Chapter 5 - The Price of Bringing Him Home
The FBI wanted to treat Ryan as a hostage.
The Department of Defense wanted to protect the Atlas archive.
I wanted both.
That made me the least useful person in the room and the only one Victor expected to see.
Cross Meridian’s research facility had been designed to withstand physical intrusion, cyberattack, and power failure. My father had built layered security into every corridor. Victor had spent seven years learning those layers.
He had chosen the location because he could control it.
A tactical commander studied the blueprints.
“There are three entrances,” he said. “Victor has sealed two. Thermal imaging shows at least five people inside, but interior shielding blocks several sections.”
“Ryan is in the prototype chamber,” I said.
“How can you tell?”
“The wall behind him has a vertical blue stripe. Dad color-coded the secure zones.”
Ethan pointed to an access tunnel beneath the western laboratory.
“This route?”
“Too narrow for a full team. It was designed for cable maintenance.”
“But one person could use it.”
The commander shook his head. “We are not sending Captain Cross inside.”
“I’m no longer a captain.”
“That does not improve the idea.”
Victor called again.
This time, he spoke directly to me.
“You have thirty-one minutes.”
“I’ll bring the drive.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
Victor smiled. “I knew you would. Family is a weakness you soldiers never admit to having.”
“You need me alive to access the archive.”
“I need your biometrics. Whether the rest of you remains alive is optional.”
Ryan shouted from behind him. “Claire, don’t come!”
Victor turned and struck him again.
Anger rose through me, but I kept it from my voice.
“If he dies, I destroy the drive.”
“He won’t die before you arrive.”
The connection ended.
Ethan pulled me aside.
“You’re not walking through the front door.”
“I know.”
A plan formed around the maintenance tunnel.
I would carry a replica drive containing a tracking beacon and a short-range signal designed to disrupt Victor’s local network. Ethan and a small tactical team would enter behind me once the interior locks failed.
It was dangerous.
It was also the only plan that used Victor’s confidence against him.
Ethan helped secure a lightweight protective vest beneath my clothing.
“You don’t have to prove anything,” he said.
“This isn’t about proving it.”
“It never is with you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You always believe bringing everyone home is your responsibility.”
“My father built the company around that principle.”
“Your father was talking about technology. Not martyrdom.”
I met his eyes.
“And when you pulled me from that wreckage?”
“That was different.”
“Why?”
His answer was barely audible.
“Because it was you.”
For a moment, the facility, the timer, and the years between us disappeared.
Then the commander called my name, and duty returned.
The maintenance tunnel smelled of dust and cold metal. I crawled through darkness while a camera mounted to my shoulder transmitted images to the tactical team.
At the final grate, I entered an empty storage room.
Victor’s voice came through the loudspeaker.
“Welcome home, Claire.”
He knew.
Red lights flashed.
A steel barrier dropped behind me, sealing the tunnel.
“Signal lost,” Ethan warned through my earpiece. “Claire, get out.”
There was no way back.
I stepped into the corridor.
“I’m here, Victor.”
The prototype chamber door opened.
Ryan sat tied to the chair, blood drying at his temple. Victor stood behind him with a pistol. Two armed men guarded the room, while another monitored a bank of screens.
“You look disappointingly ordinary,” Victor said.
“That has kept me alive.”
“Your legend suggested someone taller.”
“I’m sorry to ruin the fantasy.”
His smile vanished.
“Set the drive on the table.”
I obeyed.
A technician scanned it.
“Encrypted,” he said.
“Of course it is,” I replied. “You need my fingerprint and authorization phrase.”
Victor pushed Ryan forward.
“Then use them.”
I placed my thumb on the reader.
The screen requested the phrase.
“What is the purpose of Meridian?” Victor asked.
“To bring them home.”
The archive opened.
So did the hidden disruption program.
The lights went out.
Ryan threw himself sideways.
A gun fired.
I struck the nearest guard’s weapon hand, drove him into the table, and pulled Ryan behind a steel console. This was not a battlefield, and I was not twenty-five anymore. Pain tore through my old rib injury, but training survived where strength failed.
The emergency lights flickered.
Victor grabbed the drive.
“It’s a decoy!” his technician shouted.
A blast shook the western corridor.
Ethan’s team had breached the outer barrier.
Victor fired toward us and ran through a rear door.
The second guard surrendered. The first attempted to rise until I kicked his weapon away.
I cut Ryan’s restraints.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.”
“Then move.”
He stared at me. “You came for me.”
“You’re my brother.”
“I tried to send you to prison.”
“We’ll discuss that after we survive.”
We reached the corridor as Ethan’s team entered.
He checked me for injuries, then directed two agents to escort Ryan outside.
“Victor has the decoy,” I said.
“The beacon is active.”
We followed the signal into the lower engineering level.
It stopped inside my father’s original laboratory.
Victor stood beside a cylindrical prototype housing with the drive connected to its control port. He had realized the beacon existed and was trying to destroy the evidence.
He pressed a pistol against Margaret’s head.
I had not known she was inside.
“They took me from the protection vehicle,” she said, voice shaking.
Victor smiled. “I told you I had people everywhere.”
Ethan aimed at him.
“Put the weapon down.”
“If I release this control, the cooling system overloads. The fire will destroy the laboratory and every backup archive connected to it.”
“You’ll die too,” I said.
“Only if you believe I have no exit.”
He began moving toward a reinforced side door, dragging Margaret with him.
Then Ryan appeared behind us.
He should have gone outside, but he had followed.
Victor’s attention shifted.
Ryan raised his hands.
“You said we were partners.”
“You were a useful signature on corporate documents.”
“You promised me Meridian.”
“I promised you whatever kept you obedient.”
The words broke something in my brother.
For the first time, he saw himself as my father had seen him—not evil, perhaps, but dangerously eager to believe anyone who fed his pride.
Ryan stepped closer.
“I can give you the real access code.”
“Ryan, stop,” I said.
He ignored me.
Victor moved the pistol from Margaret toward him.
That was the opening Ethan needed.
One shot struck Victor’s shoulder.
Margaret dropped to the floor.
I reached her as the tactical team surrounded Victor. His hand slipped from the control device, but nothing exploded.
The overload warning disappeared.
Ryan had lied.
There had never been a real access code, but he had made Victor believe there was.
Agents handcuffed Victor.
As they lifted him, he laughed.
“You think this ends with me? Half your board knew where the money came from.”
I looked through the glass wall at the company my father had entrusted to me.
“Then half the board is about to lose everything.”
Outside, paramedics treated Ryan.
He refused to look at me.
“I’m going to prison,” he said.
“You committed serious crimes.”
“I know.”
He swallowed hard.
“Why did you save me?”
“Because I wasn’t going to let Victor decide who our family became.”
Ryan finally raised his eyes.
Before he could answer, an FBI agent approached.
“We examined the decoy drive,” she said. “Victor copied one file before the system locked him out.”
“What file?”
“The original will.”
“That only proves Ryan forged the replacement.”
“That isn’t the problem.” She held up a tablet displaying Dad’s signature. “The original will was modified two days before your father died.”
I stared at the final page.
A clause I had never seen transferred Cross Meridian’s most secret division to an unnamed beneficiary.
May you like
The encrypted name was scheduled to unlock at noon the next day.
Even after Victor’s arrest, my father still had one last truth waiting for us.
