Chapter 8 - THE SHOT THAT MISSEDThe gunshot cracked through the room.
Titan moved first.
He slammed into Sophie.
The bullet hit the chair.
Cole fired.
The paramedic dropped behind a console.
Mercer disappeared through a side door.
I dragged Sophie away from the gunfire.
Titan stood between us and the shooter.
“Titan!”
He didn't move.
The paramedic fired again.
Titan lunged.
The man's gun flew across the room.
They crashed into the floor.
For one terrible second, all I saw was fur and blood.
Then Titan rolled away.
A bullet had grazed his shoulder.
“Titan!”
He stood.
Still fighting.
The paramedic tried to crawl.
Titan blocked him.
Cole handcuffed him.
“Where's Mercer?”
The man laughed.
“Too late.”
Then the lights went out.
A second explosion shook the building.
The ceiling groaned.
Mercer had triggered something.
We grabbed Sophie.
“Move!”
Titan led us toward the stairwell.
Behind us, steel beams began collapsing.
We reached the upper floor just as the underground room disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Outside, sirens flooded the street.
Paramedics rushed toward Titan.
He refused to let them touch him until Sophie was safe.
The girl hugged his neck.
“You saved me again.”
Titan licked her cheek.
For the first time that night, his body relaxed.
But I wasn't looking at Titan anymore.
I was looking at the flash drive in my hand.
Mercer had dropped it.
Cole inserted it into a secure laptop.
Files appeared.
Dozens.
Payments.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
Police officials.
Contractors.
Judges.
Prosecutors.
But one folder contained a single word.
MASON.
I opened it.
Inside were medical scans.
Psychological reports.
Training records.
And a video.
Three years earlier.
The video showed me sitting in a hospital room.
I had a head injury.
A doctor was speaking to someone behind the camera.
“His memory gap is significant.”
Another voice answered.
“Can we make him believe Marcus was killed by Voss?”
I recognized it.
Mercer.
The doctor said:
“It would be unethical.”
Mercer replied:
“So was what they did to Marcus.”
The video ended.
I couldn't breathe.
Cole looked at me.
“You weren't told.”
“Told what?”
He opened another file.
It contained a report from the night Marcus died.
At the bottom:
MASON REED WAS NOT ON THE ROOF AT 2:13 A.M.
I stared.
My entire memory of that night had been false.
Or incomplete.
Cole continued scrolling.
A final note appeared.
SUBJECT MAY HAVE WITNESSED THE REAL KILLER.
Then Titan barked.
A police officer shouted from outside.
“Chief Mercer has been found!”
We ran toward the scene.
The officers had located Mercer inside the woods.
He was alive.
But before anyone could reach him, he looked at me.
Then at Titan.
May you like
And smiled.
“You're going to remember now.”
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