Chapter 15 - THE LAST SALUTE
Marcus hit the floor beside the ceremonial display case.
Ryan shouted.
Evelyn screamed.
Captain Cole’s team moved instantly.
Rebecca backed toward the server vault with her weapon raised.
Marcus pressed both hands against his side.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Ryan dropped beside him.
“Dad.”
Marcus looked up at the man he had raised.
For all the lies between them, something real existed in that moment.
Marcus had fed him.
Trained him.
Punished him.
Praised him.
Used him.
Loved him in whatever broken way he understood love.
Marcus reached for Ryan’s sleeve.
“I should have stopped her.”
Ryan’s face twisted.
“When?”
Marcus coughed.
“Years ago.”
It was not enough.
But it was the closest Marcus Bennett had ever come to an apology.
Medics pulled Ryan away.
Marcus remained conscious as they carried him out.
Rebecca watched without emotion.
Lisa finally understood.
Rebecca did not build relationships.
She built leverage.
The moment someone ceased being useful, she stopped seeing them as human.
James stepped toward her.
“You shot him.”
Rebecca shrugged.
“He chose badly.”
Lisa looked at her mother.
“No.”
“He finally chose for himself.”
That seemed to anger Rebecca more than anything else.
She fired toward Lisa.
Daniel pulled Lisa down.
Cole’s agents returned fire.
Rebecca disappeared inside the server vault and locked the blast door.
Claire ran to the control panel.
“She’s trying to destroy the remaining archive.”
Lisa accessed the old building network.
The vault contained physical drives not connected to Fort Halden.
Rebecca intended to burn them.
Fire suppression shut down.
Temperature alarms began rising.
Lisa remembered designing this room years earlier.
There was another entrance.
A maintenance duct behind the former electrical room.
Daniel and Cole entered through it.
Lisa stayed at the console with Claire.
Minutes felt like hours.
Then two shots.
Silence.
Lisa’s hands stopped moving.
“Daniel?”
No answer.
Claire looked toward the vault.
Then Daniel’s voice came through.
“I’m okay.”
Lisa exhaled.
“Cole?”
A pause.
Then Cole answered.
“Rebecca’s alive.”
They opened the vault.
Smoke drifted from damaged equipment.
Rebecca sat against the wall.
Her pistol lay several feet away.
Daniel stood beside her.
Captain Cole was bleeding from the forehead.
Lisa walked in.
Rebecca looked up at her daughter.
“You think this changes anything?”
Lisa said nothing.
“They will make deals.”
“They will protect generals.”
“Politicians will deny everything.”
“Corporations will pay fines.”
“People will forget.”
Lisa crouched in front of her.
“Maybe.”
Rebecca smiled weakly.
“Then what did you win?”
Lisa thought about it.
“My life back.”
Rebecca’s smile vanished.
Military Police placed her in restraints.
As they lifted her, Rebecca leaned close to Lisa.
“There is still one person you haven’t found.”
Lisa stiffened.
Rebecca whispered a name.
“Thomas Morgan.”
Claire went completely still.
Her father had supposedly died nineteen years earlier.
Rebecca smiled.
“He learned from me.”
Then she was taken away.
Claire stared at Lisa.
And somewhere in the building, an old server suddenly activated.
May you like
One message appeared.
HELLO, CLAIRE.
