A decision she had carried for fourteen years.
Another message arrived.
BLACKWATER GATE. TEN MINUTES.
Lila wiped her eyes.
“He wants me to hate you.”
“Yes.”
“Should I?”
Evelyn didn’t answer.
“That wasn’t rhetorical.”
“I don’t know.”
Lila looked toward the storm beyond the hangar.
“Then we’re going.”
“No.”
“You can’t stop the module remotely.”
“No.”
“You can’t locate him without getting closer.”
“No.”
“And he specifically wants me there.”
“That is exactly why you’re staying.”
Lila stepped closer.
“He used me once because I didn’t know anything.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Let him try again.”
Eight minutes later, an armored utility vehicle raced beneath the eastern seawall.
Rusk drove.
Evelyn sat beside him.
Lila was in the rear despite three separate arguments against it.
Two tactical vehicles followed.
The tunnel narrowed ahead.
Emergency lights flashed along wet concrete walls.
Then every radio died.
Rusk looked at the dashboard.
“Jammed.”
Evelyn drew her sidearm.
“Stop here.”
They climbed out.
The underground air smelled of salt and machine oil.
Far ahead, a steel floodgate stood partially open.
A man waited beside it.
Adrian Pike.
No mask.
No rain jacket.
No weapon visible.
The Helix module rested on a metal railing.
Evelyn raised her pistol.
“Step away from it.”
Adrian looked at Lila.
“You came.”
Lila stood beside her mother.
“You knew my father.”
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“He was my best friend.”
“You survived.”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t.”
Adrian looked at Evelyn.
“No.”
Lila swallowed.
“Did she have a choice?”
Adrian took a long time to answer.
Finally—
“Yes.”
Evelyn flinched.
Lila turned toward her.
Adrian continued.
“She had another choice.”
“What?”
“She could have exposed why Blackwater failed.”
Evelyn lowered the gun slightly.
“Don’t.”
“But she didn’t.”
Adrian pointed toward the Helix module.
“She protected the people who built an illegal system. They blamed the dead, erased fifteen survivors and buried the evidence.”
“Why steal Helix?”
“Because Helix contains the same encryption architecture.”
Lila frowned.
“You didn’t steal it to crash ships.”
“No.”
Evelyn understood.
“You wanted access to the archive.”
Adrian smiled.
“There you are.”
The Helix module beeped.
Every screen in the tunnel activated.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Names.
Orders.
Photographs.
Audio logs.
Lila stepped toward them.
“What’s happening?”
Adrian looked at Evelyn.
“Fourteen years of buried records are being released.”
Evelyn stared.
“You threatened navigation systems to force me here.”
“Yes.”
“You never intended to redirect the ships.”
“No.”
Rusk lowered his weapon.
“So the harbor was never in danger?”
Adrian looked at him.
“It was in plenty of danger. Just not from me.”
A warning alarm sounded.
Evelyn looked up.
The floodgate indicator turned red.
Adrian’s face changed.
“That isn’t mine.”
Rusk checked the controls.
“Gate mechanism is activating.”
Evelyn stared at Adrian.
“Who else knows you’re here?”
Adrian looked toward the darkness behind them.
“One person.”
A gunshot exploded through the tunnel.
Adrian fell.
Lila screamed.
Evelyn pulled her behind a concrete column.
More shots struck the railing.
Rusk returned fire.
A figure appeared above the service stairs.
Deputy Director Marcus Hale.
Evelyn stared in disbelief.
Hale had worked beside her for twenty years.
He held a pistol.
“Step away from the module, Evelyn.”
Adrian groaned on the floor.
Alive.
Lila looked between them.
Hale smiled.
“You should have let the dead stay dead.”
Evelyn understood.
“Blackwater was you.”
“Blackwater was necessary.”
“You ordered the demolition.”
“I protected the program.”
“You killed forty-three people.”
“I protected millions.”
Lila looked at her mother.
The same words.
Different person.
Evelyn’s face changed.
Perhaps she heard it too.
Hale moved toward the Helix module.
“Give it to me.”
Adrian laughed weakly from the floor.
“You’re late.”
Hale looked at the screens.
The files were still uploading.
His face twisted.
He raised the pistol toward Adrian.
Lila saw the motion before anyone else.
She grabbed a red emergency lever beside the column and pulled.
Nothing happened.
Then the floodgate released.
Thousands of gallons of seawater roared through the emergency channel.
The tunnel shook.
Hale lost his footing.
Rusk tackled him.
The weapon slid away.
Evelyn kicked it into the water.
Adrian laughed.
Lila stared at the chaos.
“What did I just do?”
Her mother looked at the warning panel.
“You flooded the lower maintenance tunnel.”
“Is that bad?”
Rusk wrestled handcuffs onto Hale.