Chapter 13 - The Last Lie My Mother ToldVictor Sloane held the envelope above the river.
A drop of water landed on its surface.
“Careful,” he said. “This paper is more valuable than everything in this building.”
Mara kept her weapon trained on him.
“Put it down.”
“You FBI people always think a gun makes you the most powerful person in the room.”
“Tonight, it makes me the person telling you to put the envelope down.”
Victor smiled.
Then he looked at my mother.
“Hello, Eleanor.”
She stood motionless.
“You were supposed to be dead,” he continued.
“So were you,” she replied.
“Apparently, we've both disappointed someone.”
His attention shifted to the metal case.
“The archive contains the original identities of thirty-two children, records of every transfer, and a complete list of the people who paid for them. If you take this evidence to the authorities, the scandal will reach the highest levels of government.”
“Then let it,” I said.
Victor turned toward me.
“You don't understand what you're asking for.”
“I understand that you took my son.”
“Your son is alive.”
“Then bring him to me.”
He shook his head.
“First, you need to understand what happened to you.”
I had heard that sentence too many times.
From Caleb.
From Mara.
From my mother.
Every person who had lied to me seemed convinced that one more revelation would somehow make everything acceptable.
“I don't care what happened to me,” I said. “I want my son.”
Victor studied me.
Then he opened the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
He held it up so we could see the signature at the bottom.
Eleanor Voss.
My mother's signature.
The document authorized the transfer of a child's legal identity from one family to another. It had been signed eleven years earlier.
The recipient field contained a name.
RICHARD MORRISON.
I felt as though someone had struck me across the face.
“Mom?”
She closed her eyes.
“It's true.”
“What did you do?”
“I signed the order.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed it would save you.”
“Save me from what?”
“From being used as leverage against Daniel. Your biological father had uncovered the program and intended to expose it. The people running it threatened to take both of his daughters.”
I stared at her.
“So you gave them my identity?”
“I gave them a legal identity they could use to hide you.”
“You gave me to Dad.”
“I trusted Richard to protect you.”
“And he betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
My mother's voice broke.
“I thought I had chosen the lesser danger. I thought if I transferred your records and disappeared, they would lose interest in you.”
“But they didn't.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You let me grow up believing you were dead.”
“I believed it was the only way.”
“You let Mara investigate your own disappearance.”
“Yes.”
“You let me marry a man who was assigned to watch me.”
My mother began to cry.
“Yes.”
“And you never once thought I deserved the truth?”
She looked at me helplessly.
“I thought you deserved a life.”
The words landed harder than an apology.
For the first time, I understood that my mother had not been protecting me from a single villain. She had been trying to protect me from an entire system, and in doing so she had slowly become part of it.
But understanding was not forgiveness.
Not yet.
Victor smiled.
“Families are fascinating. They can justify anything if they believe they're doing it for love.”
Mara's weapon never wavered.
“Enough. Hand over the envelope.”
Victor glanced toward the boat's engine.
“You can't arrest everyone involved. Some of the people on that list are untouchable.”
“Then we'll start with you.”
“You'll need more than evidence. You'll need a court willing to hear it, prosecutors willing to pursue it, and witnesses who haven't spent eleven years being told that their memories are unreliable.”
Caleb stepped forward.
“I'll testify.”
Victor laughed.
“Your testimony?”
“I'm the original architect of the tracking system. I know every alteration made to the database.”
“You're a dead man according to the government.”
“Then perhaps it's time the government corrected its records.”
Victor looked at Mara.
“And you? The agent accused of murdering Daniel Voss?”
Mara said nothing.
Victor grinned.
“Exactly.”
A sharp electronic beep sounded from the black server.
A message appeared on its small display.
REMOTE WIPE INITIATED.
Victor's smile vanished.
“No.”
He opened the case and started pressing buttons.
“Stop it!” my mother shouted.
“What did you do?” Caleb demanded.
Victor looked at the screen in disbelief.
“Someone accessed the master archive.”
The server beeped again.
WIPE COMPLETE IN 90 SECONDS.
Mara stepped toward him.
“Cancel it.”
“I can't.”
“You have the controls!”
“The command came from outside the system.”
My mother suddenly turned toward the maintenance boat.
“There's another server.”
“What?” I asked.
“The backup archive. The one Richard created before the first transfer.”
Victor stared at her.
“Where?”
She pointed across the river.
“Under the old pumping station.”
He swore.
“That's been sealed for years.”
“No,” she replied. “It's been hidden.”
Caleb looked at me.
“We have to get there before the wipe finishes.”
Victor raised his weapon.
Nobody moved.
For one terrible second, I thought he was going to shoot.
Instead, he lowered the gun and stepped aside.
“Take me with you.”
Mara narrowed her eyes.
“Why would we do that?”
“Because the person wiping this server isn't Evelyn Shaw.”
We all froze.
“Who is it?” I asked.
Victor looked at my mother.
“The one who ordered the original transfer.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Victor held up the envelope.
“The original authorization was signed by Eleanor Voss. But the order was issued by someone else.”
He turned the paper over.
A second signature appeared on the reverse.
RICHARD MORRISON.
My father.
The man who had raised me.
The man who had supposedly died three years earlier.
Beneath his signature was a small line of text.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
I stared at it until the letters blurred.
“Dad is dead.”
Victor shook his head.
“No. Richard Morrison is alive. And he's the one who just ordered the archive destroyed.”
My mother staggered backward.
Mara caught her arm.
“Where would he go?”
Victor pointed toward the far bank.
“The pumping station.”
A sudden explosion lit the night sky.
The blast came from beneath the river.
The boat rocked violently against the platform.
The black server flickered.
WIPE COMPLETE IN 15 SECONDS.
Victor grabbed the case.
“Choose,” he shouted. “The evidence or your family!”
May you like
The screen went black.
And the lights across the entire riverfront went out.
