Chapter 5 - The flash drive contained thirty-seven files.Thirty-six were corrupted.
One opened.
HAMMER_CAM_0017.
Hammer stared at the screen.
Timestamp.
Nine years earlier.
11:42 p.m.
He remembered that night.
The warehouse.
The fire.
The screaming.
The scars.
Mara stood behind him.
“Play it.”
Hammer clicked.
Static.
Darkness.
Then the image stabilized.
Hammer saw himself.
Younger.
Bloodied.
Dragging a woman through smoke.
Clara.
She was alive.
Hammer whispered:
“No.”
The recording continued.
Clara coughed.
“Take the baby.”
Hammer lifted a small bundle.
A newborn.
Lucy.
Hammer's younger self turned.
“Where's the exit?”
Clara pointed.
“They locked it.”
Hammer approached the metal door.
Someone was on the other side.
A voice shouted:
“Dawson!”
Hammer in the recording turned.
The voice was familiar.
Hammer's face went pale.
Judge Samuel Vale.
Nine years younger.
Standing in the warehouse.
Alive.
Armed.
He wasn't supposed to have been there.
Clara looked terrified.
“Ray, get Lucy out.”
Hammer yelled at Vale.
“What are you doing here?”
Vale raised his gun.
“Put the child down.”
Hammer did not move.
Then another man entered.
Hammer recognized him too.
The current chief prosecutor.
Daniel Voss.
Mara's father.
Mara stumbled backward.
“No.”
She looked at the screen.
“That can't be my father.”
The recording continued.
Voss said:
“The girl cannot leave this building.”
Hammer stepped in front of the baby.
“What girl?”
“The last witness.”
Clara screamed.
“Ray, go!”
Vale fired.
Hammer turned.
The bullet missed him.
Then a burst of gunfire came from somewhere behind.
Hammer collapsed.
The camera fell.
The image pointed toward the ceiling.
For the next several seconds there was only smoke and movement.
Then Hammer heard Clara's voice.
“Take her.”
A man's voice replied:
“She goes to the Ward family.”
Hammer watched in horror.
Rachel Ward appeared.
She took the baby.
Clara grabbed her arm.
“Promise me.”
Rachel nodded.
“I promise.”
“What happens to me?”
Rachel's face was emotionless.
“You'll be listed as dead.”
Clara smiled sadly.
“Then tell her someday.”
“If we survive.”
The screen filled with static.
Eleven seconds.
Exactly eleven seconds.
Hammer stopped the video.
Nobody spoke.
Mara was crying.
“That man was my father.”
Hammer nodded.
“Yes.”
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“And Judge Vale knew.”
“Yes.”
“What about you?”
Hammer looked at her.
“What about me?”
“You knew about the baby.”
“I didn't.”
“You carried her.”
“I was unconscious.”
Mara stared.
“You told me you couldn't remember that night.”
“I couldn't.”
“Then how did the camera survive?”
Hammer didn't know.
He looked at Ellie.
She had been silent.
“Ellie.”
She stared at the screen.
“What?”
“Who showed you this?”
“My mother.”
Hammer's heart lurched.
“She showed you the video?”
“No.”
Ellie reached into her pocket.
She pulled out another red object.
A second heart.
Hammer stared.
“You had two?”
Ellie nodded.
“Mom said one was for you.”
“And the other?”
“For me.”
She pressed a fingernail into the plastic.
It opened.
Inside was a tiny folded piece of paper.
Hammer took it.
Four words.
ROOM 17 IS UNDER COURT.
Mara looked at the floor.
“The courtroom.”
Hammer looked at her.
“What?”
“The courthouse was built over the old Saint Mercy transfer tunnels.”
Mara's face changed.
“That's impossible.”
Ellie shook her head.
“No.”
She looked toward the door.
“It isn't.”
Suddenly, Hammer heard a loud metallic sound from outside.
A van door opening.
Then footsteps.
Several.
Mara whispered:
“How did they find us?”
Hammer picked up his pistol.
Ellie looked at him.
“They always know.”
“Who?”
Ellie pointed at the flash drive.
“The people watching through the cameras.”
Hammer's eyes moved to the security camera mounted above the garage door.
A red light blinked.
He smiled grimly.
“Then let's give them something to watch.”
Hammer killed the power.
The room went dark.
A second later, bullets tore through the shutters.
Hammer grabbed Ellie.
Mara followed.
They disappeared through a trapdoor beneath the workshop.
Below them was an old service tunnel.
Hammer shone his flashlight.
Red paint marked the walls.
A heart.
Then another.
Then another.
All pointing deeper underground.
Ellie whispered:
“Mom drew those.”
Hammer stared into the darkness.
“How long?”
Ellie answered:
May you like
“Until they found her.”
And from somewhere beneath the tunnel came the sound of a child crying.
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