Chapter 14 - My Chief of Staff Was My Sister
Harper laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because reality had finally become too ridiculous to process normally.
“No.”
Northstar repeated:
“Harper Lin: ninety-nine point eight percent probability of paternal sibling relationship to Evelyn Reed.”
Harper turned toward Solomon.
“You are not my father.”
Solomon’s oxygen hiss was the only sound for several seconds.
Then he said, “Biologically, I may be.”
“May?”
“I never knew your mother was pregnant.”
“Know who my mother is?”
“Yes.”
“Say her name.”
“Mei Lin.”
Harper slapped him.
Hard.
His cane clattered.
Gideon stepped forward.
I raised a hand.
“No.”
Solomon recovered slowly.
“I deserved that.”
“You knew her.”
“Yes.”
“You let me work for your daughter for eight years without saying anything.”
“I did not know you were mine until recently.”
“How recently?”
“Three weeks.”
Harper laughed again.
“Three weeks is plenty of time for a text.”
I almost smiled despite everything.
Then the implication hit.
“Northstar said the second biological key is a sibling.”
Adrian asked, “Harper?”
“Possibly.”
The system answered.
“Second key requires Reed-line neural marker.”
Harper said, “I don’t have any marker.”
Solomon went silent.
I heard it.
The hesitation.
“Harper,” I said, “have you ever had eye treatment?”
“No.”
“Neurological treatment?”
“No.”
“Any experimental therapy as a child?”
“My mother took me to a migraine clinic when I was twelve.”
Solomon whispered, “Bellweather?”
Harper did not answer.
That was answer enough.
I felt rage rise.
“Was Lantern used on her?”
Northstar said, “Record available.”
“Read.”
“Subject H-03. Low-dose retinal marker. No degenerative outcome.”
Harper whispered, “What?”
I reached for her hand.
She did not take mine.
“Someone marked you too.”
“Why?”
Solomon answered.
“Because they suspected.”
“Suspected what?”
“That you were my daughter.”
Harper breathed sharply.
“You people marked children to track your affairs?”
“No.”
“That is exactly what it sounds like.”
I turned toward Northstar.
“Can Harper activate Nocturne?”
“Potentially.”
“Can I?”
“Yes.”
“Does it require both of us voluntarily?”
“No.”
“Explain.”
“Biometric tissue samples are sufficient.”
Every person in the room understood at once.
Blood.
Hair.
Cells.
They did not need us alive.
The lights flickered.
Gideon drew his weapon.
Northstar said, “Security breach. Sublevel elevator descending.”
“How many?”
“Four.”
“Identities?”
“Three unknown. One Malcolm Voss.”
Harper swore.
We moved behind the server partitions.
I held my cane in one hand and the silver compass in the other.
Adrian whispered, “You should leave.”
“No.”
“You are half the key.”
“So is Harper.”
“Then both of you leave.”
“How?”
He hesitated.
Fair.
The elevator opened.
Malcolm’s voice echoed.
“Evelyn, we don’t need to make this ugly.”
I called back.
“You sent armed men into my house.”
“That was Connor.”
“You’re part of the same network.”
“Continuity isn’t unified.”
“I know. I founded it.”
Silence.
That surprised him.
“Northstar told you.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know why Nocturne can’t be destroyed.”
“I know you gave up trying.”
“No. I accepted reality.”
“You accepted profit.”
His voice hardened.
“Do you know what governments will pay for a system that can navigate without satellites? What hospitals will pay? Fire departments? Space programs?”
“You always sell the rescue story before the weapon story.”
“That’s cynical.”
“That’s experience.”
Footsteps separated.
Three mercenaries spreading around the room.
I listened.
Adrian whispered, “Two right.”
“Three,” I corrected.
Gideon nodded.
Harper crouched beside me.
“What do we do?”
“Make them trust their eyes.”
I grabbed a maintenance control.
“Northstar, kill lights.”
Darkness swallowed the room.
Malcolm cursed.
I smiled.
“Now we make them meet mine.”
I moved.
Cane tip against floor.
Echo from metal racks.
Breath ahead.
One mercenary turned too late.
I struck his wrist with the cane.
Gun dropped.
Adrian tackled him.
Gideon fired toward another muzzle flash.
Harper crawled toward the emergency corridor.
Malcolm shouted, “Evelyn!”
I followed his voice.
He fired.
The bullet struck a server housing.
I moved left before the echo died.
He fired again where I had been.
“You built this from me,” I said.
“What?”
“Nocturne.”
I tapped the cane once.
His breath shifted.
“You think darkness helps you?”
“It helps me know who’s afraid.”
I threw the compass.
He flinched toward the sound.
I hit him behind the knee with the cane.
He collapsed.
Gideon reached us and restrained him.
Emergency lights came on.
Harper shouted.
I turned.
Too late.
A fourth man had grabbed her near the elevator.
He held a needle against her neck.
“Back up.”
Adrian stopped.
Gideon froze.
The man spoke into a radio.
“Key two secured.”
I stepped forward.
“Take me instead.”
“No.”
“You need both.”
“We already have you.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
He smiled—I could hear it.
“Your blood is all over Bellweather.”
Of course.
My split lip.
The treatment room.
The hallway.
They already had my DNA.
Harper was the missing half.
The man dragged her into the elevator.
I ran.
Doors closed before I reached them.
“Northstar, stop the elevator!”
“Override denied.”
“Why?”
“External founder credential.”
“Connor?”
“Yes.”
I slammed my fist against the steel.
Harper was gone.
Malcolm laughed from the floor.
“You lost.”
I turned toward him.
“No.”
He coughed.
“You have sixty hours left. After Northstar expires, the company unlocks. By then Connor will activate Nocturne.”
I crouched.
“Where is he taking her?”
“Go to hell.”
I heard something in his pocket vibrate.
A phone.
Gideon took it.
Incoming call.
He answered on speaker.
Connor Mercer’s voice came through.
Almost identical to Caleb.
“Evelyn.”
I knew immediately it was not the man I grew up with.
This voice had none of Caleb’s restless anger.
It was controlled.
Empty.
“Let Harper go.”
“I will.”
“When?”
“When you come to the place where you first learned darkness was useful.”
Bellweather?
No.
October seventeenth.
The day my brain was mapped.
I remembered a sound.
Ocean waves.
A gull.
My mother telling me the research site was a rehabilitation center.
“Cape Haven,” I whispered.
Connor laughed softly.
“You do remember.”
The call ended.
Solomon said, “That facility was demolished.”
May you like
I picked up my cane.
“Then we’ll find what they built underneath it.”
