Chapter 10 - THE BLOODLINE
They escaped through the east tunnel seconds before Keene’s men reached the archive.
The passage ended beside the river.
A small maintenance boat waited beneath camouflage netting.
Arthur started the engine.
Thomas sat in silence.
Sarah knew better than to ask him how he felt.
His entire identity had just fractured.
After twenty minutes, Thomas finally spoke.
“My mother?”
Arthur kept watching the river.
“Laura and I were already married.”
“Malcolm Voss assaulted her after a department function.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Sarah reached for him.
This time he took her hand.
Arthur continued.
“She became pregnant.”
“I told her the child was mine.”
“Because you loved her?”
“Because you were mine.”
Thomas looked toward him.
Arthur’s eyes filled.
“You were my son from the moment she chose to keep you.”
“Blood never changed that.”
Thomas looked away.
Rebecca whispered.
“Voss never knew?”
“He suspected.”
Arthur said.
“But Laura died before he could prove it.”
Thomas’s mother died when he was six.
Another piece of his life changed shape.
Evan sat near the front of the boat.
“Keene wants Thomas alive because of Voss.”
Arthur nodded.
“There’s another lock on the Veil archive.”
Sarah groaned.
“Another key?”
“Not exactly.”
Arthur explained that Malcolm Voss had hidden a separate ledger documenting payments he personally received.
He encrypted references using family dates and private information.
For decades, nobody could open the file.
Natalie discovered that Thomas was Voss’s biological son.
His identity completed the missing data set.
Sarah stared.
“So Lucy triggered Rebecca’s archive.”
“And Thomas can open Voss’s.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Two sets of evidence.”
“Two bloodlines.”
“One case.”
Thomas laughed once without humor.
“We’re all keys.”
Arthur looked at him.
“That’s why they need you alive until they open it.”
“And afterward?”
Nobody answered.
The boat reached an old marina.
Evan led them toward a storage garage.
Inside was an unmarked van.
He opened the rear door.
Computers filled the compartment.
A young federal analyst sat inside.
Evan said,
“This is Agent Maya Torres.”
Maya looked exhausted.
“Reese’s off-books team.”
Thomas frowned.
“I thought Reese was working alone.”
“He wanted the Circle to think that.”
Maya took Lucy’s bracelet memory card.
“We can authenticate this.”
Sarah asked,
“Can you protect us?”
Maya hesitated.
“Not through normal channels.”
“Why?”
“Because Reese identified one senior federal official who accessed sealed Veil records.”
Thomas’s expression tightened.
“Name?”
Maya pulled up a photograph.
Sarah recognized the man.
Everyone did.
Deputy Director James Calder.
He had appeared on national television after major investigations.
Evan whispered.
“If Calder is Circle, this goes higher than the county.”
Maya shook her head.
“He isn’t just Circle.”
“According to Reese’s last message, Calder is the man Keene answers to.”
The van suddenly lost power.
Every screen went black.
Then the garage door began opening by itself.
Outside stood a line of black SUVs.
Maya whispered.
May you like
“They found us.”
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