Chapter 14 - Uncle PeterWe fled the facility through a service corridor.
Mom was weak.
Dad supported her.
Jake and Maya guarded the rear.
I kept thinking about Uncle Peter.
He had disappeared when I was sixteen.
Dad told us Peter moved overseas.
But now I remembered him at our house.
Always smiling.
Always watching.
Always asking questions.
"How is your memory?"
"Do you still remember faces?"
I had thought he was joking.
He wasn't.
We reached a stairwell.
Dad stopped.
"There's something you need to know."
I was already tired of hearing those words.
"What?"
"Peter wasn't our uncle."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"He was my partner."
My stomach turned.
"Before Halcyon."
Mom interrupted.
"Peter recruited your father."
"Why?"
"Because Richard was good at disappearing."
Dad looked ashamed.
"At making people disappear."
"You worked for them."
"Yes."
"What did you do?"
"Protective extraction."
"Kidnapping."
Silence.
"Sometimes."
I stepped back.
"You were one of them."
Dad nodded.
"Before you were born."
Mom placed a hand on my shoulder.
"He left when he saw what they were becoming."
"And Peter stayed."
"Peter became one of the leaders."
Jake looked toward the corridor.
"We have company."
Footsteps.
Many.
Dad raised a weapon.
"We need the roof."
We climbed.
The night air hit us.
A helicopter hovered above.
Floodlights swept across the roof.
A voice came over a speaker.
"Richard."
Peter.
Even after all these years, I recognized his voice.
"Bring Evan to me."
Dad stepped forward.
"No."
Peter laughed.
"You really still think you can save them?"
He looked toward me.
"Evan, come home."
I felt something cold inside me.
"You never loved us."
"I loved the family."
"You killed people."
"I preserved order."
"You erased them."
"I protected the world."
Maya shouted:
"From the truth?"
Peter looked at her.
"You were always difficult."
Then he said something that made my blood run cold.
"Ask your mother what she did to your father."
I looked at Mom.
She was crying.
"Mom?"
She whispered:
"I betrayed him."
Dad looked away.
Peter continued.
"She didn't just expose Halcyon."
"She gave us the names."
"Four hundred and twelve."
"For ten years, we've been hunting every person she tried to save."
I turned toward Mom.
"Did you?"
She nodded slowly.
"I made a deal."
My chest tightened.
"What kind?"
"Your lives."
She took a breath.
"I gave them the names of the safe houses."
Dad closed his eyes.
"But I changed the locations before they could reach them."
Peter shouted:
"She thought she was clever."
Then the helicopter door opened.
A sniper aimed.
A shot rang out.
Mom collapsed again.
Dad screamed.
"NO!"
May you like
The roof erupted in gunfire.
And somewhere in the chaos, Peter escaped.
