Chapter 8 - The gunshot shattered the cabin.The gunshot shattered the cabin.
Gabriel dropped.
Maren screamed.
Police flooded the camp seconds later.
Rebecca stood frozen, the pistol falling from her hand.
“Don’t shoot!” she shouted.
Maren dropped beside Gabriel.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Not his chest.
He was conscious.
Barely.
“You shot him.”
Rebecca stared at her daughter.
“He was reaching for a weapon.”
“He wasn’t!”
Gabriel groaned.
Mercer kicked the pistol away.
“Hands where I can see them!”
Rebecca raised both hands.
Maren couldn’t stop staring.
Seventeen years of grief.
Seventeen years believing this woman was ashes beneath a Vermont gravestone.
Now Rebecca stood ten feet away.
Alive.
Older.
Terrified.
“Maren,” she whispered.
“Don’t say my name.”
Rebecca flinched.
Paramedics rushed to Gabriel.
Maren remembered the closed door.
“Iris.”
She ran.
The room behind it contained a cot.
Food.
A small lamp.
No Iris.
“MERCER!”
They searched the cabin.
Empty.
A window at the back stood open.
Small footprints crossed damp earth.
Then disappeared near the tree line.
Gabriel was loaded into the ambulance.
Before the doors closed, he grabbed Maren’s wrist.
“Rebecca didn’t take Iris.”
Maren leaned closer.
“What?”
“She thinks I did.”
“Then who has her?”
His eyes fluttered.
“Your father.”
Maren’s blood stopped.
“Everett is dead.”
Gabriel shook his head weakly.
“Not Everett.”
The ambulance doors shut.
Maren stood in the fog.
Her father.
Daniel Cole?
The man who had supposedly died beside Rebecca?
Mercer walked Rebecca toward a police vehicle.
Maren blocked them.
“Is Daniel alive?”
Rebecca’s face changed.
That was answer enough.
“Where is he?”
“Maren—”
“Where is my father?”
Rebecca looked around at officers.
“Not here.”
Maren laughed bitterly.
Everyone in her life had apparently been trained to say that.
Mercer placed Rebecca in an interview room at the county station.
Maren watched through one-way glass.
Rebecca refused an attorney.
She asked only for coffee.
Then she began.
“My name is Rebecca Voss Cole.”
Maren entered the room.
“You don’t get to introduce yourself.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
Maren sat across from her.
“You left me.”
“I protected you.”
“By letting me bury you?”
“Yes.”
Maren nearly stood.
Mercer touched her shoulder.
Rebecca continued.
“The fire was staged because Everett found us.”
“After eleven years?”
“He never stopped looking.”
Maren remembered the funeral.
Lenora standing in black.
“Lenora knew.”
“Eventually.”
“Why didn’t you take me with you?”
Rebecca’s composure cracked.
“Because Daniel convinced me Everett would follow.”
“So you abandoned me?”
“You were seventeen. You had scholarships. Friends. A life.”
“I had parents.”
Rebecca cried silently.
“I know.”
“Where was Daniel?”
“With me.”
“Still alive?”
“Yes.”
Maren looked away.
The betrayal was almost physically painful.
“Gabriel says he has Iris.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“Gabriel lies.”
“He said Daniel has her.”
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“That’s possible.”
“You don’t know?”
“Daniel and I separated years ago.”
“Why?”
“He believed we should fight Guardian directly. I believed we should stay hidden.”
“Which one of you became Executor Three?”
Rebecca looked confused.
“Neither.”
Mercer leaned forward.
“Then who is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Celestine says you delivered orders.”
“I infiltrated Guardian.”
“You helped move Iris.”
“To keep her from Kellan.”
Maren stared.
“You took her from foster care?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Daniel was supposed to move her.”
“So Daniel has my daughter?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“I think so.”
“Where is he?”
“Last location was an old research property near Mount Katahdin.”
Mercer immediately dispatched teams.
Maren remained.
“Why did you kill Everett?”
Rebecca’s eyes opened.
“I didn’t.”
