Chapter 9 - The General Who Would Not Die
William stared at the man he had buried.
The military funeral returned in fragments.
The folded flag.
The gun salute.
The polished casket.
His father had not been inside it.
“You faked your death.”
Charles Harlan smiled faintly.
“I retired from public view.”
“You let me mourn you.”
“Mourning made you useful.”
Eli moved toward Mara.
Vale raised his weapon.
“Stay where you are.”
Mara looked thinner than William remembered.
Her dark hair was streaked with gray.
An oxygen tube rested beneath her nose.
But her eyes had not changed.
“Eli.”
“I’m here, Mom.”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“You sent me.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I sent you to return the ring.”
“I didn’t send you into this.”
Charles laughed quietly.
“You always underestimated the boy.”
Mara turned toward him.
“Don’t speak about my son.”
“Which one?”
The cruelty of the question filled the chamber.
William took another step.
“Let them go.”
Charles looked at him.
“Did you bring the letters?”
“Yes.”
“Burn them.”
William held up the folder.
“You first.”
Vale pressed the pistol harder against Mara’s shoulder.
Charles’s smile faded.
“You still believe you have leverage.”
“You need the letters destroyed.”
“I need the evidence destroyed.”
“You don’t know where all the evidence is.”
Charles looked toward Eli.
The old man’s eyes narrowed.
“The ring.”
William closed his fist around it.
Charles looked at Vale.
“Take it.”
Vale moved toward William.
Rebecca stepped between them.
“No.”
Vale turned.
“What did you say?”
“You promised no one would be harmed.”
Vale laughed.
“And you believed me?”
Rebecca looked toward Mara.
Then toward Eli.
Finally toward William.
“I spent twenty-two years living with what we did.”
William’s voice was cold.
“What you did.”
Rebecca flinched.
“Your father told me the baby would be killed if I refused.”
Charles scoffed.
“You were always dramatic.”
Rebecca turned toward him.
“You gave me Daniel because you needed someone loyal to raise him.”
“I gave you a purpose.”
“You stole him from his mother.”
“I preserved the program.”
Mara’s breathing became labored.
Eli moved again.
Vale pointed the gun at him.
William lunged.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the steel floor.
Rebecca grabbed Vale’s arm.
They crashed into a table.
Mara fell from her chair.
Eli ran to her.
William fought Vale for the weapon.
Charles wheeled himself backward toward a control panel.
He pressed a red switch.
An alarm sounded.
Steel doors began sealing the chamber.
Dennis’s voice echoed faintly from the tunnel.
“Federal security!”
Charles pulled a small device from his coat.
A countdown appeared.
Five minutes.
Mara saw it.
“He’s going to collapse the tunnel.”
William knocked the gun from Vale’s hand.
Rebecca reached for it.
Vale struck her across the face.
She fell.
Charles pointed the device toward William.
“You had one responsibility.”
“To protect the family name.”
William looked at Mara and Eli.
“No.”
“My responsibility is to end it.”
May you like
Charles pressed another button.
The countdown dropped from five minutes to sixty seconds.
