Chapter 9 - AureliaThey left the hotel through the service entrance.
Callum drove without headlights for six blocks.
Sadie sat beside him in silence.
Finally:
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Again.”
“Yes.”
“You said your mother was dead.”
“I believed she was.”
“You just saw her.”
“I saw someone who looked like her.”
Sadie turned.
“Did she recognize you?”
“Yes.”
“Then it was her.”
Callum said nothing.
Sadie crossed her arms.
“I am running out of reasons to trust you.”
“I know.”
“Give me one.”
He looked at her.
“Because if I wanted you dead, you would not still be here.”
“That is not comforting.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
They stopped outside an old warehouse.
Callum opened the doors.
Inside were files.
Dozens of cabinets.
Photographs.
Boxes.
A private archive.
“This is where you keep your secrets?”
“This is where I keep the secrets I am afraid to destroy.”
Sadie looked around.
“Why bring me here?”
“Because Aurelia is real.”
“And your mother?”
“I don't know.”
He opened a file.
Inside was a photograph of a young woman.
She looked almost exactly like the woman from the hotel window.
“Her name was Elena Russo.”
Sadie read the file.
“She was a member of the organization?”
“She created the first network with Hale.”
“Then why did you say Hale was your father?”
“Because he raised me.”
Sadie looked up.
“Where was your mother?”
“Dead.”
“Apparently not.”
Callum nodded.
“She may have faked her death.”
“Why?”
“To disappear from Hale.”
“What did she know?”
“Everything.”
Sadie looked at the files.
“Then Aurelia might be her.”
Callum did not answer.
Sadie turned another page.
A list of names.
One stood out.
Michael Miller.
Beside it:
STATUS: ASSET
Sadie looked at Callum.
“My father was an asset.”
“Yes.”
“To Aurelia?”
“Possibly.”
“What does asset mean?”
“Someone useful enough to protect.”
Sadie frowned.
“Then why kill him?”
Callum looked at the file.
“It might not have been a killing.”
“What?”
“No poison.”
She stared.
“What are you saying?”
“The body was never independently identified.”
Sadie stepped back.
“My father's body…”
“Was never confirmed.”
She felt dizzy.
“You think he could be alive?”
“I think we need to ask a different question.”
“What?”
“Who benefited from everyone believing he died?”
They both turned at the same time.
A sound came from the far end of the warehouse.
A slow clap.
Hale stepped from the darkness.
“You finally understand.”
Callum raised his weapon.
“How did you find us?”
Hale smiled.
“Because the archive belongs to me.”
Callum’s eyes narrowed.
Hale looked at Sadie.
“Your father is alive.”
Sadie stopped breathing.
“Where?”
“Closer than you think.”
“Tell me.”
Hale pointed at Callum.
“He has been hiding in this city for ten years.”
Sadie turned toward Callum.
Callum looked as shocked as she was.
Hale smiled.
“But there is something you don't know.”
“What?”
Hale stepped closer.
“The man you've spent these last few days trusting…”
He nodded toward Callum.
“…was the one who signed your father's death certificate.”
Callum went still.
Sadie whispered:
“Is that true?”
Hale laughed.
“Ask him.”
Then every light in the warehouse died.
When they came back on, Hale was gone.
May you like
So was one file.
The file containing Michael Miller's photograph.
