Chapter 6
THE ISLAND
The east dock groaned beneath Olivia’s weight.
Claire went first.
Then Rebecca.
Daniel followed Olivia even though she had explicitly told him not to.
Elena came last.
Two federal agents remained with the boat.
The retreat center stood beyond a line of pines.
In daylight it might have looked peaceful.
At dawn, with fog moving through the trees, it looked abandoned by the world.
Claire stopped near an old stone path.
“I remember this.”
“You were here as a child?” Olivia asked.
“Every summer until I was nine.”
“That’s when your mother died?”
Claire nodded.
“After the accident, my father never brought me back.”
They reached a rusted maintenance door set into a hill.
Claire brushed leaves aside.
“There should be a latch.”
Rebecca found it.
The door opened into darkness.
They entered single file.
The tunnel smelled of damp earth and old concrete.
Claire led with a flashlight.
“My father called these hurricane shelters.”
“Do they connect to the main building?”
“Yes.”
Daniel checked a small device.
“No wireless signals.”
“Good?” Olivia asked.
“Maybe.”
“That is not comforting.”
“Sorry.”
“You should consider making that your new last name.”
Rebecca whispered, “Can the married people fight quieter?”
Olivia almost laughed.
The tunnel ended at a metal stairway.
Voices drifted from above.
Arthur.
Marianne.
Olivia recognized Arthur immediately.
Marianne’s voice was lower, controlled.
“You lost, Arthur.”
Arthur laughed.
“You’ve been dead for twenty-two years and still overestimate yourself.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Hearing her mother alive for the first time was almost too much.
Daniel touched her shoulder.
They moved closer.
Through a cracked door they saw a large library.
Bookshelves covered the walls.
Marianne sat in a wooden chair.
Her hands were bound.
Arthur stood near the fireplace.
Three armed guards remained nearby.
A black server case sat on a table.
Daniel whispered, “That could be the archive.”
Claire looked at her mother.
“Can I go?”
“No,” Elena said.
“That is my mother.”
“And those are guns.”
Arthur’s voice carried.
“Give me the encryption phrase.”
Marianne smiled.
“You taught me never to give away leverage.”
“I also taught you loyalty.”
“You taught me fear and called it loyalty.”
Arthur poured a drink.
“You could have had everything.”
“I had Claire.”
“And you abandoned her.”
Marianne’s face changed.
“You threatened her.”
“I gave you a choice.”
“No parent would call that a choice.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
Olivia touched her hand.
Arthur approached Marianne.
“The recordings.”
“No.”
“Where is the backup?”
“Somewhere you will never find.”
Arthur sighed.
“I spent half my life wondering why you had to make everything difficult.”
“You spent half your life mistaking control for love.”
His face hardened.
Daniel whispered, “We need to move.”
Elena shook her head.
“Wait for my agents to reach the upper hall.”
Her radio clicked once.
Signal received.
Claire took a breath.
Then a hand reached from the darkness behind them.
A guard.
He grabbed Rebecca.
She elbowed him.
He fired.
The gunshot exploded through the tunnel.
Elena hit him before he could shoot again.
Upstairs, Arthur shouted.
“Move!”
Everything happened at once.
Daniel kicked the door open.
Olivia followed.
Federal agents entered from the upper hall.
One of Arthur’s guards fired.
Books exploded from a shelf.
Claire ran toward Marianne.
Arthur grabbed the black server case.
Olivia chased him.
He turned and aimed a gun at her.
“Stop.”
She stopped.
Daniel raised his own weapon.
“Put it down.”
Arthur smiled.
“Daniel Mercer. The dead accountant.”
“Consultant.”
“You always were sensitive about titles.”
“Let Marianne go.”
Arthur glanced toward Claire, who was cutting her mother’s restraints.
“You see what happens when children refuse to listen?”
Claire shouted, “I’m thirty-one!”
“Emotionally, I remain unconvinced.”
Marianne stood.
Arthur pointed the gun toward her.
Daniel moved.
Arthur fired.
The bullet struck the wall beside Marianne.
Olivia grabbed a lamp and threw it.
It hit Arthur’s shoulder.
The gun skidded across the floor.
Daniel tackled him.
The server case fell.
Elena kicked the weapon away.
Federal agents pinned Arthur down.
For one second, silence.
Then Claire turned toward Marianne.
Mother and daughter stared at each other.
Marianne’s face trembled.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire crossed the room.
She slapped her.
Marianne nodded.
“I expected that.”
Then Claire hugged her.
Marianne collapsed into her arms.
Olivia looked away.
Some reunions were too private even when they happened in rooms full of people.
Daniel opened the server case.
Empty.
“No.”
Arthur laughed from the floor.
Daniel searched it.
Nothing except a single envelope.
“You moved it,” Daniel said.
Arthur smiled.
“Of course.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere safer.”
Marianne wiped her eyes.
“You don’t have the recordings.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You taught me to make copies.”
Olivia turned to Marianne.
“Where are yours?”
Marianne looked at Daniel.
“Gone.”
“What?”
“The house was searched two months ago. Whoever took Daniel that night found my backup.”
Daniel frowned.
“I thought you moved it.”
“I did. They found it anyway.”
Elena crouched beside Arthur.
