Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN BESIDE THE INCUBATOR
I was out of bed before anyone could stop me.
Pain shot through my body.
The nurse caught my arm.
“Colonel, you cannot walk.”
“My daughter is in that unit.”
General Reed ordered an immediate security sweep.
The neonatal cameras showed a woman in hospital scrubs standing beside Grace’s incubator.
Her badge identified her as a respiratory specialist.
She was not on the employee list.
The woman leaned over the incubator and reached beneath the blanket.
Security entered three seconds later.
She held up both hands.
In one hand was a tiny tracking device.
She had been attaching it to Grace’s identification band.
The woman was detained.
Her name was Laura Mercer.
Dr. Mercer’s wife.
She refused to answer questions until agents showed her the photograph of my mother.
Then she asked for immunity.
Laura said Elizabeth Whitmore had been held under false medical guardianship for decades.
Senator Dane convinced courts that my mother suffered severe memory loss after the boating accident.
He moved her between private clinics using different names.
Dr. Mercer managed the medications that kept her confused and dependent.
My grandfather spent years searching.
He never found proof.
Laura had helped move my mother during the last eight months.
“Where is she now?” I demanded.
Laura looked toward Grace.
“Dane wants an exchange.”
“No.”
“He knows the continuity vault is open.”
“What does he want?”
“The original Meridian ledger.”
General Reed refused immediately.
Laura said Dane would kill Elizabeth if the ledger was not delivered before sunset.
A location would be sent to the tracker placed on Grace.
The device was not only for kidnapping.
It was a communication signal.
Federal agents created a duplicate transmission.
They made Dane believe the tracker remained active.
At 6:10 p.m., coordinates arrived.
An abandoned rehabilitation center north of the city.
General Reed planned the rescue.
I stayed behind with Grace.
Mark asked to speak with me one last time before being transferred to federal custody.
I agreed only because he claimed to know the building.
His father once took him there as a child.
“There is an old therapy tunnel beneath the east wing,” Mark said.
“It leads to a maintenance road.”
“Why would Dane choose a place your father knew?”
“He may be waiting for me.”
Mark explained that Dane had contacted him after the hospital arrest.
A message appeared on an old phone hidden inside his wallet.
Dane promised to clear his name if he delivered the ledger.
Mark had deleted nothing.
He gave investigators the phone.
A new message arrived while they watched.
BRING ANNA.
SHE OPENS THE FINAL BOX.
There was no final box in the vault.
At least, none we had found.
Rachel reread my grandfather’s letter.
One sentence suddenly mattered.
The final truth travels with the bloodline.
She looked at Grace’s hospital band.
Then at my family ring.
My grandfather had given me the ring when I graduated from West Point.
A tiny seam ran beneath the stone.
A technician opened it.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
The images showed financial transfers signed by Senator Dane.
The last frame showed a government authorization.
It was signed by General Reed.
I turned the screen toward him.
His face went completely still.
May you like
The authorization had ordered my mother’s transfer into Dane’s custody.
General Reed’s signature was real.
