Chapter 9 - THE REAL MASON VALEThe dead man was identified twelve hours later.
His name was Aaron Pike.
Former military contractor.
Plastic surgery records showed he had spent two years gradually altering his face to resemble Mason Vale.
Claire stared at the photographs.
“That’s insane.”
Victor, recovering in a wheelchair, shook his head.
“No. It’s preparation.”
Mason had created a double.
A replacement body.
A way to die whenever necessary.
Ethan looked at the timeline.
Surgery started long before Noah’s birth.
Mason had always expected he might need to disappear.
Caleb asked:
“Then where is he?”
Claire knew the answer before anyone else.
“He’s somewhere ordinary.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Mason spent his whole life around wealthy criminals. He knows you’ll search private airfields, safe houses, offshore accounts.”
She thought of her old life.
Apartment.
Hospital.
Night shifts.
Invisible people.
“He’ll hide where nobody important looks.”
Hospitals.
Transit stations.
Shelters.
Cheap motels.
Ethan ordered searches.
Claire made her own list.
Then she remembered Mason’s obsession with identities.
The hospital technician.
False priest disguise.
Fake staff.
Body double.
Mason enjoyed becoming other people.
Who could move freely through Chicago without suspicion?
Maintenance workers.
Paramedics.
Nurses.
Police.
Claire called her former hospital.
The night supervisor answered.
Claire asked about temporary staff.
One new transport orderly had started two days earlier.
Name: Michael Voss.
No photograph yet.
Claire’s pulse spiked.
“What shift?”
“NICU.”
She hung up.
Ethan was already reaching for his coat.
They returned to the hospital where Noah’s nightmare began.
Claire wore scrubs.
Ethan wore a visitor badge and looked deeply offended by it.
“You look normal,” Claire said.
“I dislike it.”
“That’s why it works.”
They searched quietly.
Michael Voss was not in the NICU.
His locker contained nothing.
Then Claire saw a patient transport schedule.
One Blackwood-connected patient was being moved that afternoon.
Victor.
“No.”
Ethan called the monastery hospital.
Victor’s room was empty.
A transport team had arrived with legitimate paperwork.
They took him twenty minutes earlier.
Mason had kidnapped Victor.
Again, the motive seemed obvious.
Revenge.
But Claire looked deeper.
Victor was not simply Ethan’s father.
He was the only person with biometric access to the Blackwood family trust.
Mason wanted the money.
Not just millions.
Billions.
They traced the ambulance to a downtown bank.
Mason had chosen broad daylight.
Crowds.
Traffic.
Cameras.
Perfect camouflage.
Victor sat inside a private trust office.
Mason stood behind him.
Gun beneath his coat.
Claire and Ethan entered disguised as bank staff.
Mason recognized Ethan immediately.
“Terrible disguise.”
Ethan removed the glasses.
“You always were annoying.”
Mason smiled.
Claire watched Victor’s hands.
One thumb against the biometric scanner.
Mason needed him to approve a transfer.
“Where’s Caleb?” Mason asked.
“Busy.”
“Rachel?”
“Safe.”
“The baby?”
Claire answered.
“Somewhere you’ll never reach.”
Mason looked at her.
“You really have become the family’s favorite stray.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Claire smiled.
“Funny. I was going to say the same about you.”
Mason’s expression changed.
Good.
Keep him emotional.
Victor suddenly said:
“I’m not transferring anything.”
Mason pressed the gun harder against him.
“You will.”
“No.”
“Then I shoot Ethan.”
Victor laughed.
“You think threatening my son will make me surrender the family?”
Ethan looked hurt despite knowing it was performance.
Victor continued.
“You never understood us.”
Mason stared.
Victor turned toward him.
“We fight each other. Lie to each other. Sometimes destroy each other.”
A sad smile.
“But outsiders?”
Victor struck the emergency button.
Steel doors sealed.
Mason fired.
Ethan lunged.
Claire pulled Victor down.
Gunfire shattered the glass wall.
Mason ran through the side office.
Ethan followed.
Claire chased.
They reached the rooftop.
Wind tore across the building.
Mason stood near the edge.
Helicopter approaching.
Of course.
He had planned everything.
Caleb’s voice sounded over the rooftop speakers.
“Except this.”
The helicopter suddenly veered away.
Caleb had intercepted the pilot.
Mason laughed.
“You boys finally learned teamwork.”
Ethan approached.
“It took us a while.”
Mason pulled a pistol.
Claire saw the red laser before Ethan did.
Not Mason’s weapon.
A sniper.
Across the street.
“Down!”
Claire hit Ethan.
A bullet passed where his head had been.
Mason ran.
The sniper fired again.
At Mason.
Claire realized the truth.
Someone was trying to kill him too.
Mason looked stunned.
“You didn’t hire him?”
Ethan almost laughed.
“No.”
The sniper fired.
Mason fell.
Hit in the leg.
Claire dragged him behind ventilation equipment.
“Who wants you dead?” she demanded.
Mason was bleeding badly.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
“My father.”
Victor arrived on the roof.
Silence.
“Your father is dead,” Ethan said.
Mason shook his head.
“Like Caleb was?”
Claire felt the final layer opening.
Mason Vale’s father, Jonathan Vale, had supposedly died fifteen years earlier.
Plane crash.
No body recovered.
Another fake death.
Jonathan had built the network.
Mason had believed he inherited it.
In reality, Jonathan had been controlling him remotely.
Noah’s kidnapping.
Sophie’s death.
Evelyn’s disappearance.
Laura Bennett’s persecution.
All roads led not to Mason.
To Jonathan.
Mason had been both villain and weapon.
Claire pressed cloth against his wound.
“Where is he?”
Mason smiled weakly.
“You’ll never find him.”
The sniper fired again.
Glass shattered.
Caleb’s team located the shooter.
They captured him alive.
He carried one instruction.
IF MASON FAILS, CLEAN THE BLOODLINE.
Attached was a list.
Victor.
Evelyn.
Caleb.
Rachel.
Ethan.
Noah.
And Claire.
Claire stared at her own name.
“Why me?”
Mason looked at her.
“Because you keep saving them.”
Ethan’s eyes darkened.
Jonathan Vale was no longer targeting Claire as a witness.
She had become an obstacle.
The sniper carried coordinates.
A farm outside Milwaukee.
A location Mason recognized.
His childhood home.
Jonathan had gone back to the beginning.
Victor said:
“We finish it.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
“This family has spent decades finishing things with guns.”
She looked at Mason.
“Jonathan expects that.”
Ethan asked, “What do you suggest?”
Claire stared at the address.
“We make him confess.”
Mason laughed.
“My father will never confess.”
Claire looked at him.
“Everyone talks when you find the right thing they’re afraid to lose.”
Mason’s smile vanished.
Claire had found his.
Control.
Jonathan Vale had spent forty years controlling everyone.
His sons.
His allies.
The Blackwoods.
What would terrify a man like that?
May you like
Being exposed while still alive.
Claire began to build the trap.
