Chapter 15 - Mercer Makes His Move
Greyhaven looked like a warehouse designed by someone who hated windows.
Concrete walls.
Reinforced doors.
Security cameras.
No visible signs.
By the time Mercer and I arrived, Damian’s vehicles were already outside.
Empty.
My stomach turned.
“How many men went in?”
“Eight,” Mercer said.
“Why only eight?”
“Because subtlety occasionally visits him.”
“This is not funny.”
“No.”
Mercer checked his weapon.
“Stay behind me.”
“Damian has been saying that for three days.”
“He’s usually correct.”
“I’m surrounded by irritating men.”
Mercer almost smiled.
We entered through a maintenance door his people had opened.
Inside, alarms were silent.
Too silent.
We found two of Damian’s guards unconscious.
Alive.
Sedative darts.
I checked breathing.
Stable.
“Keane expected them.”
“Yes.”
We moved deeper.
Then the building speakers activated.
“Ethan.”
Keane’s voice.
Mercer stopped.
“You disappoint me.”
“I’ve been hearing that my whole life.”
“You should have remained with Olivia.”
“She’s safer without you near her.”
Keane sighed.
“Always emotional.”
Mercer raised his voice.
“Where is Cross?”
“Learning.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I studied the hallway.
Air vents.
Emergency lights.
Fire suppression cylinders mounted behind glass.
System labels.
I read them.
“Inergen.”
Mercer looked at me.
“What?”
“Fire suppression gas.”
“The system you mentioned?”
“Yes.”
I found the manual release.
Locked.
Building-wide alarm suddenly activated.
Red lights flashed.
A mechanical voice announced:
FIRE SUPPRESSION SEQUENCE ARMED.
“Wonderful,” Mercer muttered.
DISCHARGE IN FIVE MINUTES.
“More than three,” I said.
“What?”
“Never mind.”
We ran.
Damian and Marcus were in the central server room.
Victor sat nearby, finally free.
Jonathan stood behind a glass security partition.
Keane beside him.
Damian saw me.
His expression became furious.
“How—”
“Not now.”
Mercer shouted, “Suppression system!”
Marcus checked his watch.
“We know.”
“Exit locked,” Victor said.
“We need control room.”
Jonathan’s voice came through an intercom.
“You’re all very predictable.”
Damian stepped toward the glass.
“Open the doors.”
“No.”
Keane looked at him.
“This was always the final test.”
Damian laughed coldly.
“You plan to kill everyone?”
“Not everyone.”
Jonathan looked toward a side door.
It unlocked.
“Damian can leave.”
I stared.
Keane continued.
“One exit. One person.”
Of course.
Another choice.
Another leverage experiment.
Damian looked at the open door.
Then at us.
“No.”
Keane frowned.
“You haven’t heard the terms.”
“I don’t care.”
“If you leave, Northstar transfers to you. Jonathan disappears. Your people live if you accept command.”
“That’s more than one person.”
“The system stops after your biometric confirmation.”
Damian understood.
“Otherwise?”
“Suppression activates.”
THREE MINUTES REMAINING.
My pulse hammered.
Victor yelled, “Just do it!”
Damian looked at him.
“Accept the transfer.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t mean you keep it.”
Keane spoke through the intercom.
“Transfer is permanent.”
Damian smiled.
“Nothing is permanent.”
He approached the biometric terminal.
Keane’s eyes brightened.
I realized the trick.
“Wait.”
Damian looked at me.
“Keane needs your biometric approval.”
“Yes.”
“That means the system recognizes you.”
“So?”
“So maybe it recognizes more than acceptance.”
I examined the terminal.
Three options.
TRANSFER.
ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW.
EMERGENCY LEGACY ACCESS.
“Legacy access,” I said.
Jonathan’s expression changed behind the glass.
There.
I noticed.
Fear.
“Choose legacy.”
Keane slammed his hand against the intercom.
“No.”
Damian looked at him.
Then at me.
“Why?”
“Because Jonathan reacted.”
Damian smiled.
The woman who notices everything.
He pressed EMERGENCY LEGACY ACCESS.
The terminal requested fingerprint.
Then retinal scan.
Damian complied.
Screen flashed.
