Chapter 6 - THOMAS MERCERI couldn't move.
Nobody in that room spoke.
I heard the alarms.
The footsteps.
The distant engines.
But all of it felt far away.
My father was alive.
Or someone wanted me to believe he was.
Shaw watched me carefully.
“You okay?”
“No.”
It was the first honest answer I had given in days.
Briggs stepped toward me.
“We need to assume the transmission was manipulated.”
I looked at him.
“Then why would they use my father's face?”
“To destabilize you.”
Ward interrupted.
“No.”
He stared at the dead screen.
“They wouldn't use Thomas unless Thomas was involved.”
I turned toward him.
“You knew?”
Ward didn't answer.
I stepped closer.
“You knew my father was alive?”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
“My father?”
“No.
“Thomas contacted me eight months ago.”
The room went silent.
“You never told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because he made me promise.”
I laughed bitterly.
“And you trusted him?”
“I trusted him because he knew things nobody else could know.”
“Like what?”
Ward opened a drawer.
Inside was a photograph.
My father.
Standing with a younger Victor Kane.
I stared at it.
“What is this?”
“Your father and Kane worked together.”
The words hit hard.
My first reaction was denial.
Then memory.
My father used to disappear for weeks.
He called his work “consulting.”
He kept a locked office.
When I was thirteen, I once found a box of military documents there.
He took them away immediately.
I had forgotten.
Or tried to.
“Why did Kane work with him?”
“Because Meridian began inside military logistics.”
Briggs touched the photograph.
“How long before they turned?”
Ward answered:
“After Thomas discovered the shortages were intentional.”
My voice was barely audible.
“What happened?”
“He tried to shut it down.”
“And Kane?”
“Kane chose the money.”
I looked at Shaw.
“What does my father want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why contact me?”
“Because he knows they're watching you.”
The ship shook.
Something struck the hull.
Everyone stumbled.
Shaw pulled a map from her bag.
“The private security team is moving toward this room.”
“How many?”
“Twenty.”
Briggs checked his weapon.
“Then we move.”
We left through another corridor.
The tunnel led to an old cargo elevator.
Shaw entered a code.
The doors opened.
Inside was a crate marked:
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
I noticed the seal.
“Those came from Deck Four.”
Shaw nodded.
“Everything here is staged for export.”
“Where?”
“Anchor Nine.”
The elevator started moving.
Down.
And down.
Much farther than the ship's published deck plan allowed.
I looked at Ward.
“How many levels are there?”
“Officially?”
“Unofficially.”
“Seven.”
We stopped at Level Seven.
The doors opened.
Beyond them was a massive underground dock.
Not on the ship.
Beneath it.
A hidden transfer facility had been built into the vessel's lower hull.
Cargo containers lined the platform.
Cranes moved silently.
Vehicles waited.
And in the center sat a black SUV.
A man stood beside it.
Gray hair.
Dark suit.
No uniform.
No guards.
He looked directly at me.
My father.
Thomas Mercer.
He didn't smile.
He only said:
“You shouldn't have come.”
I stepped forward.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you let me think you were dead?”
“Because dead people are harder to kill.”
“You abandoned me.”
His expression cracked for the first time.
“I know.”
I wanted to hit him.
I wanted to hug him.
Instead I asked:
“Did you create Meridian?”
“No.”
“Did you work with Kane?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know people were dying?”
His silence told me everything.
“Tell me the truth.”
He looked at Ward.
Then Shaw.
Then Briggs.
Finally me.
“Meridian started as an emergency supply program.”
“What happened?”
“Politics.”
He said the word like it tasted bitter.
“Companies realized governments would pay more when they were afraid.”
“So they created fear.”
“Yes.”
“And Kane helped.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“Why did you stop them?”
“Because they started killing people.”
“And you?”
“I made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
Thomas looked at me.
“I taught them how.”
Silence.
Then footsteps echoed across the underground dock.
A man emerged from behind the vehicles.
Victor Kane.
He looked almost amused.
Thomas turned toward me.
“Hannah.”
“What?”
“Whatever happens next…”
He reached inside his jacket.
“…don't let them take the red key.”
Kane raised his weapon.
“Thomas.”
Thomas pulled something from his pocket.
A small metal key.
Red.
Kane fired.
Thomas pushed me sideways.
The bullet hit him.
He collapsed.
I screamed.
Briggs returned fire.
Shaw pulled me behind the SUV.
Kane disappeared behind a concrete pillar.
I crawled toward my father.
Blood spread across his shirt.
He grabbed my hand.
His voice was weak.
“The key…”
I looked around.
It was gone.
Kane had taken it.
Then a hidden screen lit up across the dock.
A countdown began.
09:59
Briggs stared.
“What is that?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
May you like
“That's the part I couldn't stop.”
The timer reached 9:42.
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