Chapter 10 - The Empty ChairWhen I woke, I was on the beach.
By sunrise, Washington was burning metaphorically.
Defense executives resigned.
Two intelligence officials disappeared.
Three senior officers were detained before boarding international flights.
Senator Margaret Hale was arrested on the mountain after a short pursuit.
But Colonel Andrew Vale escaped with my father.
And the ledger revealed one final nightmare.
Marcus Dane was alive.
Noah’s biological father.
The seventh Lazarus operator.
The man supposedly killed in Prague had been working under another identity for years.
And according to the ledger, he was now Monarch’s operational commander.
Voss read the file twice.
“I thought Hale took control.”
“She controlled the political network,” Rebecca said. “Dane controlled field operations.”
I looked at Noah sleeping beside Rachel.
“Does he know about Noah?”
Voss nodded.
“He designed the contingency.”
Cold rage settled inside me.
“Where do we find him?”
Blackwood, his shoulder bandaged, entered the temporary command room.
“I may know.”
We all looked at him.
“Twenty years ago, Daniel and I helped establish a maritime fallback site in the Channel Islands.”
Mercer frowned.
“Military?”
“Unofficial.”
“Of course.”
Blackwood gave him a tired look.
“It was a different era.”
“No, Admiral. Apparently it was exactly this era.”
The site lay beneath an abandoned naval research station on San Nicolas Island.
Satellite surveillance showed unusual activity.
One aircraft.
Two boats.
Thermal signatures underground.
We moved before noon.
This time, Blackwood was ordered to remain behind.
He refused.
“You were shot yesterday,” I said.
“So were you seven years ago.”
“That is not medically relevant.”
“It is emotionally satisfying.”
Despite everything, I smiled.
We flew low over the Pacific.
Noah and Rachel remained under guard.
Before leaving, I knelt beside him.
“There’s something I need you to understand.”
He looked serious.
“Is this about you being my biological mom?”
Children always knew more than adults thought.
“Yes.”
He shrugged.
“Mom already told me.”
“And?”
“You’re still Aunt Evie.”
A strange laugh escaped me.
“Okay.”
“And Mom is still Mom.”
“Yes.”
“Can we not make it weird?”
Rachel laughed through tears.
“I love you.”
“Love you too.”
I kissed his forehead.
Then we flew toward the last ghost.
The island facility was quiet when we landed.
Too quiet.
Inside, we found Colonel Vale dead.
Single gunshot.
Execution.
Dane was cleaning house.
My father’s blood trail led deeper underground.
We followed.
The final chamber resembled a Cold War command bunker.
Dane stood beside Daniel.
My father was tied to a chair again.
Apparently our family had developed a pattern.
Marcus Dane was fifty-seven.
Tall.
Gray at the temples.
Calm.
He looked at me with unsettling curiosity.
“So that’s Evelyn.”
I aimed my weapon.
“Step away from him.”
Dane smiled.
“You brought Rebecca.”
Rebecca aimed beside me.
“Miss me?”
“Not particularly.”
Voss entered last.
Dane’s expression changed.
“Adrian.”
“Marcus.”
Two men who had destroyed generations with secrets.
Dane looked at me.
“Do you know why Monarch survived?”
“Greed.”
“No.”
“Power.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Because governments lie about what keeps people safe.”
I almost rolled my eyes.
“Please spare me the villain speech.”
Blackwood coughed behind me.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Dane’s smile vanished.
He held a detonator.
“This facility contains every remaining physical archive Monarch possesses.”
“Then blow it.”
“You’re standing inside it.”
“Still not impressed.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Your father never told you his final secret.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
I sighed.
“Of course there’s another one.”
Dane looked almost delighted.
“Your father didn’t create Nightglass to expose Monarch.”
I looked at Daniel.
“He created Monarch.”
Silence.
Voss stared at my father.
“No.”
Dane laughed.
“You really didn’t know?”
Daniel finally spoke.
“I was one of five founders.”
My chest tightened.
“You said you fought it.”
“I did.”
“After creating it.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
The truth beneath every truth.
My father had built the very machine that destroyed us.
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“After Beirut, after the embassy bombings, after watching intelligence failures cost lives, we thought we could create a system faster than bureaucracy.”
“And then you lost control.”
“Yes.”
Dane interrupted.
“No. He became ashamed.”
He pointed toward himself.
“I did not.”
I looked at Marcus Dane.
“You’re Noah’s biological father.”
For the first time, emotion flickered across his face.
“Yes.”
“You used my stolen genetic material.”
“Yes.”
“Do you consider him your son?”
Dane thought.
“Biologically.”
Wrong answer.
I fired.
The bullet struck the detonator from his hand.
Rebecca moved.
Voss tackled Dane.
Gunfire erupted.
Blackwood pulled Daniel behind cover.
Dane fought like the elite operator he had once been.
He slammed Voss into the wall.
Rebecca fired and missed.
Dane drew a knife.
I intercepted him.
We crashed over a console.
He was stronger.
I was angrier.
He pinned me.
“You could have inherited all of this.”
“I’d rather burn it.”
He smiled.
“That’s what your father said.”
Then my father struck him from behind with a metal bar.
Dane turned.
Voss tackled him again.
Rebecca kicked the knife away.
Mercer’s team stormed in.
Dane was surrounded.
For a second, I thought it was over.
Then he pulled a secondary trigger from his boot.
Blackwood shouted.
“Bomb!”
Dane smiled.
“Monarch dies with us.”
My father looked toward the control panel.
“Not if I can stop it.”
He ran.
I grabbed him.
“No.”
“I designed the failsafe architecture.”
“Twenty years ago!”
“Still arrogant enough to remember it.”
He worked the console.
Countdown.
Three minutes.
Mercer ordered evacuation.
My father shook his head.
“I need ninety seconds.”
Dane laughed from the floor.
“You need four minutes.”
My father looked at me.
“He’s right.”
“No.”
“Evie.”
“No.”
Everyone began leaving.
Blackwood grabbed my arm.
“We have to go.”
I fought him.
“My father is in there.”
Daniel turned.
“Evelyn.”
The countdown reached two minutes.
He smiled.
“I already abandoned you once.”
Tears blurred my vision.
“Dad.”
“I’m not doing it again.”
Blackwood dragged me toward the exit.
I screamed.
Daniel worked faster.
One minute.
Thirty seconds.
We reached the tunnel.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
I turned back.
“DAD!”
May you like
The facility shook.
Then everything went dark.
