Chapter 4 - HALCYON
“Get the children upstairs,” Graham said.
Danny didn’t move.
“No.”
“This is not a debate.”
“It is if you know why my mother died.”
Graham looked at Cal.
“Clear the room.”
Danny stepped between them.
“I’m not a little kid.”
“You are exactly a little kid.”
“I buried my mother.”
The words stopped Graham cold.
Danny’s eyes burned.
“I carried Eli three miles because he couldn’t stop crying. I stole diapers for Rose. I slept with a knife because men were looking for us.”
His voice cracked.
“So don’t tell me I’m a little kid.”
Graham stared at him.
Then pointed toward the study.
“Fine.”
They went inside.
Cal closed the door.
Graham rolled behind his desk and opened a locked drawer.
Inside was an old photograph.
Two younger men stood at a medical charity gala.
Graham.
And Dr. Marcus Vale.
Danny saw it.
“That’s him.”
Graham’s head snapped up.
“What?”
Danny pointed at Vale.
“That’s the man my mom was scared of.”
Cal muttered, “Jesus.”
Graham stared at the photograph.
Marcus Vale had been brilliant.
Funny.
Obsessive.
He could walk into a room full of dying patients and somehow make everybody believe tomorrow was worth waiting for.
Graham had loved him like a brother.
Then Halcyon changed.
The research became secretive.
The reports stopped making sense.
Graham withdrew funding.
Marcus called him a coward.
They hadn’t spoken in seven years.
“What did your mother tell you?” Graham asked.
“Not much.”
“Think.”
Danny squeezed his eyes shut.
“She said Rose was special before she was born.”
“How?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“She work at Halcyon?”
“Yes.”
“As what?”
“Nurse.”
Graham shook his head.
“She was a clinical research coordinator.”
Danny looked surprised.
“You remember her?”
“I remember everyone who challenged Marcus in a board meeting.”
A memory surfaced.
Anna standing at a conference table.
Angry.
Pregnant.
Saying patient consent forms had been altered.
Marcus dismissing her concerns.
Graham doing nothing.
His stomach turned.
Danny reached into his sweatshirt.
“I have this.”
He pulled out a small flash drive.
Graham stared.
“Where did you get it?”
“Mom gave it to me the night she died.”
“What’s on it?”
“She said evidence.”
“Of what?”
“I don’t know.”
Graham rolled toward his computer.
Danny grabbed the drive back.
“No.”
Graham glared.
“You want answers?”
“I want to know you’re not one of them.”
Before Graham could respond, the lights went out.
Every lamp.
Every screen.
Every sound.
The house dropped into darkness.
Cal drew a gun.
“Down.”
Danny ducked.
Graham reached for the desk.
A red emergency light flickered on.
Then his security system began screaming.
Cal touched his earpiece.
“Team One?”
Static.
“Team One, respond.”
Nothing.
Graham felt the hair rise on his arms.
“This house has independent power.”
Cal looked toward the door.
“I know.”
A gunshot cracked upstairs.
Danny went white.
“Maya.”
He ran.
Cal grabbed him.
“Stay here!”
“My sisters are up there!”
Another shot.
Then Ruth screamed.
Graham shoved his wheels forward.
Cal blocked him.
“Sir.”
“Move.”
“You can’t go up there.”
Graham looked at the staircase.
Then down at his right leg.
Something hot moved through it.
He grabbed the banister.
“Watch me.”
He pulled himself from the chair.
His leg nearly collapsed.
Cal caught him.
Graham shoved him away.
“Go get the kids!”
Cal ran upstairs.
Danny followed despite orders.
Graham stood shaking in the hallway.
One foot alive.
One foot dead.
A shadow moved near the kitchen.
A man stepped into the red light.
Gray coat.
The same man from the café.
He had blood on his mouth from Cal’s punch.
And a gun in his hand.
He smiled.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Graham gripped the banister.
May you like
The man raised the gun.
“Dr. Vale says thank you for bringing the child somewhere private.”
