Chapter 10 - THE NIGHT I FAILED
Julian had taken Nora from the hospital transport garage.
Thomas Reed wore a paramedic uniform and used forged discharge papers.
By the time staff discovered the mistake, they had been gone eleven minutes.
The livestream showed no windows.
Concrete walls.
A single hanging bulb.
Nora’s face was bruised.
Julian stood behind her with terrifying calm.
“Sophia,” he said into the camera, “bring me the wedding ring.”
He knew about the microchip.
He wanted the Crimson Archive access token.
Hale refused to let me respond.
“We trace first.”
Julian raised the pistol.
“You have twenty minutes.”
The feed displayed a countdown.
Rebecca studied the background.
She recognized the wall markings.
“Meridian.”
“The facility is closed,” Hale said.
“Not the main building. The isolation wing.”
Police surrounded the property.
I remained in a command vehicle two streets away.
Julian called my second phone.
“How did you get this number?” I asked.
“I gave you the phone.”
My skin went cold.
The emergency phone had been in the bag I packed months earlier.
I bought it from a small electronics store.
Or I thought I had.
Julian had controlled even the tool I believed was secret.
“Where is Nora?”
“You’re looking at her.”
“She needs medical care.”
“She needed loyalty.”
“You poisoned her.”
“She encouraged you.”
“No. She told me the truth.”
Julian laughed softly.
“You confuse information with truth.”
The countdown reached twelve minutes.
Hale’s team entered the isolation wing.
The building was empty.
The video was prerecorded.
Julian had anticipated the raid.
The countdown was a trap.
At zero, an explosion tore through the east corridor.
Two officers were injured.
Hale was thrown against a wall.
The livestream continued.
Julian smiled.
“Now we speak without interruption.”
I felt the old panic rise.
He was controlling the room from a distance.
Creating fear.
Making me react.
I took a breath.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“You already had me.”
“I had obedience. Then you confused attention with courage.”
“Where is Nora?”
“Bring the ring to Carter Tower.”
“The building is under police control.”
“Not the roof.”
The feed cut to an image of Nora tied near the rooftop edge.
Wind pulled at her hospital gown.
City lights burned behind her.
Julian stood several feet away.
Thomas Reed held the camera.
Hale struggled upright inside the command post.
“You’re not going.”
“If we send police, he pushes her.”
“If you go, he takes you.”
“We need time.”
Rebecca touched my arm.
“There’s another roof entrance.”
She knew because my father used it during secret meetings.
A service elevator connected an adjacent building to a private skybridge.
Police could enter from the west while I approached from the main stairwell.
I agreed to wear a transmitter.
I agreed to follow Hale’s instructions.
I agreed because courage did not mean acting alone.
On the roof, wind tore through my crimson coat.
Julian stood beside Nora.
Reed waited near the helipad.
I held up the ring.
“Let her go.”
Julian smiled.
“You wore red.”
“You always liked it.”
His eyes softened.
For one second, memory became dangerous.
The first gala.
The first dance.
The first time he told me I was unlike any woman he had met.
I had loved a performance.
That did not mean my love had been false.
Only his.
“Give Reed the ring,” Julian said.
“Release Nora first.”
He placed the pistol against her head.
“You still bargain as if you have power.”
I looked at Nora.
Her eyes moved toward the helipad lights.
Three short blinks.
The signal.
Police were in position.
I tossed the ring across the roof.
Reed moved to catch it.
Nora threw herself sideways.
A shot exploded.
I screamed.
Nora fell.
Police rushed from the skybridge.
Reed fired toward them.
Julian grabbed me and pulled me against his chest.
His arm locked around my throat.
Hale shouted from the stairwell.
“Drop the weapon!”
Julian dragged me toward the edge.
Below us, the city looked endless.
“You did this,” he whispered.
“No.”
His hand shook.
“You made me lose everything.”
“You built everything on people you broke.”
He pressed the gun beneath my jaw.
Police surrounded us.
Reed lay wounded near the helipad.
Nora was alive, crawling toward cover.
Then Grant appeared from the service elevator.
He was supposed to be in custody.
He had been released temporarily to assist investigators.
Julian stared at him.
“You betrayed us.”
Grant raised both hands.
“I’m trying to save what’s left.”
“There is nothing left.”
Grant looked at me.
Then at Julian.
“Mother ordered Father’s death.”
Julian froze.
“What?”
Grant’s voice shook.
“Kessler injected him, but Mother ordered it. The hard drive proves it.”
Julian’s grip loosened.
Only slightly.
I drove my heel onto his foot and twisted away.
Hale fired.
Julian dropped.
For one second, I believed it was over.
Then I saw blood spreading across Nora’s hospital gown.
The bullet had struck her side.
Paramedics rushed toward her.
She looked at me once.
Her lips moved.
May you like
“Don’t let them rewrite this.”
Then her eyes closed.
