Chapter 14 - THE PRICE OF A NAME
The impersonator’s face filled every monitor.
To Jake, Marcus, and Noah, she looked identical to Sarah.
To Rebecca, the differences were obvious.
To Sarah, the imitation felt like a violation deeper than stolen records or forged orders. Someone had studied her movements, her voice, perhaps even private medical data. They had reduced her identity to a tool that could be worn.
The false Sarah placed the biometric scanner against the dossier.
A lock symbol appeared on-screen.
“I need the drive,” she said.
Sarah stepped beneath the nearest camera.
“What should I call you?”
The woman smiled with Sarah’s mouth.
“Sarah.”
“No.”
A pause.
Then the smile vanished.
“Helen Ward.”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“You were decommissioned.”
Helen looked toward him through the camera.
“So were you.”
Hale raised his voice.
“Agent Ward, by authority of Project Anchor command, stand down.”
Helen laughed.
“You lost Anchor command six months ago.”
Everyone looked at Hale.
Rebecca’s expression sharpened.
“Who replaced him?”
Helen did not answer.
She turned the camera slightly.
Teresa sat nearby, no longer tied, but an explosive collar-like device rested loosely around her neck. No injury was visible. A red indicator blinked at the side.
Jake moved toward the screen.
“Mom!”
Teresa lifted her head.
“Jake?”
His knees nearly buckled.
Sarah kept her voice controlled.
“Helen, the device around her neck is unnecessary.”
“So was pouring water over your head. People use unnecessary cruelty when they believe there are no consequences.”
Jake looked down.
Helen continued.
“Your recruits gave me the perfect distraction. The mess hall cameras focused on the humiliation. Security focused on the missing equipment. No one watched the command-level server transfer.”
Sarah understood.
The public assault had not merely been manipulated to discredit her.
It had drawn attention away from the true theft.
“What did you transfer?”
“The Black Tide activation package.”
Mercer’s face hardened.
“That package controls exercise simulations across the western region.”
“Not anymore.”
Hale moved closer to the camera.
“Helen, listen carefully. Activating that package outside the authorized window will be interpreted as a real attack.”
“That is the intention.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Sarah looked at him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You let this continue.”
“I needed the network exposed.”
“Using an active base as bait.”
“I did not know she had operational control.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You said we controlled the server room.”
“We did until this morning.”
The alliance between Rebecca and Adrian fractured visibly.
Sarah saw the betrayal arriving before Rebecca did.
“Helen,” Sarah said, “who gave you command?”
Helen’s borrowed face became still.
“The person whose name is inside the sixth folder.”
Sarah looked at the drive.
Five encrypted folders remained.
“Open the door and release Teresa. I’ll bring the drive.”
“Alone.”
“No.”
Helen lifted a small trigger.
The red light on Teresa’s device quickened.
Jake cried out.
Sarah raised her hand toward him without looking away from the screen.
“I will come alone.”
Mercer objected. “Absolutely not.”
Sarah turned to him.
“If the Black Tide package leaves this base, every coastal command system may receive false threat data.”
“You could be walking into an execution.”
“Then make sure she gains nothing from it.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“I’m going with you.”
Helen heard her.
“No, Rebecca. Your part is finished.”
Rebecca went pale.
Adrian looked away.
Sarah saw it.
“You knew she would abandon Rebecca.”
Adrian remained silent.
Rebecca turned on him.
“What did you promise Helen?”
“Nothing.”
“What did you give her?”
“Access to a dead identity.”
“Whose?”
Adrian’s silence widened.
Rebecca raised her pistol toward him.
“Whose identity?”
Sarah moved between them.
“Not now.”
Rebecca’s eyes burned.
“You don’t know what he did.”
“Then tell me.”
“He needed someone with family access to your records. Someone who could copy your voice, fingerprints, and behavioral profile without triggering suspicion.”
Sarah understood before Rebecca said it.
“You gave them my data.”
Rebecca’s face broke.
“I thought we were building a fallback identity to protect you.”
“For how long?”
“Before Monterey.”
Sarah stared at her sister.
The impersonation had begun before the wreck.
Before Rebecca’s supposed death.
Before Sarah became commander of the recovery group.
Her own sister had helped create the person now threatening an entire region.
Helen’s voice came from the monitors.
“Your family reunion is touching, but the activation package leaves in four minutes.”
Sarah looked at the server-room location on the security map.
Two floors above.
One primary corridor.
Three maintenance routes.
She handed the encrypted drive to Mercer.
He frowned.
“She asked you to bring it.”
“I’m bringing a copy.”
Adrian shook his head.
“She’ll detect it.”
“That is why I need the original to remain here.”
Sarah removed the drive casing with a tool from the network cabinet. Inside were two memory modules linked by a security bridge.
She detached one.
The device alarmed softly.
“Half the data stays with Mercer. Half comes with me.”
Hale stepped forward.
“You may corrupt both.”
“That risk is smaller than giving Helen complete access.”
Noah spoke from behind them.
“Commander, the insignia.”
Sarah turned.
He pointed to her cuff.
“The symbol opened the tunnel controller when gold and black were used together. What if the drive is the same? Two parts required.”
Sarah looked at the separated modules.
Gold contacts on one.
Black on the other.
Adrian stared.
“He’s right.”
Sarah placed the black module inside the casing and handed the gold module to Mercer.
“Do not give this to anyone.”
“Not Hale?”
“Anyone.”
Mercer closed his fist around it.
Sarah moved toward the stairwell.
Rebecca followed.
Sarah stopped her.
“You stay.”
“I can help.”
“You already helped create her.”
The words landed hard.
Sarah continued upward alone.
At the second landing, the lights dimmed.
Helen’s voice came through a wall speaker.
“I knew you would split the drive.”
Sarah kept climbing.
“You wanted me to.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the gold module was never the key.”
Sarah stopped.
Below her, distant shouting erupted from the command level.
Then a gunshot cracked.
May you like
Mercer’s voice came over Sarah’s radio.
“Mitchell, Hale has the gold module.”
