Chapter 4 - The Boy Who Saw Too MuchThe SUV crashed through a construction barrier.
Ethan was thrown sideways.
Glass exploded.
Ruiz struggled with the steering wheel.
“Hold on!”
A sedan rammed the rear bumper.
The SUV spun.
Claire screamed.
Ruiz regained control and drove into an unfinished parking garage.
The pursuing cars stopped outside.
Ruiz killed the engine.
Nobody spoke.
Rain hammered the roof.
Then Claire whispered, “They're not trying to kill us.”
Ruiz looked at her.
“They're trying to stop us reaching someone.”
“Who?”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“His father.”
Ethan blinked.
“My father?”
Claire nodded.
“Your biological father isn't dead.”
Everything inside Ethan seemed to stop.
“What?”
“You were told he died.”
“He did.”
“No.”
Claire's voice shook.
“He disappeared.”
Ethan remembered the photograph on the mantelpiece.
His father smiling beside Claire.
Richard had always said the man abandoned them.
“He's alive?”
“I think so.”
Ruiz looked stunned.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Richard wasn't supposed to know.”
“And Morrow?”
“He knows.”
The phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
UNKNOWN NUMBER:
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES.
Another message followed.
GO TO THE OLD RAIL STATION.
Ruiz frowned.
“This could be a trap.”
Claire nodded.
“It is.”
“Then why go?”
“Because they already know where we are.”
Ethan stared through the cracked window.
“What if Dad is there?”
Claire squeezed his hand.
“Then we find him.”
The old rail station was abandoned.
Rust covered the tracks.
Broken windows rattled in the wind.
Ruiz entered first.
Ethan followed.
Claire stayed behind them.
A light flickered in the distance.
Then a man's voice echoed through the station.
“Claire?”
She stopped breathing.
“Daniel?”
Ethan's heart pounded.
A man stepped out of the darkness.
Older than Ethan remembered from photographs.
Gray hair.
Tired eyes.
A scar crossing his cheek.
Claire ran to him.
They embraced.
Ethan couldn't move.
His father looked at him.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Daniel whispered:
“Ethan.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Why did you leave?”
Daniel's face collapsed.
“I didn't.”
“Mom said you disappeared.”
“I was taken.”
“By who?”
Daniel looked at Ruiz.
Then at Claire.
“Morrow.”
A noise came from the tracks.
Metal scraping against metal.
Ruiz drew her gun.
Too late.
A sniper rifle flashed from an upper platform.
Daniel shoved Ethan to the floor.
The bullet hit him in the shoulder.
Claire screamed.
Ruiz returned fire.
The sniper vanished.
Daniel collapsed.
Ethan crawled toward him.
“Dad!”
Daniel grabbed his shirt.
“Listen.”
“What?”
“There was never a ledger.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
Daniel coughed.
“The ledger was bait.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Then what does Morrow want?”
May you like
Daniel looked directly into his eyes.
“You.”
