Chapter 6 - The Grave That Was Empty
My mother had died six years earlier.
I held her hand in the hospital.
I watched her heart monitor stop.
I stood beside my father’s empty grave while we buried her next to it.
There are facts your mind refuses to question because questioning them would destroy too much.
Then I saw Laura Vance step out of General Cross's vehicle.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
"Dad."
Elias couldn't speak.
Hale stared at the security image.
"That's impossible."
My father finally whispered, "No."
He looked at me.
"With Unit Thirteen, death is paperwork."
We reached the cemetery before dawn.
I refused to stay behind.
Cross had taken enough from me.
My father pushed my wheelchair.
Rex moved ahead.
The graves of Elias and Laura Vance stood side by side beneath an old oak.
One empty.
Apparently both.
Cross stood between them.
My mother stood beside him.
She looked at me.
"Mara."
I didn't answer.
She took one step.
Rex growled.
She stopped.
"Please."
"You're dead."
Tears filled her eyes.
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
"I had no choice."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
My voice broke.
"Everyone keeps making choices for me and calling them protection."
Cross smiled.
"That's my girl."
I looked at him.
"I'm not anything of yours."
"More than you know."
He pointed toward my mother's grave.
"The ledger."
My mother closed her eyes.
"Laura," Elias said. "Don't."
She looked at him.
Twenty-two years passed between them in one stare.
"I'm sorry."
Cross handed her a shovel.
She didn't take it.
"Do it yourself."
Cross's expression changed.
There it was.
The man behind the medals.
The man behind Unit Thirteen.
He grabbed her arm.
Rex stepped forward.
Cross released her.
"Control your dog."
I almost smiled.
"No."
Hale and Ava were positioned beyond the cemetery wall.
Cole watched the road.
We needed Cross talking.
We needed confession.
Ava was transmitting everything through a secure satellite link.
For the first time, Cross couldn't erase it.
I looked at my mother.
"Why?"
She told me.
Six years ago, she discovered Cross had begun watching me.
She contacted Elias.
That was how my parents reunited.
Not romantically.
Not yet.
But as two people trying to protect their daughter.
Cross discovered the contact.
Laura staged her death before he could use her against Elias.
The woman whose hand I held in the hospital?
My mother.
The death had been medically induced.
Temporary cardiac arrest.
A corrupt physician certified her death.
Hours later, Unit Thirteen removed her from the morgue.
She had been Cross's prisoner ever since.
"Why is she with you now?" I asked him.
Cross answered.
"Because everyone cooperates eventually."
My mother looked at him with pure hatred.
He had brought her because she knew how to access the ledger.
Cross believed emotional leverage would force us all into obedience.
He still didn't understand.
Fear works best when people are alone.
We weren't.
My mother suddenly kicked the shovel into Cross's hand.
His gun fell.
Rex moved.
Cross reached for another weapon.
Rex knocked him backward.
Not biting.
Just impact.
Hale emerged.
"Don't move!"
Ava came from the opposite side.
Cole secured Cross's weapon.
For one perfect second, I thought it was over.
Then Kessler appeared behind my father.
Gun against Elias's head.
"Everybody lowers their weapons."
My stomach dropped.
Kessler had escaped again.
Cross laughed from the ground.
"Did you really think there were only thirteen?"
Hale lowered his weapon.
Ava followed.
Kessler dragged Elias toward the graves.
Cross stood.
He brushed dirt from his uniform.
"The number was never personnel."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"Thirteen is a protocol."
Thirteen cells.
Independent.
Compartmentalized.
Cut one off, another survives.
The archive we'd found was only one cell.
The ledger connected them all.
Cross needed it.
My mother looked at me.
Then at Rex.
Something passed between us.
A memory.
When I was a child, Mom used to hide my birthday gifts and make me find them using clues.
She always said the same phrase when I was close.
Warm enough.
She looked toward the grave.
"You're getting warm, Mara."
Cross frowned.
I understood.
Not under the coffin.
Near it.
Rex understood my hand signal.
Search.
He moved around the grave.
Stopped at the headstone.
Scratched.
Hale kicked loose a decorative stone.
Behind it was a waterproof container.
Cross lunged.
So did Kessler.
Everything happened at once.
My mother tackled Cross.
Hale moved toward Elias.
Ava fired into the ground beside Kessler, forcing him back.
Rex intercepted.
Cole grabbed the container.
Kessler swung at Rex.
My father hit him.
Cross threw my mother aside and ran toward Cole.
I rolled directly into his path.
He couldn't stop.
He crashed over the wheelchair.
We both hit the ground.
Pain tore through my legs so violently my vision disappeared.
Cross recovered first.
He stood above me.
Exactly like Kessler in Training Bay Four.
He smiled.
"Still down, little girl."
Rex heard him.
The same words.
The same threat.
He came like a missile.
Cross froze.
"Call him off!"
I looked at the man who had destroyed my family.
"No."
Rex knocked him down and pinned him by the arm.
Cross screamed.
"Rex, hold."
The dog obeyed.
Perfectly.
Hale handcuffed Cross.
Ava secured Kessler.
My mother crawled toward me.
"Mara."
I looked at her.
Anger.
Love.
Grief.
Relief.
Too many emotions for one body.
So I did the only thing I could.
I reached for her.
She hugged me.
My father joined us.
For the first time since I was nine years old, both of my parents were holding me.
It should have felt like an ending.
It wasn't.
Cole opened the waterproof container.
Inside was the ledger.
And a phone.
The phone rang.
Everyone stared at it.
Unknown caller.
I answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
"General Cross was never the Director."
Cross started laughing.
I looked at him.
The voice continued.
"He was only Number One."
Then the cemetery gates slowly opened.
A black government vehicle entered.
It stopped beside my father's grave.
The rear door opened.
Someone stepped out.
May you like
My mother whispered:
"Oh God."
