’s expression hardened.
“Now we believe Hale is Northstar.”
The older attorney opened the SUV’s rear door.
Inside were boxes.
Files.
Photographs.
Claire saw one labeled WHITMORE.
Margaret pulled it out.
“Daniel spent years collecting evidence.”
She opened it.
The first photograph showed Claire leaving Silver Ridge Reproductive Center.
The second showed Daniel speaking to a doctor.
The third showed a newborn nursery.
Then Claire saw a photograph that made her knees weaken.
Oliver.
Taken at the hospital.
Hours after birth.
A black circle with three vertical lines had been drawn on the back.
Below it were the words:
May you like
MALE CONFIRMED.
ACTIVATE CONTINUITY HEIR PROTOCOL.
