Chapter 11 - The Sister I Chose to Save
I handed respirators to Mason and Evelyn.
The fourth went over Ghost’s muzzle, designed for a military working dog.
That left Eleanor and me.
Mason tried to give me his.
I pushed it back.
“You need both hands.”
“You can’t treat exposure if you’re unconscious.”
Eleanor leaned against the terminal, still smiling, though tears had begun streaming from the gas.
“She won’t save me,” she said. “I’m the villain she understands.”
I removed the respirator from its pouch and placed it over Eleanor’s face.
Her eyes widened.
Mason swore.
Evelyn stared at me as if I had betrayed her.
I held my sleeve over my nose and mouth.
“Tell us how to stop it.”
Eleanor shook her head.
I tightened the mask strap against her face.
“You said this was a test. Tests have exits.”
She studied me through the clear shield.
Then she pointed toward the biometric monitor.
“Ethan’s resting pulse.”
“What?”
“Enter his real resting pulse.”
The system requested a four-digit override.
I remembered Ethan’s medical exams from years earlier. He had an unusually low resting heart rate, but four digits meant two values.
Pulse and respiratory rate.
52 and 08.
I entered 5208.
The vents shut down.
Mason forced open an emergency panel, and clean air began moving through the room.
I dropped to my knees, coughing.
Ghost pressed against me.
Eleanor removed the respirator slowly.
“Why save me?”
“Because dead people don’t answer questions.”
“That’s not the only reason.”
“No. Ghost didn’t treat you like the greatest threat.”
Her smile vanished.
Evelyn heard it.
“So who is?”
Eleanor looked at the forged custody document.
“Ethan created Phase Lantern.”
The statement hit the room like a blast.
I forced myself upright.
“No.”
“He built the first version as a dead-man protocol. Ghost carried encrypted location data. The private command triggered a behavioral sequence designed to identify you.”
“Why me?”
“Because Ethan trusted you more than his chain of command.”
Evelyn stepped toward her sister. “You said the program began after the mission.”
“I said what kept her moving.”
My stomach turned.
Every answer had been measured to guide me toward this facility.
Mason pointed at the forged signature. “Who expanded the program?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Your father.”
Mason’s face emptied.
“My father died when I was fourteen.”
“That is what your mother was paid to tell you.”
Before Mason could respond, the facility speakers came alive.
A man’s voice filled the room—older, controlled, and unmistakably related to Mason’s.
“Commander Reed, Dr. Cole, Admiral Ross. Place the dog in Containment Room Three.”
Mason stared at the ceiling.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
The voice continued.
“Refusal will result in Lieutenant Cross’s termination.”
A video feed appeared on the monitor.
Ethan sat strapped to a chair inside a moving vehicle. His hair was longer, his face gaunt, but he was alive.
A masked guard held a syringe near his neck.
Ethan lifted his head and looked directly into the camera.
Then he spoke.
“Madison, don’t give them Ghost.”
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The video cut to black.
📖 Discover why Ethan warned me to protect Ghost instead of saving him—and what was hidden inside the dog’s altered heartbeat in CHAPTER 12. 👇
