Chapter 5 - THE CHILD NATHAN NEVER TOLD HER ABOUT
No one spoke for several seconds.
The patrol craft cut through the dark water while the girl’s image remained on the screen.
She looked about eight years old. Her hair was pale brown, her face thin beneath the oxygen tube.
Caroline turned toward Nathan.
“You have a daughter?”
Nathan’s silence answered first.
Her expression shattered.
“You proposed to me.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When? After the wedding?”
“Caroline—”
“Who is her mother?”
“Dead.”
The anger in her face faltered.
Nathan looked at the screen.
“Her name is Lily. Her mother was killed six years ago during an attack overseas. Lily was injured. She has lived under protective custody ever since.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because everyone who learns she exists becomes a target.”
Caroline laughed bitterly.
“She is already a target.”
Nathan’s eyes closed.
“Yes.”
Evelyn studied the hospital feed.
Something was wrong.
The heart monitor showed a steady rhythm, but the timestamp skipped every nineteen seconds.
“A loop,” she said.
Daniel leaned closer.
“You’re right.”
Nathan stepped toward the screen.
“Then she may not be there.”
“Or she may be somewhere worse,” Mercer said.
The strike authorization countdown began.
Ten minutes.
Evelyn’s mother touched her arm.
“You can’t destroy that bunker.”
“If the people inside are compromised, striking it may prevent a takeover,” Dad said.
Everyone stared at him.
He swallowed.
“I’m trying to understand.”
Evelyn looked at the coordinates.
The facility contained strategic communication servers. Destroying it would blind several commands. It would also kill hundreds.
“No legitimate protocol authorizes a domestic strike through one officer,” she said. “This is coercion.”
Daniel nodded.
“Nightglass needs your consent because someone designed it to hide responsibility behind you.”
“Who created it?”
Daniel looked toward Mercer.
Mercer remained at the helm.
Too calm.
Evelyn drew her pistol.
“Step away from the controls.”
Mother gasped.
Mercer did not turn.
“What are you doing?”
“You knew the scanner would activate succession.”
“I suspected.”
“You told us Daniel called you. He never confirmed that.”
Daniel stared at Mercer.
“No. I didn’t.”
Mercer slowly removed his hands from the controls.
Nathan moved beside him.
Evelyn’s voice became cold.
“Who are you working for?”
Mercer sighed.
“For the same country I served for forty-three years.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer that matters.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
Mercer looked at him.
“I found you when everyone else stopped searching.”
“You also kept me hidden.”
“To keep you alive.”
“Or to use me.”
Mercer smiled sadly.
“There is no difference in intelligence work.”
The countdown reached eight minutes.
Mercer looked at Evelyn.
“Nightglass was created because civilian leadership repeatedly sacrificed strategic stability for political survival. We needed continuity beyond elections, scandals, and weak appointments.”
“You built it.”
“I helped build it.”
Dad whispered, “You experimented on my daughter.”
Mercer’s expression hardened.
“I prepared her.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You manipulated my entire life.”
“I gave your life purpose.”
The words struck the room like an insult.
Evelyn pressed the barrel against his shoulder.
“My purpose was never yours to give.”
Mercer nodded toward the countdown.
“If you do not authorize the strike, Marcus Vale will seize the bunker. He controls officers inside it.”
“Then we warn them.”
“Communications are compromised.”
“We go there.”
“You have seven minutes.”
Nathan grabbed the controls and changed course.
The patrol craft turned toward the naval air station.
“We fly,” he said.
Mercer laughed softly.
“You still think this is about preventing one attack.”
“What is it about?” Caroline demanded.
Mercer looked at her.
“Replacing a dying system.”
Then he lunged.
His elbow struck Nathan’s jaw. He seized Evelyn’s wrist and twisted the pistol away.
Daniel fired, but Mercer pulled Evelyn into the line of fire.
The shot struck the console.
Sparks exploded.
The craft veered toward a concrete pier.
Caroline threw herself over her mother.
Nathan tackled Mercer.
They crashed against the railing.
Evelyn regained the pistol.
Mercer drew a knife.
Daniel caught his arm.
The three men struggled as the vessel sped toward the seawall.
“Turn!” Evelyn shouted.
Caroline crawled to the damaged controls.
“I don’t know how!”
“Throttle down!”
She pulled the lever.
The engine screamed.
The craft struck the pier sideways.
Everyone was thrown.
Metal tore.
Water surged through the lower hull.
Evelyn woke on the deck with blood running from her forehead.
The countdown showed four minutes.
Nathan dragged Mercer from the waterlogged cabin.
Daniel found a flare gun.
Caroline helped her parents onto the pier.
In the distance, sirens approached.
Mercer laughed weakly.
“You cannot stop it.”
Evelyn crouched beside him.
“Why?”
“Because the strike is not the real attack.”
The countdown reached three minutes.
“What happens at zero?”
Mercer looked toward the glowing screens.
“Your biometric refusal becomes proof that you are compromised.”
“And then?”
“Nightglass transfers authority to its secondary asset.”
Daniel went still.
“Who?”
Mercer turned toward Nathan.
Nathan’s face changed.
The screens flashed.
SECONDARY ASSET IDENTIFIED: COMMANDER NATHAN REED.
Caroline stepped back.
Nathan stared at his own name.
Then the hospital image of Lily disappeared.
A new message appeared.
PATERNAL COMPLIANCE LEVER VERIFIED.
Nathan looked at Evelyn in horror.
“They didn’t choose me because I was loyal.”
“No,” she said. “They chose you because you were vulnerable.”
The countdown reached one minute.
Evelyn handed him the pistol.
“You have a choice.”
Nathan looked at the strike authorization.
Then at Caroline.
Then at the screen where his daughter had appeared.
He raised the weapon.
For one terrifying second, Evelyn thought he might point it at her.
Instead, he fired into the command console.
The screens shattered.
The countdown vanished.
Silence followed.
Mercer smiled from the ground.
“You think breaking a screen stops a system?”
Deep beneath the pier, machinery awakened.
Across the harbor, missile-defense batteries rotated toward the sky.
Daniel looked upward.
“What did we just activate?”
May you like
Mercer’s smile widened.
“The war.”
