Chapter 1 - THE MAN IN THE FOG
The man stepped farther into the orange glow of the burning forest.
Sarah’s breath caught.
“Evan?”
Detective Evan Mercer lowered the flashlight.
For twelve years, he had been Thomas’s partner.
He had eaten Thanksgiving dinner at their table.
He had helped Thomas paint the nursery.
Three weeks earlier, he had stood beside Sarah at the baby shower and joked that he expected to be named godfather.
Thomas straightened despite the blood running down his temple.
“Stay behind me.”
Sarah instinctively tightened her arms around newborn Lucy.
Evan smiled.
“You can barely stand, Tommy.”
Thomas reached toward the pistol at his hip.
Evan lifted his own weapon first.
“Don’t.”
Sarah stared at him.
“You were supposed to be in Hartford.”
“That was the idea.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“You started the fire.”
Evan didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
Flames crawled through the trees behind him.
The access road to the highway had already disappeared behind smoke.
Sarah looked toward the narrow trail leading east.
Veil House was less than a mile away.
It was the emergency safehouse Thomas had told her to reach if anything ever happened.
Now he had told her not to go there.
Nothing made sense.
Lucy began crying.
Evan’s eyes immediately shifted toward the baby.
Not toward Sarah.
Not toward Thomas.
Toward Lucy.
“Give her to me.”
Sarah stepped backward.
“No.”
“Sarah.”
Evan’s voice softened.
“You don’t understand what Thomas dragged you into.”
Thomas pulled himself upright.
“She doesn’t know anything.”
“Maybe she doesn’t.”
Evan looked at Lucy again.
“But the baby does.”
Sarah stared at him.
“She’s five days old.”
Evan smiled without warmth.
“That doesn’t mean she can’t ruin lives.”
Thomas suddenly moved.
He slammed into Evan.
The gun fired into the trees.
Sarah screamed.
Thomas shouted one word.
“RUN!”
She ran.
Branches tore at her coat as she disappeared into the fog.
Lucy cried against her chest.
Behind her came another gunshot.
Then silence.
Sarah wanted to turn back.
Every part of her wanted to find Thomas.
But she remembered the terror in his eyes.
Not for himself.
For Lucy.
She kept moving.
The smoke became thicker.
After several minutes, she reached a fork in the trail.
The left path led toward the county road.
The right path led directly toward Veil House.
Thomas had specifically warned her away from it.
So she turned left.
Then stopped.
A black SUV was parked between the trees.
Its lights were off.
The driver’s door stood open.
Sarah approached carefully.
Inside, she found a police radio.
A map.
And a photograph.
Her photograph.
Taken outside the hospital the morning Lucy was born.
Beneath it were photographs of Thomas.
Their house.
The maternity ward.
And Lucy’s hospital bassinet.
Sarah’s hands shook.
Then she noticed writing across the bottom of Lucy’s photograph.
INFANT V-17 CONFIRMED.
Sarah looked down at her daughter.
“What are they doing to us?”
A branch snapped behind her.
She spun around.
Thomas stumbled from the darkness.
“Thomas!”
She ran toward him.
He nearly collapsed into her.
“Evan?”
Thomas shook his head.
“He ran.”
Sarah showed him the photograph.
Thomas stopped.
His face changed.
“You found that where?”
“In the SUV.”
“What does V-17 mean?”
Thomas looked at Lucy.
Then back toward the fire.
“We have to move.”
“Tell me.”
“Not here.”
“Thomas!”
He grabbed her shoulder.
“Sarah, Lucy wasn’t randomly assigned that number.”
Her heart began pounding.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas swallowed.
“V stands for Veil.”
Sarah stared at him.
“And seventeen?”
Thomas looked at his newborn daughter.
May you like
“She’s the seventeenth baby they’ve marked.”
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