Chapter 16 - THOMAS'S MOTHER
They found the second room empty.
The chair was still warm.
A cup of coffee sat on the floor.
Someone had removed the woman minutes earlier.
Thomas stood frozen in the doorway.
“My mother died when I was six.”
Arthur looked devastated.
“That’s what I was told too.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You didn’t see her body?”
“No.”
“Hospital said infection.”
“Closed casket because of contamination.”
Thomas laughed bitterly.
“Another closed casket.”
Arthur leaned against the wall.
“I believed it.”
Maya searched archived hospital records.
Laura Hale had officially died thirty-one years earlier.
But the physician who signed her death certificate was Dr. Miriam Cross’s father.
A Circle physician.
Thomas looked at Arthur.
“She was alive.”
“For thirty-one years.”
“Why?”
Kara answered quietly.
“Eleanor collects leverage.”
“People are more useful alive when everyone believes they’re dead.”
Sarah suddenly thought of Rebecca.
Arthur.
Laura.
The Circle didn’t merely erase people.
It stored them.
Moved them.
Reused them.
Thomas found scratches on the wall.
Letters.
L.H.
Then numbers.
Maya photographed them.
“They might be coordinates.”
Arthur looked closer.
“No.”
“They’re badge numbers.”
One belonged to Malcolm Voss.
One belonged to Arthur.
Another belonged to Judge Keene.
Then one current number.
Evan recognized it.
“Captain Samuel Price.”
Thomas stared.
His current commanding officer.
The man coordinating the manhunt.
The man broadcasting that Thomas had kidnapped his own child.
Evan whispered.
“There’s your traitor inside the department.”
Thomas’s phone buzzed.
A department-wide alert appeared.
CAPTAIN PRICE LOCATED OFFICER HALE.
ADDRESS PROVIDED BELOW.
Maya looked at the address.
It was the church basement they had just left.
“Price is feeding raids to Eleanor.”
Thomas clenched his jaw.
“We can prove it now.”
“Not enough.”
Evan looked at him.
“We need him talking.”
Olivia suggested using Kara.
Everyone turned.
Kara looked afraid.
“I can contact Price.”
“You’ve spoken to him?”
“Twice.”
Thomas said,
“Tell him you still have the tracker.”
“Tell him Sarah is moving Lucy.”
“To where?”
Sarah answered.
“Veil House.”
Thomas stared at her.
“No.”
“That place started this.”
“And it has cameras.”
“Records.”
“Entrances we know.”
“We make them come to us.”
Rebecca looked at Sarah with something like pride.
Arthur nodded slowly.
“We turn Veil House into a trap.”
The plan formed quickly.
Federal contacts loyal to Reese would quietly surround the area.
Maya would stream everything to multiple outside servers.
Olivia would arrange legal observers.
Kara would tell Price that Sarah was surrendering.
Rebecca would appear beside her.
Lucy would not.
Sarah refused to risk her daughter.
For the first time, everyone agreed immediately.
Lucy remained with Marian and Emily at a protected location known only to Maya.
At dusk, Sarah returned to Veil House.
This time voluntarily.
Rebecca walked beside her.
Thomas disappeared into the trees.
Evan took the basement.
Arthur entered through the river tunnel.
Kara sent the message.
Fifteen minutes later, headlights appeared.
Captain Samuel Price arrived first.
Judge Keene arrived second.
Then Senator Crane.
Finally, a long black sedan stopped.
An elderly woman stepped out.
White hair.
Straight posture.
Black gloves.
Arthur whispered through Thomas’s earpiece.
“Eleanor Vale.”
Eleanor looked directly at Sarah.
And smiled.
May you like
“Rebecca’s little girl.”
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