Chapter 18 - THE LAST BLUEBIRD TEST
The timer reached nineteen minutes.
Anna ran to the ventilation controls.
“System is analog.”
Grant looked around.
“Can you disable it?”
“Maybe.”
“That is not an answer.”
She glared.
“I’m a pediatrician, not an engineer.”
Victor’s voice came through my satellite phone.
“We are outside.”
“Michael locked the wing.”
“We know.”
“Can you override?”
“Nathan is trying.”
My father limped toward the old service panel.
“I know this building.”
My mother laughed bitterly.
“Of course you do.”
Henry looked at her.
“Evelyn.”
“Later.”
He almost smiled.
Again.
Everyone was terrible at later.
Maren searched the nursery.
I stayed with Ellie.
Grant refused to leave us.
The timer reached seventeen minutes.
Anna opened a maintenance panel.
“Air system routes through the basement.”
Victor said through the phone.
“Federal tactical team is entering below.”
Grant asked.
“Michael?”
“Unknown.”
Nathan’s voice appeared.
“He is not outside.”
Grant looked around.
“He’s in the building.”
Silence.
Nathan continued.
“Theresa too.”
Maren found an old service map.
“There’s a tunnel from the chapel.”
My father’s face changed.
“Michael will use it.”
Grant looked at me.
“Stay here.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“Mara.”
“You have tried ordering me around for the final time.”
He almost smiled.
“Fair.”
Maren took the service map.
“I’ll go.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
Maren looked at her.
“You’ve had thirty-four years with one father.”
“I had none.”
“Let me do something first.”
Anna grabbed her hand.
It was the first physical contact between them.
“Don’t make your first act as my sister getting killed.”
Maren stared.
Then nodded.
The timer reached fourteen minutes.
My father finally opened an old electrical cabinet.
“Here.”
A manual ventilation cutoff.
He pulled.
Nothing happened.
Anna checked.
“Secondary lock.”
“Where?”
“Nursery station.”
Grant looked at the glass room.
Michael’s voice returned.
“Grant.”
Grant looked upward.
“You know what I want.”
Grant shouted.
“You’re not getting her.”
Michael laughed.
“You sound brave.”
“You always became brave when someone was watching.”
Grant’s face changed.
The words were designed to provoke him.
I recognized the tactic.
The same tactic Grant had used on me in the hotel lobby.
I touched his arm.
“Don’t perform for him.”
Grant looked at me.
Then nodded.
Michael continued.
“Bring Ellie to the window.”
Grant said nothing.
“Son.”
Nothing.
“You still want my approval.”
Grant looked at Ellie.
Then at the speaker.
“No.”
He turned away.
Michael’s voice sharpened.
“You are nothing without me.”
Grant whispered.
“That might be true.”
I looked at him.
He continued.
“But I would rather be nothing than become you.”
Silence.
Then a gunshot echoed somewhere below.
Victor shouted through the phone.
“Contact.”
The timer reached eleven minutes.
Anna found the secondary lock.
It required two keys.
One missing.
My mother stared.
“Samuel.”
Anna looked at her.
“What?”
“Your father carried a brass medical key.”
Anna reached beneath her blouse.
A small key hung on a chain.
“He gave it to me.”
Of course.
She inserted it.
The ventilation alarm changed.
MANUAL CUTOFF AVAILABLE.
A lever appeared behind glass.
Grant broke the glass.
He pulled.
The timer stopped at 09:43.
Everyone exhaled.
Then restarted.
09:42.
Anna shouted.
“Why?”
My father stared.
“Remote override.”
Michael.
He was controlling the system.
Grant picked up the pistol from the table.
I grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
“Mara.”
“If you go hunting him, you give him exactly what he wants.”
He looked at me.
“What do you suggest?”
I looked toward the nursery camera.
“He wants Ellie at the window.”
Grant’s face hardened.
“No.”
“Not Ellie.”
He understood.
“Decoy.”
Maren smiled.
“For once, I like you.”
I stared.
“You look like me.”
She understood immediately.
We wrapped Maren in my coat.
From the distant camera angle, with a blanket in her arms, she could look like me holding Ellie.
Grant shook his head.
“Too dangerous.”
Maren looked at him.
“You tried to steal my sister’s child.”
“You don’t get a vote.”
Grant accepted that.
Maren stepped to the nursery window holding a bundle.
Michael’s voice returned immediately.
“Good.”
A green light appeared over the eastern exit.
Grant whispered.
“He’s watching.”
Victor heard.
“Tracing camera control.”
Maren held the bundle closer.
Michael said.
“Bring Ellie downstairs.”
Maren walked toward the exit.
The door unlocked.
Victor shouted through the phone.
“Camera source identified.”
“Basement chapel.”
Grant moved.
This time I let him.
Not because I trusted him.
Because we had a plan.
Federal agents entered through the unlocked door.
Maren stepped aside.
I carried Ellie toward safety.
My mother followed.
Anna stayed with the ventilation panel.
My father refused to leave until everyone else did.
Grant and Victor’s team went toward the chapel.
Gunfire echoed.
Then silence.
One minute.
Two.
The timer reached 05:17.
Anna shouted.
“I can’t stop it.”
Nathan came through the phone.
“We have Michael.”
Grant’s voice followed.
“Control device.”
A pause.
“Where?”
Michael laughed in the background.
“Inside Theresa’s bag.”
Victor shouted.
“Find Theresa.”
The timer reached 03:40.
Security searched.
Nothing.
I looked at Anna.
“Alternative?”
She stared at the ventilation ducts.
“Seal the wing.”
“How?”
“Fire doors.”
“Do it.”
We began closing manual doors.
One.
Two.
Three.
Timer 02:12.
Grant’s voice.
“Found Theresa.”
I heard shouting.
Then a crash.
Timer 01:33.
Anna covered Ellie’s ears.
My mother prayed quietly.
Timer 00:58.
Grant shouted.
“Device secured.”
Timer 00:41.
Victor.
“Code required.”
Michael laughed.
“Ask Evelyn.”
My mother froze.
“What code?”
Michael’s voice came through.
“The day you killed me.”
Evelyn stared.
Grant shouted.
“Date.”
My mother whispered.
“March 14, 1997.”
Victor entered it.
Denied.
Michael laughed.
“My actual death.”
Evelyn went pale.
“You didn’t die.”
“Exactly.”
Timer 00:22.
I understood.
“The day Grant believed he died.”
Grant froze.
His father’s funeral.
He whispered.
“October 8, 1999.”
Victor entered.
Timer 00:08.
Accepted.
System shutdown.
The red lights turned white.
Silence.
Ellie looked up.
“Is the game over?”
I kissed her.
“Yes.”
I believed it for three seconds.
Then Anna’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“It’s the family court.”
Grant went still.
Anna continued listening.
Then lowered the phone.
“What happened?”
She stared at Grant.
“The emergency custody petition was approved this morning.”
My stomach dropped.
Grant shook his head.
“I withdrew it.”
Anna looked at me.
“It wasn’t filed by Grant.”
“Then who?”
She swallowed.
“The petitioner is Henry Kingsley.”
I slowly turned toward my father.
He stood at the end of the hallway.
May you like
His face told me it was true.
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