Chapter 13 - The Son of the Dead Man
Michael raised both hands.
“Don’t shoot.”
Sarah aimed at him.
“Move away from the hatch.”
He climbed fully into the room.
The metal ring remained clipped inside his jacket.
Duke watched it.
Michael’s face was younger than Elias’s, but the eyes were the same.
Cold gray.
Constantly measuring.
Jack stepped between Michael and Duke.
“You staged the bus attack.”
“I staged the meeting. Tommy created the violence.”
“You paid him.”
“I paid him to test whether Duke still recognized the marker.”
“You put civilians at risk.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t know Tommy would grab the collar.”
“You selected a violent man and gave him a target.”
“That was a mistake.”
“No. It was a choice.”
The rifle beneath the floor remained trained on the hatch.
Michael glanced down.
“Northstar security will enter this room in less than three minutes.”
Vale finally raised her pistol.
“Then tell us the exit.”
“There isn’t one unless Duke opens it.”
Jack’s hand rested against the dog’s harness.
“How?”
“Three scent markers in sequence. He was trained to touch them in the correct order.”
Sarah looked around.
“The rings.”
Michael nodded.
“My ring is the first. Vale’s is the second. The third belongs to Elias.”
“Why would Elias’s own board trap him?” Emily asked.
“Because he hid the authentication cipher from them.”
Jack understood.
“They need him alive until they recover it.”
“And they need Duke,” Michael said.
Daniel stared at him.
“Are you helping your father or betraying him?”
Michael looked toward the hatch.
“I haven’t decided.”
The honesty was almost worse than a lie.
A red light appeared above the sealed shutter.
Security approaching.
Michael unclipped his ring and placed it on the floor.
Duke stepped toward it.
Jack gave no command.
The dog sniffed once and touched it with his paw.
Vale removed her own ring and set it ten feet away.
Duke crossed the room and touched it second.
A section of the wall opened, revealing a narrow cavity.
Empty.
“The third marker,” Michael said.
“Elias has it below.”
Jack looked into the hatch.
The rifle barrel withdrew.
An invitation.
Or a trap.
Emily crouched beside the medical monitor.
“The pulse is unstable.”
“Whose?” Jack asked.
“I still don’t know.”
Sarah’s eyes met his.
“If you go down there, Elias will use your memory against you.”
“He already is.”
Jack clipped Duke’s leash to the harness.
“You stay here.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I lost nine years because everyone decided what I could survive. Don’t do it again.”
Jack looked at her.
The anger between them had not disappeared.
Neither had the love.
Both were too damaged to name.
“Then stay behind Duke.”
They descended together.
Michael first.
Jack and Duke second.
Sarah behind them.
Emily followed despite Vale ordering her not to.
Daniel stayed above with Rebecca to delay security.
The underground chamber was larger than the room above.
Server racks lined the walls.
Cables ran through standing water.
At the center, Elias Voss sat restrained in a steel chair.
He was alive.
Older.
Thinner.
A medical line ran into his arm.
The third metal ring hung around his neck.
A masked Northstar guard stood behind him with a rifle.
Elias smiled when he saw Jack.
“You brought my son.”
Michael’s face went hard.
“You used my mother’s death to recruit me.”
“She died because Rebecca failed to extract her.”
Vale shouted from above.
“That is a lie.”
Elias laughed.
“Everything is a lie when the wrong person survives.”
The red security light began flashing faster.
Jack moved toward Elias.
The guard aimed at Duke.
Sarah raised her pistol.
Michael stepped between the rifle and the dog.
“Not him.”
Elias watched his son with sudden interest.
Jack saw the shift.
A father recognizing disobedience.
Duke stared at the ring around Elias’s neck.
The dog’s breathing changed.
Then he looked away from Elias and toward the masked guard.
The guard wore the real third ring beneath one glove.
Elias’s ring was false.
Jack turned.
The masked guard removed his face covering.
May you like
Tommy stood beneath it.
And he was no frightened street thug anymore.
