Rain behind him.
The sound.
She closed her eyes.
“What are you doing?” Rusk asked.
“Thinking.”
She remembered the feed.
The rain.
The voice.
And something rhythmic beneath it.
Metal.
Three beats.
Pause.
Three beats.
“Train,” Lila said.
Her mother looked at her.
“What?”
“He wasn’t near the harbor.”
“Lila—”
“In the video. There was a sound behind him.”
Rusk frowned.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“I edit audio for school projects. There was a repeating metallic sound.”
The technician replayed the recording.
They listened.
Rain.
Wind.
Adrian’s voice.
Then—
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Silence.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Evelyn turned toward an officer.
“The floodgate railway.”
He nodded.
“Service tunnel beneath the eastern seawall.”
Lila pointed toward the video background.
“And the rain was falling at an angle.”
“So?”
“We’re getting wind from the southeast.”
Evelyn understood.
“If he was facing the harbor, the rain should have been hitting his back.”
“But it was crossing behind him from left to right.”
Rusk stared at Lila.
“So he was facing inland.”
Evelyn grabbed her radio.
“Teams Alpha and Delta to the floodgate railway. No sirens.”
She started walking.
Lila followed.
Evelyn stopped without turning.
“No.”
“You need me.”
“I need you somewhere safe.”
“I found him.”
“You found a sound.”
“And you were about to chase a boat.”
That earned Lila a dangerous look.
Rusk nearly smiled.
Evelyn saw him.
He stopped smiling.
Then a message appeared on the main screen.
No video.
Only audio.
Adrian’s voice.
“Bring Lila.”
Evelyn went pale.
“No.”
“You have twenty minutes before I corrupt every navigation beacon between North Point and Calder Bay.”
“Adrian.”
“Bring her to Blackwater Gate.”
Lila whispered, “What is Blackwater Gate?”
Evelyn didn’t answer.
Adrian did.
“The place where her life actually began.”
The transmission ended.
Lila stared at her mother.
“My life began in Boston.”
Evelyn said nothing.
“Mom.”
Nothing.
“Why does he know me?”
Evelyn looked toward everyone around them.
“Clear the hangar.”
Nobody moved.
“Now.”
Officers and technicians began leaving.
Rusk hesitated.
“You too.”
“Commander—”
“Outside.”
He left.
Soon only Evelyn and Lila remained.
Rain thundered above them.
Lila folded her arms despite the pain in her shoulder.
“Talk.”
Evelyn looked older beneath the red emergency lights.
“Blackwater Station wasn’t an emergency platform.”
“I know.”
“It was a communications interception facility.”
“For spying?”
“For identifying threats.”
“That’s a politician’s answer.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
“You sound like your father.”
Lila froze.
Her father, Michael Voss, had died when she was four.
A ferry accident.
That was what she had always been told.
“What does Dad have to do with this?”
Evelyn looked away.
“Your father worked at Blackwater.”
Lila’s throat tightened.
“You told me he was an engineer.”
“He was.”
“You said he died on the Bayline ferry.”
“No.”
The word was barely audible.
Lila stared at her.
“No?”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with something Lila had never expected to see.
Shame.
“The ferry story protected you.”
“Protected me from what?”
“From people who wanted everyone connected to Blackwater dead.”
Lila stepped backward.
“My father died there?”
Evelyn nodded.
“During the explosion?”
“Yes.”
Lila tried to breathe.
“You lied to me for thirteen years.”
“I kept you alive for thirteen years.”
“You don’t get to make those the same thing.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I know.”
Lila’s phone vibrated.
Both women looked down.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
A man standing beside Adrian Pike.
Younger.
Smiling.
The man was Michael Voss.
Lila had seen his face in photographs all her life.
Underneath the picture was a message.
ASK HER WHO CLOSED THE DOOR.
Lila slowly raised her eyes.
“What door?”
Evelyn didn’t move.
“Mom.”
“There was a containment breach.”
“What door?”
“The underwater section had to be sealed.”
Lila’s voice became quiet.
“Who sealed it?”
Evelyn looked at her daughter.
“I did.”
Lila stopped breathing.
“My father was inside?”
“Yes.”
“And Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“But Adrian survived.”
“He found another way out.”
“You left them there.”
“I stopped something much worse from reaching the mainland.”
“You left Dad there.”
“There were thousands of lives at risk.”
“You left him.”
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
“I had twelve seconds.”
Lila stared at her mother.
For seventeen years, Evelyn Voss had seemed indestructible.
Now Lila saw what had been underneath all of it.
Not strength.
A decision.
One decision made in twelve seconds.