Chapter 11 - Sisters Without Blood
Rebecca limped into the room.
My father stared.
“How did you get past the locks?”
She held up a black access card.
“Your missing guard was working for Halden.”
Jonathan’s expression darkened.
“Was?”
“He won’t be helping anyone tonight.”
She looked at me.
“Move.”
I stayed by the scanner.
“Are you working with him?”
“No.”
“He said you were his prisoner.”
“I was.”
“You escaped?”
“Barely.”
She placed her hand on a second panel.
It rejected her.
Rebecca cursed.
I looked at the screen.
SUBJECT 016 STATUS.
DECEASED.
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“Told you.”
My father stepped closer.
“Because they switched your identity.”
Rebecca nodded.
“With a girl who died during the evacuation.”
“Why?”
“To hide me.”
“By whom?”
She looked at Jonathan.
“Elizabeth.”
My mother again.
Rebecca removed a necklace.
A tiny metal capsule hung from it.
Inside was an old strip of dried blood.
“She gave me this the night of the fire.”
Jonathan stared.
“Elizabeth knew you survived.”
“She saved me.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened.
“Because she stopped trusting you.”
That sentence landed heavily.
I turned toward my father.
“Why?”
He said nothing.
Rebecca placed the blood sample into the scanner.
The system processed it.
Then flashed.
SUBJECT 016 VERIFIED.
DUAL AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
Something enormous unlocked beneath us.
A section of floor slowly descended.
An elevator.
Rebecca looked at me.
“This is why Halden kept me alive.”
“He needed both of us.”
“Yes.”
“But he thought he controlled me.”
She smiled faintly.
“He doesn’t.”
We entered the elevator.
My father attempted to follow.
Rebecca raised the gun.
“No.”
I stepped between them.
“He comes.”
“Evelyn.”
“He comes.”
Rebecca studied me.
Then lowered the weapon.
Arthur tried to step inside.
Rebecca pointed at him.
“Not you.”
Arthur stayed behind.
The elevator descended.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Then stopped.
The doors opened.
Rows of old servers filled a massive underground chamber.
Some were ancient.
Others had been upgraded recently.
I looked at Rebecca.
“Someone maintained this.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Elizabeth.”
My father whispered,
“Until she died.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“No.”
Jonathan frowned.
“What?”
Rebecca walked to a central console.
“Elizabeth didn’t die nine years ago.”
The world stopped.
My father shook his head.
“I identified her body.”
“You identified a burned body wearing her wedding ring.”
His face went white.
“I buried her.”
“You buried someone.”
I could barely speak.
“My mother is alive?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“She was three months ago.”
My knees weakened.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
My father stepped forward.
“Tell me everything.”
Rebecca ignored him.
She entered a code.
The archive opened.
Thousands of records appeared.
Then one video file automatically began playing.
Elizabeth Vale appeared on the screen.
Older than I remembered.
Alive.
The recording date was eleven weeks ago.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Evelyn.”
I covered my mouth.
“If you are watching this, then Victor Halden has finally come for you.”
She paused.
“And your father has probably told you that he spent your entire life protecting you.”
Jonathan stood beside me.
Silent.
Elizabeth’s recorded image looked almost sad.
May you like
“He did.”
“Until the night he betrayed me.”
