Chapter 34 - Father's War
Lena followed him.
Of course she did.
Gabriel’s hospital bracelet had been found in a parking garage. Security footage showed him entering a delivery van driven by a woman wearing medical scrubs.
Milo identified her as Dr. Rebecca Sloan.
Andrew’s adoptive mother.
Andrew stared at the photograph.
“My mother died six years ago.”
“No,” Lena said quietly. “Apparently death is optional in this family.”
Rebecca Sloan had staged her death after being diagnosed with cancer.
There was no evidence she had ever had cancer.
Andrew called every number he remembered.
One answered.
Rebecca’s voice said, “Andrew?”
He almost dropped the phone.
“Mom?”
Lena watched his face become a child’s.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that. Don’t you dare say that.”
Rebecca began crying.
“I thought disappearing would protect you.”
Across the room, Julian closed his eyes.
The same disease.
Protection through absence.
Andrew whispered, “You don’t get to call that love.”
Rebecca gave them one clue before ending the call.
“Gabriel is going to finish what we started at Saint Agnes.”
The original Saint Agnes site was now a luxury apartment tower.
But old municipal maps showed a sealed utility tunnel beneath it.
They entered after midnight with federal agents.
Gabriel and Rebecca were inside.
So were stacks of servers.
Gabriel looked at Lena.
“I told you not to follow.”
“You should know me better.”
“I do. That’s why I knew you would.”
“Then why leave the note?”
“Hope.”
“Cowardice.”
He accepted that.
Rebecca and Andrew faced each other across the server room.
Neither moved.
Lena turned to Gabriel.
“You controlled Aurora.”
“I controlled part of it.”
“You used its systems.”
“To find the stolen children.”
“You also moved money.”
“To fund searches.”
“You sent threats?”
“No.”
“People were attacked.”
“I know.”
“And you kept operating the machine.”
“Because it was the only machine capable of finding everyone.”
Lena understood the temptation.
If a corrupt system held the map to every victim, destroying it meant losing them.
Using it meant becoming part of it.
“You became Miriam,” she said.
Gabriel flinched.
“No.”
“You decided your goal justified secrecy. You decided everyone else could live with consequences they never chose. You watched your family from a distance because your mission mattered more than our consent.”
“I was trying to repair what I broke.”
“So was she.”
That silenced him.
Gabriel looked suddenly old.
“I don’t know how to stop without abandoning them.”
“The children?”
“The adults they became.”
Lena stepped closer.
“Give them the choice.”
He looked at the servers.
“How?”
“Contact each person privately. Tell them what exists. Let them decide whether they want their records.”
“That could take years.”
“Then it takes years.”
“What about people in danger?”
“We help them.”
“You think law can protect everyone?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“People. Consent. The slow, frustrating work you kept trying to replace with control.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“You sound like Elena.”
“Good.”
An alarm sounded.
Rebecca turned toward the servers.
“Someone is accessing the system.”
Screens lit up.
A remote user began downloading the master index.
Gabriel typed furiously.
“I locked external access.”
“Not well enough,” Julian said.
The username appeared.
M.SLOANE.
Miriam was in prison.
Lena called the facility.
Miriam was still in her cell.
No computer.
No phone.
Yet the download continued.
Andrew stared at the user credentials.
“Could be a copied key.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No. That key requires a living biometric match.”
Lena felt cold.
“Miriam has a relative.”
Evelyn was not biological.
Lena was not biological.
Then Mara whispered, “Unless Miriam had a child.”
The download completed.
Every screen went black.
One line appeared.
THANK YOU, MOTHER.
Miriam Sloane had a child.
May you like
And whoever they were had just inherited Aurora.
---
