Chapter 5 - Hank's BetrayalHank pressed a hand against Monroe's wound.
“Stay down.”
Sarah stared at the vault entrance.
“You told them my name.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“Not that night.”
Outside, footsteps approached.
Cutter laughed.
“You know what's fascinating about families?”
Sarah heard him clearly through the steel.
“They spend years asking why someone betrayed them.”
A pause.
“Then they discover the betrayal saved their life.”
Hank fired toward the door.
Cutter ducked.
“Still dramatic, Hank.”
Sarah looked at Hank.
“What happened twenty-four years ago?”
Hank kept his eyes on the entrance.
“Frank found the Directorate.”
“And?”
“They found Frank.”
“You sold me.”
“No.”
“You just admitted it.”
“I gave them your name because Frank needed them to believe he had betrayed you.”
Sarah stared.
“What?”
Hank finally looked at her.
“Your father knew they would use you against him.”
“So he wanted them to think I mattered.”
“You did matter.”
“You gave them my name!”
“I gave them a false trail.”
Hank's voice hardened.
“They believed you had inherited Frank's second archive.”
Sarah's breath caught.
“That’s why they came after me.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed near me.”
“To keep them from finding you.”
Sarah's anger faltered.
“So all these years…”
“I watched from a distance.”
“You never contacted me.”
“Frank said you had to believe he was dead.”
Cutter shouted from outside.
“You two finished confessing?”
Hank smiled bitterly.
“He's getting impatient.”
A grenade rolled through the doorway.
Hank grabbed Sarah.
“DOWN!”
The explosion shook the vault.
Smoke filled the corridor.
Cutter's men rushed in.
Hank fired.
Sarah crawled toward Monroe.
He was barely conscious.
“Sarah…”
She grabbed his hand.
“What?”
“Your father…”
His eyes opened.
“He's not in Canada.”
Sarah froze.
“What?”
Monroe coughed.
“Frank never left the country.”
“Where is he?”
Monroe struggled to speak.
“Underground.”
“Where?”
“Beneath…”
He stopped.
Sarah shook him.
“Beneath what?”
Monroe whispered:
“Beneath the Vale Foundation.”
Sarah stared.
The Vale Foundation.
A famous charitable organization.
Hospitals.
Schools.
Scholarships.
Thousands of lives supposedly improved by Robert Vale.
“He's under the foundation?”
Monroe nodded.
“And the second archive?”
“In the same building.”
A bullet struck the wall.
Hank pulled Sarah away.
“We're leaving.”
They ran through a hidden passage behind the vault cabinet.
The tunnel emerged into an underground parking structure.
Cutter's voice echoed behind them.
“Sarah!”
She turned.
Cutter stood in the smoke.
He did not shoot.
Instead, he smiled.
“You're going to the foundation.”
Sarah stopped.
“How do you know?”
Cutter lifted something.
A tiny silver key.
Engraved with the number 17.
Sarah's stomach dropped.
“You have another one.”
“No.”
He tossed it onto the floor.
Sarah stared.
“Then what is that?”
Cutter smiled.
“The first key.”
He turned away.
And said one final thing.
“Ask your father why there are two vaults.”
Sarah and Hank escaped.
But neither noticed the small red light blinking on Hank's jacket.
A listening device.
Someone had been hearing every word.
And inside a luxury apartment twenty blocks away, Robert Vale removed an earpiece.
He smiled.
“Let them find Frank.”
Then he opened a file.
The cover read:
PROJECT SARAH.
Inside was a photograph of Sarah at eight years old.
Under it was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT WAS NEVER THE DAUGHTER.
May you like
It was the key.
THE SECOND ARCHIVE
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