Chapter 18 - THE FALSE VICTORY
We moved my father to a secure wing.
Grace and my mother were transferred to a different hospital under protection.
Ryan insisted on staying.
I did not argue.
Not because I trusted him.
Because sometimes redemption begins with standing in the place where you once ran.
Helix Crown collapsed publicly over the next forty-eight hours.
Federal agents raided three laboratories.
Richard Vale was arrested again after Ryan turned over his father’s complete legal archive.
Samuel testified.
Evelyn testified.
My father recorded a statement.
Every headline declared the scandal finished.
But Helena Cross remained missing.
Luka did not relax.
Neither did I.
On the third night, my father sat beside me drinking hospital coffee.
“You’re stronger than I was.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
“You are.”
“You hid for twelve years.”
“I thought hiding was strength.”
“It wasn’t.”
“No.”
He looked toward Grace’s photograph.
“You’ll do better.”
“I’m terrified.”
“Good.”
I stared at him.
He smiled.
“Fear means you understand what you can lose.”
“Courage is choosing anyway.”
It sounded like something he would have told me when I was seven.
For a moment, I had my father back.
Then Luka entered.
“We found Cross.”
I stood.
“Where?”
“She booked a private aircraft under a false identity.”
“Destination?”
“Switzerland.”
Relief moved through me.
“She’s running.”
Luka did not smile.
“No.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
A private airfield.
Cross boarding a plane.
Beside her was a medical courier carrying a refrigerated case.
I looked at it.
“What’s inside?”
“We intercepted the shipping manifest.”
He handed me a document.
CORD BLOOD SAMPLE.
GRACE CARTER.
My heart stopped.
“They still have it.”
Luka nodded.
“If Cross gets that sample out of the country—”
My father interrupted.
“She still doesn’t have the origin key.”
“But she has enough to start.”
I looked at him.
“Can she hurt Grace with it?”
“No.”
“Can she create another child?”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
My father stood.
“We stop the plane.”
The airfield was ninety minutes away.
The plane was scheduled to depart in sixty.
Police units were notified.
Federal agents were notified.
But Luka looked at me.
“Cross has someone inside law enforcement.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she knew about every raid before they happened.”
My stomach twisted.
Ryan stepped forward.
“I can get us onto the airfield.”
Everyone looked at him.
“How?”
“My father represented the aviation company.”
Of course he did.
Ryan contacted an old executive.
Twenty minutes later, we were driving toward the private terminal.
The plane was already taxiing.
Federal vehicles approached from the opposite road.
Then they stopped.
A gate had been locked remotely.
Cross’s aircraft turned toward the runway.
“We’re too late.”
I whispered.
Luka accelerated.
The SUV slammed through a maintenance barrier.
Ryan shouted.
My father grabbed the dashboard.
The aircraft engines roared.
We stopped near the runway edge.
Luka jumped out.
So did I.
He tried to stop me.
“No.”
“That’s my daughter’s blood.”
“Elena.”
“I’m going.”
We ran toward the hangar access road.
The plane slowed suddenly.
Then stopped.
A black sedan blocked the taxiway.
The driver’s door opened.
Vanessa stepped out.
Ryan stared.
“What the hell?”
She held up both hands as airport security raced toward her.
Later, she would tell us she had followed a Helix accountant for two days after leaving Ryan.
She found the flight.
She found the airfield.
And she parked her car in front of the plane because she had run out of better ideas.
Cross was arrested before the aircraft reached the runway.
The cord sample was recovered.
For the first time, I believed it might really be over.
Then my father opened the refrigerated case.
His face changed.
“What?”
I asked.
He lifted one vial.
May you like
The label read GRACE CARTER.
But the vial was empty.
