Chapter 4 - My Mother’s Lie
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Emily held her father’s letter so tightly the paper bent.
“You knew?” she asked.
Mitchell shook his head.
Hayes looked equally stunned.
Emily read the name again.
Adrian Vale.
Her father’s letter said Vale had ordered his death.
Her mother had just claimed she changed the name.
Why?
To protect someone?
To frame Vale?
To save Emily?
Emily folded the letter.
“We’re getting her back.”
Mitchell stepped forward.
“Crowe expects that.”
“Good.”
“He wants you emotional.”
“Then he’s getting his wish.”
“Emily—”
She turned on him.
“He has my mother.”
“And rushing into an ambush gets both of you killed.”
Emily stared at him.
“Then help me make it a better ambush.”
Ortiz traced Crowe’s transmission.
A remote airfield sixty miles south.
Abandoned Soviet facility.
Hayes knew it.
“Two hangars. Underground storage. One access road.”
“Crowe’s people?”
“Unknown.”
Emily studied satellite images.
“He wants the letter, which means he doesn’t know the name.”
Mitchell nodded.
“And Margaret knows something he doesn’t.”
“Then she’s more valuable alive.”
“For now.”
Emily looked at Garrett’s captured image.
“What about him?”
Hayes shook his head.
“If Crowe took Garrett prisoner, Garrett finally broke with the Council.”
“Or it’s theater.”
“Possible.”
Emily hated that every explanation had two versions.
They built a plan.
Hayes would approach visibly with the letter.
Mitchell and Jensen would infiltrate from the eastern ridge.
Emily would enter through an old drainage tunnel.
Ortiz would control communications.
“Crowe expects you,” Jensen said.
Emily loaded her pistol.
“Crowe threw me out of a helicopter. Expectations aren’t his strength.”
They moved before dawn.
The Soviet airfield emerged from the mountain plain like a corpse.
Broken concrete.
Rusting structures.
A single hangar lit from inside.
Emily crawled through the drainage tunnel.
Water soaked her knees.
Pain from the fall had become a constant companion.
At the far end she emerged beneath the hangar floor.
Voices above.
Crowe.
Margaret.
Garrett.
Emily climbed a maintenance ladder and looked through a grated opening.
Margaret sat tied to a chair.
Garrett was ten feet away.
Crowe paced between them.
Four armed men guarded the room.
Not the same operators from the helicopter.
Private contractors.
Crowe checked his watch.
“Your daughter’s late.”
Margaret smiled faintly.
“You threw her out of a helicopter.”
“She’s resourceful.”
“She gets that from Robert.”
Crowe’s expression hardened.
“Robert was a fool.”
“No. Robert believed people could choose to be better.”
“Same thing.”
Garrett lifted his head.
“You talk too much, Jack.”
Crowe struck him.
Emily’s hand tightened.
Garrett spat blood.
“You should have killed me on the aircraft.”
Crowe crouched in front of him.
“You planted the card.”
Garrett said nothing.
“I searched Carter before takeoff.”
“You didn’t search me.”
Crowe smiled.
“You always were sentimental.”
Emily felt something change inside her.
Garrett had planted it.
He had chosen the only opportunity he had.
Maybe he had let her fall because he believed she could survive.
That did not make forgiveness easy.
But it made the truth more complicated.
Hayes’s voice came through Crowe’s radio.
“I have the letter.”
Crowe stood.
“Bring it inside.”
“Release Margaret first.”
Crowe laughed.
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
Hayes walked into the hangar holding the envelope.
Emily watched from below.
Crowe held out his hand.
Hayes stopped twenty feet away.
“Where’s Carter?”
“Dead.”
Crowe smiled.
“You’re a bad liar.”
Hayes looked at Margaret.
“You okay?”
“I’ve been better.”
Crowe pointed his weapon.
“Letter.”
Hayes tossed it onto the concrete halfway between them.
Crowe gestured to one guard.
The man approached.
At that moment, power died.
Darkness.
Ortiz.
Emily kicked open the grate.
Gunfire erupted.
She rolled behind a crate.
Jensen fired from the eastern window.
Mitchell entered through a side door.
Hayes dove toward Margaret.
Crowe shouted orders.
Emily fired twice.
One contractor dropped.
Garrett threw himself sideways, knocking another man off balance despite his restraints.
Hayes cut Margaret loose.
Crowe grabbed the letter and ran.
Emily saw him.
She pursued.
He disappeared through a rear door.
Outside, engines roared.
Crowe reached an SUV.
Emily fired.
The rear glass shattered.
The vehicle accelerated away.
“Crowe!”
She ran after it but stopped.
Her mother.
Emily turned back.
Margaret stood inside the hangar.
Alive.
Emily crossed the distance between them without remembering moving.
Margaret wrapped her arms around her.
For one second Emily became fifteen again.
Then she pulled away.
