Chapter 7 - “Drop the weapon,” Daniel said.Victor slowly lowered his gun.
Victor called it safe.
She called it a prison.
There were cameras in every hallway.
Two armed men downstairs.
One on the roof.
The windows didn't open.
She paced until dawn.
Then she noticed something.
The clock on the wall was wrong.
It was exactly eleven minutes slow.
She stared at it.
Why would a secure apartment have a broken clock?
She removed it from the wall.
A tiny camera was hidden behind it.
Sloan's blood ran cold.
She called Victor.
He arrived in less than two minutes.
She held the camera up.
Victor looked at it.
“That's not ours.”
“Then whose is it?”
He examined the device.
“MI-4.”
“What does that mean?”
“Internal surveillance.”
“By whom?”
Victor didn't answer.
Elias entered.
“Boss.”
Victor handed him the camera.
“Find where it transmits.”
Elias left.
Sloan folded her arms.
“I'm done waiting.”
Victor looked at her.
“You're angry.”
“My father is alive.”
“Yes.”
“He watched me for years.”
“Yes.”
“You knew him.”
“Yes.”
“You knew more about my life than I did.”
“Yes.”
“And you still expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
That answer surprised her.
Victor walked to the window.
“I expect you to survive.”
“Why?”
“Because your father asked me to.”
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
Sloan stopped.
“What did he say?”
Victor stared at the river.
“He told me, ‘One day Sloan will come looking for answers. When she does, everyone around her will try to use her. Protect her even if she hates you for it.’”
Sloan's voice softened.
“What else?”
“He gave me something.”
“What?”
Victor reached inside his jacket.
A small brass key.
He put it on the table.
Sloan recognized it instantly.
It had belonged to her father.
“I grew up seeing this.”
“Your father told me never to give it to you unless you were ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“The truth.”
Sloan picked up the key.
“Where does it go?”
Victor hesitated.
“Your old house.”
“My childhood house?”
“Yes.”
“That house burned down.”
“No.”
Sloan looked at him.
Victor's voice was low.
“It never burned.”
They drove before sunset.
Sloan hadn't been there since she was seventeen.
The house stood beyond a line of dead trees.
Its windows were boarded.
The roof had collapsed in sections.
But the foundation was intact.
Victor unlocked the front door.
Sloan stepped inside.
Dust covered the floor.
Memories returned.
Her father's office.
The staircase.
The old fireplace.
Her mother's piano.
She touched the wall.
“I remember this place.”
Victor walked toward the basement.
“Your father built something here.”
Sloan followed.
They reached a concrete wall.
Victor used the key.
A hidden lock clicked.
The wall opened.
Behind it was a steel chamber.
Shelves.
Files.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
Weapons.
Identity documents.
Dozens of passports.
Sloan stared in horror.
“What is this?”
“A safe room.”
She picked up a folder.
Inside were photographs of powerful people.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Politicians.
Business leaders.
And one photo made her blood freeze.
Her father.
Standing beside Victor.
And beside them was a third man.
Sloan had never seen him.
But she knew his face.
He was the governor.
“He controls all of them?”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Victor pointed toward the photograph.
At the bottom, written in Daniel's handwriting, was one sentence.
THE RAVEN DOES NOT RULE THE CITY.
Sloan read it twice.
Then she noticed another photograph.
A woman.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Her face looked vaguely familiar.
Sloan turned it over.
One name.
MARA VALE.
“Who is she?”
Victor went still.
“You don't need to know.”
“That is exactly what my father said in the video.”
Victor looked at her.
Then the lights went out.
Again.
Sloan's heart sank.
“Victor?”
A gunshot came from upstairs.
Then another.
Elias shouted from the doorway.
“They found us!”
Victor drew his weapon.
He grabbed Sloan's arm.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved through the chamber.
Then a voice echoed through the walls.
Female.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Victor.”
He stopped.
Sloan heard something in his breathing.
Fear.
Not surprise.
Fear.
The woman spoke again.
“You should have left her alone.”
Victor whispered:
“Mara.”
The chamber door exploded inward.
Smoke filled the room.
Sloan dropped.
A silhouette walked through it.
Tall.
Elegant.
A pistol hanging loosely in one hand.
She looked directly at Sloan.
And smiled.
“Hello, daughter.”
Sloan couldn't move.
May you like
Because the woman was Mara Vale.
And according to Daniel Mercer's files, Mara Vale was Sloan's mother.
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