“Who?”
Arthur smiled at her.
“You keep assuming I am the final name.”
“Then give me the next one.”
“Why?”
“Because your options are prison or slightly better prison.”
Arthur laughed.
“You people still think this is a ladder.”
“What is it?”
“A circle.”
Nobody spoke.
Arthur looked toward Daniel.
“Tell them about the consortium.”
Daniel’s face went still.
Olivia noticed.
“You know more than you told us.”
“I know the theory.”
Arthur laughed again.
“Theory.”
Daniel ignored him.
“Black Harbor’s data was sold.”
“To who?” Olivia asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel.”
“I genuinely don’t.”
Arthur said, “Because he never wanted to know.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means while you were playing whistleblower, other people saw what you built.”
Olivia’s stomach tightened.
“The software escaped.”
Arthur smiled.
“Escaped. Such a charming word.”
Marianne whispered, “How many copies?”
“I couldn’t tell you.”
Claire stared at her father.
“You’re proud of this.”
“No.”
For the first time, Arthur sounded tired.
“I’m terrified of it.”
That changed the room.
Arthur Holloway afraid was more alarming than Arthur Holloway arrogant.
“Who has Black Harbor?” Elena asked.
“Consultancies. donors. intelligence contractors. political organizations. corporations.”
“Names.”
“I know some.”
“And the recordings?”
Arthur looked at Olivia.
“Uploaded this morning.”
“To where?”
“The Vale campaign cloud.”
Daniel swore.
Claire stared at her father.
“Adrian has them?”
“Possibly.”
“He’s in surgery.”
“Then whoever controls his credentials has them.”
Elena pulled out her phone.
“No signal. We move.”
Arthur laughed.
“You’re already late.”
Outside, the first Coast Guard vessel approached the dock.
Agents escorted Arthur away.
Marianne remained with Claire.
Daniel and Olivia stood over the empty server case.
“What happens if those recordings are released?” Olivia asked.
“Depends how.”
“What does that mean?”
“If they’re dumped without context, victims could be exposed with perpetrators. People who were coerced could look guilty.”
“Then we get them first.”
Daniel nodded.
A federal agent entered.
“Ma’am?”
Olivia turned.
“We found something outside.”
They followed him behind the main building.
A small boathouse stood near the water.
Inside, pinned to the wall, was a photograph.
Miles leaving school.
Taken three days earlier.
Olivia’s hands went cold.
On the back:
THE BOY KNOWS THE LAST CODE.
“No,” Daniel whispered.
“What last code?”
He looked horrified.
“I thought it was gone.”
“What?”
“Black Harbor has a master override.”
“And you gave it to Miles?”
“Not directly.”
Olivia’s anger erupted.
“What does not directly mean?”
“I used children’s stories as memory anchors while I was designing it. When I realized the system had been compromised, I changed the override sequence.”
“To what?”
“A story I told Miles.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t remember the exact sequence.”
“You built the most dangerous software in the country and used bedtime stories as passwords?”
“I was trying to create something nobody could steal.”
“Well, congratulations. Nobody can find it, including you.”
Elena’s phone finally connected.
It rang immediately.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She looked at Olivia.
“Hannah’s apartment was hit.”
Olivia stopped breathing.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Miles?”
Elena did not answer.
Olivia grabbed the phone.
“Where is he?”
Hannah’s voice came through.
“Liv.”
She was crying.
“I tried.”
“Where is my son?”
“They cut the power. The agents went into the hall. Somebody came through the fire stairs.”
“Hannah.”
“They took him.”
Olivia closed her eyes.
Daniel’s face drained.
Then another call came in on Elena’s device.
Unknown.
Elena answered on speaker.
A distorted voice filled the boathouse.
“Daniel Mercer.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Who is this?”
“You built a door.”
“What?”
“We need the boy to open it.”
“If you hurt him—”
“We have no interest in harming Miles.”
Olivia shouted, “Put him on.”
A pause.
Then Miles’s voice.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m okay.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Can you see where you are?”
“A big computer room.”
Daniel and Olivia looked at each other.
The distorted voice returned.
“Bring Senator Vale’s credentials to the Northstar Data Center in Virginia.”
Daniel said, “I don’t have them.”
“Then acquire them.”
“What do you want?”
“The master override.”
Daniel looked at Miles’s photograph.
“To do what?”
The voice said, “Finish what you started.”
The call ended.
Marianne appeared behind them.
Her face was pale.
“I know Northstar.”
Everyone turned.
“What is it?” Elena asked.
Marianne whispered, “Where the consortium keeps the live version of Black Harbor.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You told me Black Harbor was fragmented.”
“It was.”
“Was?”
Marianne looked toward the mainland.
“Someone rebuilt it.”
Olivia folded the photograph of Miles and put it in her pocket.
There were no tears now.
No shock.
Only purpose.
“Then we go to Virginia.”
Daniel nodded.
Olivia turned to him.
“And Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“If we get our son back, you are going to tell me every single thing you ever hid.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
She looked at the water.
“Because I am running out of people to discover are secretly alive, corrupt, missing, or related to Claire.”
Despite everything, Claire laughed.
It lasted only a second.
May you like
But it was enough to remind Olivia they were still human.
Then they headed for the boat.
