Chapter 10 - WHEN THE STAGE FELL
Emma ran toward the falling platform.
“William, move!”
He looked up just as the second cable snapped.
Daniel rolled away.
William jumped, caught the platform's lower rail, and used his body to slow its fall. The structure slammed into the stage at an angle, throwing Martin's wife and daughter forward against their restraints.
Emma climbed onto it and cut the ropes with Vale's dropped blade.
Police stormed the theater.
Daniel fired twice and fled through the orchestra pit. Isabella disappeared into a maintenance tunnel. Vale was captured at the rear door.
William carried Martin's daughter outside while Emma helped her mother.
No one had been shot.
But Isabella had escaped with something more dangerous than the destroyed flash drive.
She had taken Grace's handwritten list of witnesses.
Within an hour, two names on the list stopped answering their phones.
The third, retired nurse June Bell, called Emma directly.
“I helped Dr. Vale treat Grace,” June whispered. “I thought she was sick. Later I realized they were drugging her.”
“Where are you?”
“At home. A black car has been outside for twenty minutes.”
Emma told her to lock every door.
Then the line went dead.
Ortiz sent officers, but they found June's home empty. A cup of tea was still warm. The back door stood open.
On the kitchen table lay a photograph of Ethan in the basement room.
Written across it were the words:
HE BELONGS TO THE TRUST.
William took Ethan from the hospital to a federal safe house. Emma remained with them.
That night, Ethan asked, “Is Dad going away too?”
William sat beside him. “No.”
“You went away before.”
The simple accusation cut deeper than anger.
William lowered his head. “I did. I thought working all the time was protecting you. It wasn't.”
Ethan looked at Emma. “Will she stay?”
Emma squeezed his hand. “Tonight.”
A phone vibrated inside Ethan's stuffed backpack.
It was not his tablet.
It was a small black device sewn into the lining.
The screen showed a live map of the safe house.
Daniel had been tracking them.
Then the lights outside went dark.
May you like
A car crashed through the front gate.
And over the safe-house speakers, Isabella's voice said, “William, open the door or Ethan learns what really happened to his mother.”
