Chapter 10: Protocol Blackbird
The metallic click echoed through the tunnel.
A round had been chambered.
I stared at Lily.
She stood ten feet away.
Her eyes were empty.
Her face was expressionless.
But underneath that terrifying calm, I could still see my little girl.
The girl who used to fall asleep holding my finger.
The girl who cried when thunderstorms shook the windows.
The girl who once whispered that burnt steak was the worst food in the world.
And now she was pointing at me.
“Lily…”
No reaction.
Sarah grabbed my arm.
“Don't move toward her.”
“She's my daughter.”
“She doesn't know that right now.”
“She will.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Protocol Blackbird was designed to override emotional recognition.”
I stared at Lily.
“How do I stop it?”
Sarah looked at the master key.
“There's only one way.”
“What?”
“You have to make her remember who you are.”
“How?”
“Give her a memory stronger than the command.”
I frowned.
“What memory?”
Sarah's eyes filled with tears.
“The night you became her father.”
I stared at her.
“That wasn't the night she was born.”
“No.”
Sarah stepped closer.
“It was the night you found her.”
I remembered.
Three years ago.
The hospital.
Rain pounding against the windows.
Sarah had supposedly died hours earlier.
I had been sitting alone in the waiting room when a nurse brought me a little girl.
She had been crying.
Terrified.
I had held her.
She had looked into my eyes.
And whispered:
“Daddy?”
I had never understood why she called me that.
I had simply held her tighter.
Now I realized that memory wasn't random.
It was the memory Sarah had wanted me to remember.
I looked at Lily.
“Do you remember the hospital?”
Her head tilted slightly.
The mechanical voice returned.
“Primary target.”
“Lily.”
“Terminate.”
“Lily, look at me.”
Her hand trembled.
I took one step forward.
Sarah grabbed me.
“Daniel!”
“I have to.”
“She could hurt you.”
“She won't.”
“You don't know that.”
“I know my daughter.”
I took another step.
Lily raised her hand.
A hidden weapon slid from the wall.
It aimed directly at my chest.
Robert shouted:
“DANIEL, DOWN!”
I didn't move.
I looked directly into Lily's eyes.
“You were wearing a yellow sweater.”
Her fingers twitched.
“You hated the hospital food.”
Her expression changed slightly.
“You wouldn't let go of my hand.”
The weapon remained aimed at me.
I continued.
“You kept asking where Mommy was.”
Lily blinked.
“And I told you…”
My voice broke.
“I told you she was coming home.”
A tear rolled down Lily's cheek.
The weapon lowered by an inch.
Sarah whispered:
“Keep going.”
“You fell asleep against my chest.”
Another tear.
“You called me Daddy.”
Lily's lips trembled.
“Daddy…”
I stepped forward.
“Yes.”
Her eyes suddenly filled with confusion.
“Daddy?”
“Yes.”
She dropped her hand.
The weapon retracted into the wall.
Lily collapsed.
I caught her.
She sobbed against my chest.
“I thought I killed you.”
“You didn't.”
“I saw it.”
“What?”
“I saw you dead.”
I held her tighter.
“I'm alive.”
She cried harder.
Sarah knelt beside us.
“The command failed.”
Robert exhaled.
“Thank God.”
But the relief lasted only seconds.
A red warning appeared on the wall.
BLACKBIRD FAILURE.
Then another message.
SECONDARY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
Sarah stood abruptly.
“No.”
“What now?”
She looked terrified.
“Daniel, we have to get out.”
“Why?”
“Because the system has changed the target.”
“Who?”
She looked at Lily.
“Me.”
A gunshot rang through the tunnel.
Sarah jerked backward.
Blood appeared on her shoulder.
“Sarah!”
I caught her.
She collapsed against me.
Robert fired toward the darkness.
“Move!”
We dragged Sarah through the passage.
Lily followed.
“Mommy!”
Sarah pressed her hand against the wound.
“I'm okay.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I've survived worse.”
We reached another door.
Robert forced it open.
We emerged into the old estate's basement.
I looked around.
No one was there.
Yet.
Robert locked the door.
“We have minutes.”
“Until what?”
“The system alerted every Blackbird operative.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Sarah leaned against the wall.
“Daniel…”
I looked at her.
“Your father will come.”
“My father?”
“The one you thought was your father.”
“You said he wasn't.”
“He isn't.”
“Then who is he?”
Sarah took a shaky breath.
“His name is Victor Kane.”
The name meant nothing.
