Chapter 12 - Five Seconds
00:04.
Dante fired.
Victoria vanished behind the doorway.
00:03.
Adrian, bleeding from the shoulder, slammed his palm onto the detonator.
00:02.
He tore out the battery.
00:01.
The timer froze.
Mara stared.
Nobody breathed.
Then Adrian laughed.
“Easy.”
Dante punched his good shoulder.
Adrian screamed.
“Wrong shoulder!”
“You scared me.”
“You’re welcome.”
Mara stepped off the pressure plate.
Nothing happened.
Her knees gave out.
Dante caught her.
She buried her face against his chest.
For several seconds she let herself shake.
Then Sofia cried.
Mara moved immediately.
Sebastian reached her first.
He cut the ropes.
Sofia threw her arms around him.
“Dad.”
Dante stopped.
One word.
Dad.
Sebastian closed his eyes.
Held her.
Dante watched.
Pain moved across his face.
Mara touched his arm.
“Blood isn’t the only thing.”
Dante looked at her.
He understood.
Then Victoria’s voice echoed over the intercom.
“How touching.”
Everyone looked upward.
“You have ninety seconds before the archive purges.”
Evelyn ran to the main terminal.
“Mara!”
They hurried over.
The recovered encryption module fit the system.
Mara inserted it.
Files unlocked.
Names filled the screen.
Thousands.
Luca started copying data.
“Three minutes.”
“We have ninety seconds,” Adrian said.
“Then I lied.”
They heard security doors closing.
Victoria intended to trap them.
Dante looked toward the exit.
“Copy what matters first.”
Mara searched.
Crane.
Vale.
Voss.
Government officials.
Trafficking routes.
Payments.
One folder appeared.
PROJECT MARA.
She froze.
Dante noticed.
“Open it.”
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Mara age four.
Six.
Ten.
Sixteen.
College.
Graduation.
Marina.
Hundreds.
Victoria had tracked her entire life.
Mara felt sick.
Then she saw a final file.
CURRENT DIRECTIVE.
She opened it.
TERMINATE EVELYN VOSS.
CAPTURE MARA VOSS ALIVE.
Reason:
PARENTAGE CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Mara stared.
“What?”
Evelyn went still.
Henry wasn’t there.
Dante looked at Evelyn.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn’s face emptied.
“Mara.”
“No.”
“Mara, I—”
“Who is my father?”
Silence.
Mara stepped closer.
“Who is my father?”
Evelyn whispered, “Henry.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“That file suggests otherwise.”
“He raised her.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Mara stared at her mother.
“Who?”
Evelyn cried silently.
“I don’t know.”
Mara almost laughed.
“You don’t know?”
“It wasn’t what you think.”
“Then what?”
“I was drugged.”
The room changed.
Mara’s anger stopped.
Evelyn looked ashamed.
Mara immediately hated that shame.
Not her fault.
Not hers to carry.
Victoria’s organization had done it.
The archive file contained DNA research.
North Crown believed Mara might be the biological daughter of someone valuable.
They had watched her because they weren’t sure.
Mara closed the file.
“I don’t care.”
Evelyn stared.
“What?”
“Henry is my father.”
Her voice became firm.
“Whatever happened to you doesn’t change that.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Mara stepped forward.
For the first time in twenty-two years, she hugged her mother.
Evelyn broke.
The embrace lasted seconds.
But decades existed inside it.
Luca shouted.
“Copy complete!”
Security shutters began closing.
They ran.
Victoria fired from the upper catwalk.
Sebastian pushed Sofia behind him.
A bullet hit Sebastian.
He fell.
Sofia screamed.
“Dad!”
Dante returned fire.
Victoria retreated.
Mara knelt beside Sebastian.
Blood spread across his abdomen.
“Go,” he whispered.
Sofia grabbed him.
“No.”
Sebastian looked at Dante.
“Take her.”
Dante hesitated.
Sebastian smiled weakly.
“She’s your sister.”
Dante nodded.
“We take both of you.”
He and Luca lifted Sebastian.
They reached the tunnel.
Explosions sounded behind them.
Victoria was destroying the archive.
Too late.
They had the files.
They emerged onto the beach.
Coast Guard helicopters appeared overhead.
Mara looked at Dante.
“You called them?”
“No.”
Adrian smiled.
“I did.”
Dante looked at him.
“You trust federal agents now?”
“I trust one.”
Helicopters landed.
Agents rushed forward.
A woman in tactical gear approached Adrian.
“You owe me.”
Adrian smiled.
“Dinner?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Twenty-two years in prison might be more appropriate.”
“After dinner?”
Dante stared.
Mara laughed despite everything.
Sebastian was evacuated.
Alive.
Barely.
Sofia went with him.
Evelyn boarded another helicopter.
Mara stayed with Dante.
Then Luca ran toward them.
“Victoria.”
Dante looked around.
“What?”
“She’s gone.”
Mara’s stomach dropped.
“Boat?”
“No.”
“Helicopter?”
“No.”
Adrian checked the shoreline.
Then stopped.
A trail of blood led toward the cliffs.
Dante followed.
Mara beside him.
They reached an old maintenance tunnel.
Door open.
Inside, darkness.
On the floor lay Victoria’s pistol.
Blood beside it.
No body.
Mara stared into the tunnel.
Dante lifted his weapon.
A sound came from within.
Footsteps.
Moving away.
Then a phone began ringing somewhere inside the darkness.
Dante looked at Mara.
She looked at him.
The screen on the abandoned phone lit up.
May you like
Caller:
HENRY VOSS.