“You were at Blackthorn the night he died.”
“Yes.”
“So was Gabriel.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Everett called us.”
“Why?”
“He wanted out.”
Maren stared.
“Out of his own program?”
“He was dying.”
“The report said heart attack.”
“He had pancreatic cancer.”
Rebecca continued.
“He became afraid of what Guardian would do after he died. He wanted to expose it.”
“Convenient.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“When Gabriel and I arrived, Everett was already injured.”
“By whom?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Elodie saw Gabriel.”
“Gabriel tried to help him.”
Maren’s mind flashed to Elodie’s words.
That man made Grandpa sleep.
Maybe Gabriel administered medication.
Not murder.
Rebecca said,
“Everett gave us a drive containing identities. Every subject. Every Guardian operative.”
“Where is it?”
“Gone.”
“Who took it?”
“We thought Lenora.”
Mercer shook her head.
“Lenora says she didn’t.”
Rebecca laughed softly.
“Lenora says many things.”
Maren hated agreeing.
“Then what happened to Everett?”
“He died before the ambulance arrived.”
“No one called an ambulance.”
“Because Guardian security locked down the house.”
“Who controlled security?”
Rebecca’s face became grim.
“Adrian.”
Maren’s stomach turned.
“He was conditioned.”
“I know that now.”
“Then you know he may have activated the lockdown without awareness.”
“Who programmed him?”
Rebecca looked at Maren.
“Daniel.”
Maren stopped breathing.
“My father?”
“Daniel became obsessed with dismantling Everett’s system from inside.”
“By implanting Adrian?”
“He believed controlling Adrian gave us access.”
“Us?”
“Our resistance cell.”
Maren stood.
“You experimented on another human being to fight people who experimented on human beings.”
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Maren stared.
“You’re all the same.”
“No.”
“You just told yourselves a better story.”
Rebecca began crying.
Maren left.
Outside, Mercer received a call.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
The tactical team reached the mountain property.
No Daniel.
No Iris.
But they found evidence someone had left less than two hours earlier.
And a message burned into a wooden table.
MAREN MUST REMEMBER BEFORE SHE CAN HAVE THEM BACK.
“Them?” Maren whispered.
Mercer nodded grimly.
There was another discovery.
A hidden basement held two beds.
One child-sized.
One adult.
On the adult bed was Adrian’s missing wedding jacket.
Maren stared.
“But Adrian is home.”
Mercer called the protective detail.
No answer.
Then Maren’s phone rang.
Adrian.
She answered.
“Where are you?”
His voice came quietly.
“Maren, don’t panic.”
“Where is Elodie?”
“She’s with me.”
Maren’s heart slammed.
“What did you do?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does that mean?”
“I woke up driving.”
Maren closed her eyes.
“Where?”
“I don’t know. There are trees. A dirt road.”
Elodie’s voice sounded in the background.
“Mommy?”
Maren nearly broke.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Adrian whispered,
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“I’m not alone.”
Maren heard a man say,
“Give me the phone.”
Adrian did.
A familiar voice came on.
Daniel Cole.
The father she had buried seventeen years earlier.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Maren’s knees almost failed.
“Give me my daughter.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
“Not until you remember why you asked me to take her.”
Maren froze.
“What?”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Five years ago, before Elodie was born, you found me.”
“No.”
“You remembered everything for seventy-three minutes.”
Maren stopped breathing.
“And during those seventy-three minutes, you made me promise one thing.”
“What?”
Daniel answered.
“If Guardian ever activated Phase IV, I was to take both your daughters and disappear.”
Maren looked at Mercer.
“Both?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“I have Iris.”
Maren gripped the phone.
“And Adrian?”
“Adrian followed Elodie. His programming led him here.”
“Where are you?”
“Come alone.”
“No.”
“Maren.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“You once trusted me with your life.”
“I was seventeen.”
“No.”
A pause.
“You were thirty.”
Then the call ended.
A text arrived.
Coordinates.
May you like
And beneath them, one final sentence.
BRING REBECCA.
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