Chapter 11 - NO SAFE SIDE
Evan slammed the garage control.
Nothing happened.
Thomas pulled Sarah behind the van.
Arthur opened a rear emergency hatch.
“There’s another exit.”
Maya grabbed two hard drives.
“What about the computers?”
“Leave them.”
Smoke canisters rolled beneath the garage door.
The room filled with white fog.
Sarah’s heart pounded.
Lucy began crying.
Thomas wrapped his coat around them.
“Stay with me.”
They escaped into an alley behind the marina.
Evan remained behind long enough to trigger a fire-suppression system.
Then he joined them.
Maya led them through neighboring warehouses.
“They knew our location too fast.”
Thomas looked at Evan.
Evan immediately understood.
“Don’t.”
“Someone talked.”
“It wasn’t me.”
Arthur stopped.
“Maya?”
The federal analyst looked offended.
“Reese recruited me personally.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
Sarah looked from face to face.
Nobody trusted anyone anymore.
Then Rebecca spoke.
“It was me.”
Everyone turned.
Rebecca held up a small necklace.
“I’m wearing a tracker.”
Sarah stared.
“Why?”
“Because Keene forced me to.”
Thomas reached for it.
Rebecca pulled back.
“If I remove it, they know.”
“They already know.”
“No.”
“They know I’m moving.”
“Not that I switched sides.”
Arthur understood.
“You’ve been feeding them false movement.”
Rebecca nodded.
“The tracker is supposed to lead them to Sarah.”
Sarah felt betrayed again.
“You agreed to that?”
“I agreed because Keene has someone.”
“Who?”
Rebecca’s face collapsed.
“My other daughter.”
Silence.
Sarah stared.
“Your what?”
“After I escaped Connecticut, I rebuilt my life.”
“I married.”
“Years later, I had another child.”
“Emily.”
“She’s nineteen now.”
“Keene took her three days ago.”
Sarah’s anger disappeared.
Rebecca was not walking beside Keene willingly.
She had been negotiating for another daughter.
“They said they would kill Emily if I didn’t bring you and Lucy to Veil House.”
Sarah whispered.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya opened one of the hard drives.
“Maybe Reese did.”
She searched archived messages.
One file contained an intercepted Circle transmission.
TRANSFER E19 TO HAWTHORNE.
Rebecca leaned closer.
“E19.”
“Emily is nineteen.”
Thomas looked at Maya.
“What’s Hawthorne?”
Arthur answered.
“A juvenile psychiatric facility closed in 2008.”
“Circle used the basement for witness intake.”
Rebecca stood.
“We’re going.”
Evan shook his head.
“That could be bait.”
“It is bait.”
Rebecca looked at Sarah.
“But she’s still my daughter.”
Sarah held Lucy tighter.
For the first time, she understood Rebecca completely.
Thomas looked toward the highway.
“Hawthorne is forty miles west.”
Maya checked her phone.
“Police checkpoints are already appearing.”
Sarah asked,
“How do we get there?”
Arthur looked at Thomas.
“We stop running like fugitives.”
“What does that mean?”
Arthur smiled faintly.
May you like
“We steal a police car.”
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