PRIMARY HEIR VERIFIED.
Jonathan shouted something.
Too late.
Administrative controls opened.
Building system.
Northstar archive.
Security locks.
Fire suppression.
Damian hit CANCEL DISCHARGE.
Nothing.
Authorization required.
Second credential.
FOUNDING PHYSICIAN.
Keane.
Of course.
NINETY SECONDS.
Victor hit the glass.
“Keane!”
He refused.
Jonathan looked at him.
“Father.”
That word changed something.
Samuel Keane looked toward his son.
Jonathan’s confidence had vanished.
“You said the system would transfer to me.”
Keane’s face hardened.
“If Damian refused.”
“He did refuse.”
“Until now.”
Jonathan stared.
“You were always going to choose him.”
Silence.
That was the real wound.
Jonathan had spent forty years believing he was the chosen secondary heir.
But Keane still wanted Damian.
Alexander’s legitimate successor.
Jonathan stepped away from his father.
“Give me your hand.”
Keane frowned.
“What?”
“Credential.”
“No.”
“Give me your hand!”
Jonathan grabbed him.
Keane resisted.
They struggled.
SIXTY SECONDS.
Mercer shouted.
Jonathan forced Keane’s hand against the biometric panel on their side.
The system recognized him.
Controls unlocked.
Damian canceled discharge.
SUPPRESSION SEQUENCE ABORTED.
Everyone breathed.
Literally.
Then Jonathan turned toward Keane.
“You used me.”
Keane straightened his coat.
“I raised you.”
“For this?”
“For purpose.”
“You told me Alexander abandoned me.”
“He did.”
“You told me Damian stole my life.”
“He did.”
Damian spoke through the glass.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
Jonathan looked toward him.
For the first time, the rage seemed uncertain.
Keane reached toward a control panel.
I saw it.
“Damian!”
He reacted instantly.
Keane pressed something.
Server cabinets began wiping.
Data destruction.
Marcus moved.
“Open partition!”
Damian used the legacy controls.
Glass door unlocked.
Security rushed in.
Keane didn’t resist.
He simply watched servers erase years of Northstar information.
“You’re too late,” he said.
Damian approached.
“For what?”
“The master archive isn’t here.”
My stomach sank.
“Where?”
Keane smiled.
“You think I would trust one facility?”
Mercer grabbed his coat.
“Where is it?”
Keane looked at him.
“Your father knew.”
“My father is dead.”
“So is Alexander.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
“Then who has the archive?”
Keane looked toward Jonathan.
Jonathan shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
For once, I believed him.
Keane began coughing.
Hard.
He collapsed against the console.
I moved instinctively.
Damian caught my arm.
“He needs medical attention.”
Keane looked at me through the coughing.
“Still helping people.”
“Yes.”
“Even me?”
“Yes.”
He almost smiled.
“That is why Alexander would have hated you.”
I checked his pulse.
Weak.
Irregular.
“Ambulance.”
Marcus called.
Keane grabbed my wrist.
“The archive…”
“What?”
“Last shipment.”
Damian leaned closer.
“Where?”
Keane’s eyes moved toward him.
“Your father always trusted the sea.”
Then he lost consciousness.
The ambulance took him under armed guard.
Jonathan surrendered.
Victor leaned against the wall.
Mercer looked toward Damian.
“Last shipment.”
Damian nodded.
“Shipping.”
“Water.”
“Port.”
I remembered the first phone call when I entered Damian’s penthouse.
Move the containers through East Boston because Mercer’s men might be watching.
The whole story had begun with containers.
And apparently it would end with one.
Marcus searched current Cross manifests.
Hundreds.
Victor searched Mercer’s.
Then I remembered Rebecca’s flash drive.
Container codes.
One code had appeared repeatedly.
A shipment scheduled forty-eight hours after the gala.
Exactly our deadline.
I typed it.
Container CXR-7719.
Destination:
International waters transfer.
Departure:
6:30 a.m.
I checked the clock.
6:07.
“Where?”
Marcus answered.
“Black Falcon terminal.”
Mercer stood.
Damian looked at me.
This time, he didn’t tell me to stay behind.
He simply held out his hand.
May you like
“Come on.”
And together we ran toward the final shipment.
