Chapter 13 - The Fire in the Records Room
We ran.
The fire was contained to the executive archive.
Exactly where the old M-17 documents were stored.
Derek had arrived twenty minutes earlier using Malcolm’s private access code.
Security footage showed him entering with a metal case.
Then every camera on the archive floor went dark.
Luka’s team reached the stairwell.
Firefighters stopped them.
I stood outside in the parking lot holding my coat around me while smoke poured from the roof.
Another piece of my father’s truth was burning.
Again.
Then Camille screamed.
Derek stood across the street.
He was watching the building.
He saw us.
Then he ran.
Luka’s men chased him.
Derek reached a waiting car.
It disappeared into traffic.
Rebecca turned toward Malcolm.
“You said you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.”
“You gave him access.”
“He’s my son.”
“And he’s destroying evidence.”
Malcolm looked twenty years older.
Luka received a call from inside.
“Archive is gone.”
My heart sank.
Then the voice continued.
“But the fireproof vault survived.”
Malcolm looked stunned.
“What vault?”
Luka almost smiled.
“Thomas Bennett’s.”
My father had installed a private evidence vault years earlier during the audit.
No one had opened it since his death.
The biometric system required two authorization factors.
One was my father’s archived key.
The second was genetic.
Mine.
We waited until firefighters cleared the floor.
The vault was hidden behind a false electrical panel.
I pressed my thumb against the scanner.
Nothing happened.
Then the screen displayed another instruction.
MATERNAL LINE CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Blood.”
Luka called a technician.
A small sample was taken.
The vault opened.
Inside were eight paper files.
Three hard drives.
And three sealed DNA envelopes.
My name was written on the first.
Derek Hayes was written on the second.
The third said only:
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL M-17 IS EXPOSED.
My hands shook.
Luka opened the first file.
It contained my original birth records.
I was Baby A.
Cassandra was Baby B.
The second file contained financial transfers connecting Malcolm, Samuel Crane, and several hospital executives to illegal adoptions and laboratory manipulation.
Then we opened the file marked DEREK.
Inside was a letter from my father.
Elena, if you are reading this, then Derek has chosen his father over the truth.
My knees nearly failed.
My father had known Derek.
More than that.
He had expected Derek to make a choice.
I kept reading.
Derek came to me six years ago because he wanted out.
He offered to testify against Malcolm.
He wanted protection.
Everything I believed shifted again.
Derek had not approached my father as an enemy.
At least not initially.
Then the final line crushed me.
May you like
I trusted him once.
I hope you never have to learn why I stopped.
