Chapter 15 - The Facility Beneath Virginia
The Meridian facility looked like an ordinary research campus.
Three low buildings.
Trees.
Security gates.
No signs.
No logos.
We arrived shortly before sunset.
Federal warrants were being prepared, but Dad believed Victor would trigger the archive if he saw a large raid force.
So we entered first.
Me.
Dad.
Torres.
Celeste.
Daniel Price.
Five people who trusted one another in different degrees ranging from completely to not at all.
Celeste’s access card opened the underground elevator.
We descended six floors.
The doors opened onto a white corridor.
At the end stood Victor Sloane.
Alive.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
A transparent oxygen tube ran beneath his nose.
But his eyes were sharp.
He smiled at my father.
“Elias.”
Dad stopped.
“Victor.”
Twenty-three years disappeared in one word.
Victor looked at me.
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
I froze.
“You knew my mother?”
“Very well.”
Dad’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
Victor laughed softly.
“Still protecting ghosts.”
My mother died when I was nine.
A supposed aneurysm.
Sudden.
Unavoidable.
I looked at Dad.
“What does he mean?”
Victor gestured toward a conference room.
“Come inside.”
Dad refused.
Victor’s smile faded.
“You have twenty-one hours before the archive releases.”
We entered.
Screens covered the walls.
Financial networks.
Corporate maps.
Government systems.
Thousands of connected entities.
Victor sat slowly.
Cancer had weakened his body.
Not his presence.
“You ruined Nathan.”
I said.
“No.”
Victor replied.
“I gave Nathan opportunities to ruin himself.”
“You used Celeste.”
Victor looked toward his daughter.
“She volunteered.”
Celeste’s expression remained cold.
“You manipulated my marriage.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To separate you from Elias.”
“Why?”
“So you would make your own decision when the time came.”
I wanted to strike him.
Instead, I sat.
“What decision?”
Victor pressed a control.
Three symbols appeared.
VALE.
MERIDIAN.
RELEASE.
“Option one.”
He said.
“You take control of Vale Dominion and use the Crown Archive to destroy Meridian.”
“Option two.”
“You merge both systems under your authority.”
“Option three.”
“You release everything publicly.”
Dad stepped forward.
“You’re insane.”
Victor smiled.
“Am I?”
He looked at me.
“The first option protects your father’s empire.”
“The second creates the most powerful private intelligence organization in history.”
“The third destroys us all.”
“What do you want?”
I asked.
Victor leaned back.
“I want to know what Elias Vale’s daughter does when no one can tell her what is right.”
“That’s your grand plan?”
“A morality test?”
“No.”
Victor’s expression darkened.
“It is a succession test.”
I stared at him.
“I don’t want your network.”
“You will.”
“No.”
“Power always finds someone willing to hold it.”
“Then give it to someone else.”
“I tried.”
He looked at Celeste.
She stiffened.
“My daughter wants revenge more than responsibility.”
Then Jonathan Mercer appeared on one of the security monitors.
He was approaching the facility with armed men.
Victor frowned.
Celeste whispered.
“He found us.”
An alarm sounded.
Victor looked at the clock.
Then at me.
“Your decision just became more urgent.”
Jonathan’s voice came over the building speakers.
“Victor.”
May you like
“Open the core.”
“Or I start killing everyone above you.”
