Chapter 13 - The Factory Lockdown
Richard’s factory entered lockdown at midnight.
Two hundred employees were trapped inside.
Meridian operatives seized the control room.
Thomas Vale appeared on the security feed.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
He wore the same silver ring.
Vale demanded the Black Echo master key in exchange for releasing the workers.
The key did not exist as a physical object.
It required biometric authorization from two active agents.
Rachel was one.
Marcus was the other.
Vale knew both were at the hospital.
He had planned the entire sequence.
The wedding.
The basement.
The parking-lot attack.
Even the emergency beacon.
He wanted Rachel to activate Black Echo so Marcus would appear with a live command tablet.
Vale’s people failed to seize the tablet in the hallway.
Now he used the factory employees as leverage.
Richard wanted to surrender.
“Give him whatever he wants.”
Rachel sat upright despite the pain.
“If he gains Black Echo access, every undercover agent becomes visible.”
“That factory is full of innocent people.”
“So is every operation he’ll expose.”
Jessica stepped forward.
“There’s another entrance.”
Richard looked at her.
As children, Rachel and Jessica often played inside the factory after school.
Jessica remembered an old drainage tunnel beneath the original warehouse.
Richard believed it had been sealed during renovations.
Jessica knew a section remained accessible behind a storage wall.
Rachel could not walk.
Marcus refused to let her leave the hospital.
Jessica said:
“Then I’ll go.”
Rachel immediately refused.
“You have no training.”
“I got into that basement. I copied the file. I fooled the officer with the shoe.”
“This is different.”
Jessica looked at her.
“You spent your life protecting us without letting us choose. I’m choosing now.”
Rachel saw the truth.
Protecting Jessica could not mean controlling her.
Marcus prepared a small team.
Jessica would guide them through the tunnel.
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Rachel would coordinate remotely from the hospital.
The sister who had called her a nobody would now become the only person who could lead Black Echo inside.