“You lied to me.”
Margaret nodded.
“Yes.”
“My entire life.”
“About some things.”
“Who is Sarah Bennett?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Your biological mother.”
“Is she alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you change Dad’s letter?”
Margaret looked toward Mitchell.
“He told you that?”
“I read it.”
“Then Robert’s backup worked.”
“What name did he originally write?”
Margaret did not answer.
Emily stepped closer.
“Mom.”
“Robert became convinced someone close to him was Council.”
“Who?”
“He wrote the name in several letters.”
“And you changed them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed he was wrong.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at Garrett.
Emily followed her eyes.
No.
Garrett shook his head.
“Margaret.”
She whispered, “Frank.”
Emily stared at him.
“My father thought Garrett ordered his death?”
“Yes.”
Garrett looked devastated.
“He never told me.”
“Because he suspected you.”
“I spent eighteen years trying to finish what he started.”
Margaret said, “I know.”
Emily’s anger sharpened.
“You changed the name from Garrett to Adrian Vale.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the night Robert died, Frank brought him home.”
“That makes him look guilty.”
“He was crying.”
Emily stopped.
“I had known Frank for years. I had never seen him cry.”
Garrett looked away.
Margaret continued.
“He told me Robert had been poisoned. He begged me to take you and disappear.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Robert had already arranged protection.”
“With who?”
Margaret hesitated.
Emily understood.
“Sarah.”
Margaret nodded.
“Sarah was alive then.”
Mitchell stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I knew she survived Prague.”
“You told Robert?”
“Yes.”
“And not me?”
“Robert didn’t trust anyone by then.”
Mitchell looked hurt.
Emily barely noticed.
“When was the last time you saw Sarah?”
Margaret answered quietly.
“The night your father died.”
The room changed.
“She was there?”
“Yes.”
Emily stepped back.
“Did she kill him?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I saw what happened.”
Everyone fell silent.
Margaret looked at Emily.
“Robert met Sarah at the Dulles hotel because she had discovered the identity of the Council’s director.”
“Who?”
“She never said the name.”
“What happened?”
“Someone poisoned Robert’s drink.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t see.”
“Then what did you see?”
“Sarah holding him when he collapsed.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“Frank arrived minutes later. We moved Robert home because he had begged us not to let the Council know he had met Sarah.”
“Why?”
“Because Sarah was carrying the only complete copy of the Council ledger.”
Emily remembered the call.
Switzerland.
“Where did she go?”
“Geneva.”
Mitchell looked at Ortiz.
“The medical institute.”
Margaret nodded.
“She had contacts there.”
Emily’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Sarah’s voice.
“You rescued Margaret.”
Emily looked around.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m watching Crowe.”
“Where?”
“He’s coming to me.”
Emily’s pulse quickened.
“He has the letter.”
“I know.”
“Why does he want it?”
“Because Crowe still doesn’t know who actually leads the Council.”
Emily frowned.
“He works for them.”
“He works for a layer of them.”
“Then who leads it?”
Sarah was silent.
“Tell me.”
“I’ll tell you in person.”
“Geneva?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Immediately.”
The call ended.
Emily looked at the others.
Garrett said, “You can’t go.”
“I’m going.”
“If Sarah has survived this long, she survives by trusting no one.”
“Apparently that runs in the family.”
Margaret touched Emily’s arm.
“There’s something you need to know before you meet her.”
Emily turned.
Margaret’s face had changed.
“What?”
“Sarah didn’t disappear to save herself.”
“Then why?”
“To save you.”
“From what?”
Margaret glanced at Mitchell.
Then Garrett.
Then Hayes.
“The Council wasn’t hunting Robert because he discovered their weapons trafficking.”
Emily frowned.
“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
“It was only part of it.”
“What was the other part?”
Margaret took a breath.
“Your father discovered that the Council had created a classified program using American soldiers without their knowledge.”
Emily stared at her.
“What kind of program?”
Before Margaret could answer, Ortiz shouted from across the hangar.
“Emily!”
She turned.
Ortiz had opened a file recovered from Crowe’s abandoned terminal.
A list filled the screen.
Hundreds of military names.
Some marked ACTIVE.
Some marked DEAD.
Emily walked closer.
Then she saw the heading.
PROJECT SENTINEL.
Her own name was first.
Beside it was a date.
The date was eighteen years before she joined the Army.
Emily whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Ortiz opened the attached personnel file.
A childhood photograph appeared.
Emily was six years old.
Across the bottom was one sentence.
SUBJECT CARTER APPROVED FOR LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT.
Emily looked at Margaret.
Her mother was crying.
“You knew.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not until after Robert died.”
Emily opened the next page.
One signature authorized the program.
The person who signed it was still alive.
Still powerful.
And Emily had spoken to him that morning.
May you like
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Hayes stepped backward.
Emily slowly turned toward him.