“Who is Victor Kane?”
Robert answered.
“The man who built Blackbird.”
I stared at him.
“My entire life…”
“Was constructed.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
Sarah looked at Lily.
“Because Victor needed an heir.”
I frowned.
“But Lily is the heir.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Lily was never supposed to inherit the organization.”
“Then why?”
Sarah looked at me.
“Victor needed someone who could control it.”
I understood.
“You.”
She nodded.
“Your father wasn't trying to make you inherit his empire.”
“He was training me.”
“Yes.”
“For Blackbird.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Lily.
“And she was the failsafe.”
Sarah nodded.
“If you refused, she would activate.”
I remembered the command.
Terminate the primary target.
I looked at my daughter.
“They programmed her to kill me.”
Sarah nodded.
“But they made one mistake.”
“What?”
“They underestimated the bond between you.”
A loud crash came from upstairs.
Someone had entered the house.
Robert raised his gun.
“We need to go.”
“Where?”
“The vault.”
I stared at him.
“I thought we already found it.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“That wasn't the vault.”
“Then what was it?”
“The nursery was a decoy.”
I looked at Sarah.
She nodded.
“Your mother built the real vault somewhere else.”
“Where?”
Sarah pointed toward the basement floor.
“Under the cemetery.”
I stared at her.
“The family cemetery?”
“Yes.”
“Why would she hide it there?”
“Because nobody would search beneath the graves.”
Another crash.
Closer.
Robert looked toward the stairs.
“They're inside.”
We moved quickly.
The family cemetery was behind the estate.
Rain had begun falling again.
We ran through the trees.
Lily held my hand.
Sarah followed, one hand pressed against her wound.
Robert brought up the rear.
We reached the cemetery.
Rows of old gravestones disappeared into the fog.
I stopped.
“Which grave?”
Sarah looked around.
“Your mother's.”
We found it.
The stone was cracked.
I knelt.
At the bottom was a small symbol.
Three connected circles.
The Blackbird symbol.
I touched it.
Nothing happened.
Lily stepped forward.
“I know this.”
“What?”
She placed her hand on the gravestone.
A hidden mechanism clicked.
The ground beneath us moved.
The grave opened.
Not a grave.
A staircase.
Descending into darkness.
Robert stared.
“This wasn't on any blueprint.”
Sarah whispered:
“Your mother designed it herself.”
We descended.
At the bottom was a massive steel door.
No keypad.
No scanner.
Only a handprint.
I placed my hand against it.
Nothing.
Lily stepped beside me.
She placed her hand next to mine.
The door unlocked.
CLICK.
The steel doors slowly opened.
Inside were thousands of files.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
Bank records.
Names.
Dates.
Weapons manifests.
Government contracts.
And at the center of the room was a single desk.
On it sat a red folder.
My name was written across it.
DANIEL MORGAN
I opened it.
The first page contained one sentence.
SUBJECT DANIEL MORGAN WAS NEVER INTENDED TO SURVIVE HIS TWENTIETH BIRTHDAY.
My hands began shaking.
I turned the page.
There was a photograph of me at twenty years old.
Beside it was a photograph of a young woman.
I recognized her.
She was the woman from the nursery.
Mara.
But beneath her photograph was another name.
Mara Kane.
I stared at Sarah.
“Who is she?”
Sarah looked away.
“She was Victor Kane's daughter.”
I looked back at the file.
The next page contained a family tree.
At the top:
Victor Kane.
Below him:
Mara Kane.
Then:
Daniel Morgan.
I felt my heart stop.
Mara wasn't Lily's guardian.
She was my biological mother.
And beneath my name was one final line.
Daniel Morgan: biological son of Victor Kane.
I looked at Sarah.
“You said Alexander was my real father.”
Sarah's face went pale.
“I was wrong.”
Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the staircase.
Someone was coming down.
Slowly.
Confidently.
A man's voice echoed through the vault.
“You finally found the truth.”
I turned.
Victor Kane stepped into the doorway.
The man I had called my father for twenty years.
He smiled.
And behind him stood Helen.
She raised a gun toward Sarah.
Victor looked at Lily.
Then at me.
“You've been asking who your real father is.”
He pointed at the family tree.
“You're looking at him.”
He smiled.
“Now ask yourself one more question.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
Victor's eyes moved toward Lily.
“Why did your mother hide your daughter from you?”
He paused.
“Because Lily isn't your aunt.”
May you like
He smiled coldly.
“She is your sister.”
