Chapter 8 - THE SECRET MEGAN'S FATHER LEFT BEHIND
Megan laughed.
It came out wrong.
Too sharp.
Almost broken.
“My father sold plumbing supplies.”
Thomas looked at her.
“No.”
She backed away.
“Don't.”
“Megan.”
“Don't you dare tell me another man in my family had a secret career.”
Thomas said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Megan turned toward the hospital window.
Her father, William Hart, had died when she was nineteen.
Heart attack.
Ordinary funeral.
Ordinary grave.
At least she had seen that body.
She suddenly hated herself for thinking it.
Roman stood nearby without speaking.
For once, he seemed to understand silence was more useful than control.
Megan finally turned.
“What did my father do?”
Thomas answered carefully.
“He founded the original information network that became Vale.”
Roman frowned.
“My father built Vale.”
“He built the company.”
Thomas shook his head.
“William Hart built the archive.”
Megan stared.
“How did you know him?”
“I didn't. Not personally.”
“Then how?”
“When I started investigating Vale, I found his name embedded in the earliest encryption.”
Roman asked, “Why would Vittorio keep another man's system?”
“Because it worked.”
Thomas walked to a chair.
“William Hart wasn't mafia.”
Megan folded her arms.
“That is currently a very low bar.”
“He was an accountant for several shipping companies in the nineties. He discovered organized-crime groups were using legitimate freight companies to launder money.”
Roman's face tightened.
“Which groups?”
“Several. Including the early DeLuca organization.”
Megan looked at Roman.
He did not defend it.
Thomas continued.
“William started documenting everything as insurance.”
“My father blackmailed mobsters?”
“Initially, no. He planned to turn the information over to federal investigators.”
“What happened?”
“Vittorio found him first.”
Megan swallowed.
“Did your father kill mine?”
Roman looked sharply toward Thomas.
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Megan released a breath she hadn't realized she held.
“Vittorio recruited him.”
“That sounds worse.”
“In some ways it was.”
Thomas looked down.
“William believed he could control dangerous men by making sure no one had enough power to destroy everyone else. Information became leverage.”
Roman said, “Mutually assured destruction.”
“Exactly.”
Megan thought of her father helping with math homework.
Driving an old Buick.
Complaining about property taxes.
“How does my name appear?”
“Because your father built a dead-man switch.”
Thomas looked at her.
“The first page lists the people authorized to destroy the archive.”
Roman's eyes narrowed.
“Megan?”
Thomas nodded.
“William Hart named his only child.”
Megan stared.
“I was twelve.”
“He set it to activate when you turned thirty.”
“I'm thirty-two.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't anything happen?”
Thomas looked ashamed again.
“I intercepted it.”
Megan's hands curled into fists.
“You did what?”
“I found the notification after we married.”
“You've been making decisions for me since before you faked your death?”
“I was trying to keep you away from this.”
She stepped toward him.
“You married me knowing who my father was?”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
“Two years after we married.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I wanted you to have a normal life.”
Megan laughed bitterly.
“I was a widow working double shifts to buy antibiotics for our son.”
Thomas flinched.
“Was that the normal life you planned?”
He couldn't answer.
Roman stepped between them before anger went any farther.
“Can Megan destroy the archive?”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“If David hasn't changed the root access.”
“How?”
“Megan's biometric authorization and the original phrase William created.”
“What phrase?”
“I don't know.”
Megan stared at him.
“You don't know?”
“Your father didn't put it in the files.”
Roman looked at her.
“Would you?”
She almost laughed.
“I'm trying to remember what a secretive accountant said twenty years ago.”
Nico entered the hospital room.
“Archive is at ninety-six percent.”
Roman checked the time.
“How fast?”
“Approximately one percent every four minutes.”
“Sixteen minutes.”
Thomas stood.
“Once it's open, David can copy everything.”
Megan asked, “Where is the server?”
Thomas looked at Roman.
Roman understood.
“The old Vale terminal.”
They drove south.
Chicago glittered beyond wet windows.
Megan sat beside Thomas but didn't look at him.
Finally he whispered, “I'm sorry.”
She stared ahead.
“You keep saying that.”
“I know.”
“Do you love me?”
The question surprised everyone.
Thomas swallowed.
“Yes.”
Megan finally looked at him.
“Then why wasn't I allowed to decide anything?”
Thomas had no answer.
Roman looked out the window.
The question seemed to strike him too.
The abandoned Vale terminal rose beside the Calumet River.
Old brick warehouses.
Rusting cranes.
Chain-link fences.
Nico's drones showed twelve armed men.
Roman studied the map.
“David will expect us through the main loading dock.”
Adrian pointed toward the river.
“Old maintenance tunnel.”
Roman looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“I grew up here.”
Roman's eyes hardened.
“Of course you did.”
Adrian met his stare.
“I didn't steal your childhood.”
“No. You just had my father for yours.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“You think that was a gift?”
Roman stopped.
For a second, both men understood each other.
Then Megan said, “You can work through the family trauma after we stop David from getting every dirty secret in Illinois.”
Adrian nodded.
“I like her.”
Roman almost smiled.
They entered through the maintenance tunnel.
Thomas stayed close to Megan.
Roman objected.
“She shouldn't be here.”
Megan looked at him.
Roman corrected himself.
“She decides.”
“I'm coming.”
He nodded.
Growth.
Small, but real.
They reached the server level without resistance.
That worried Nico.
“Too easy.”
Thomas agreed.
David wanted them there.
The central room contained old racks beside modern hardware.
Screens covered one wall.
ARCHIVE DECRYPTION: 99%.
Megan's pulse raced.
David's voice came through the speakers.
“Welcome home, Mrs. Parker.”
“Come out.”
“In a moment.”
A screen illuminated.
Elena sat beside Vittorio.
Both were alive.
Reese stood behind them.
Dr. Pierce beside him.
David appeared on another camera.
“You've all been remarkably useful.”
Roman scanned the room for cameras.
“Where are you?”
“Nearby.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“You don't understand the archive.”
David laughed.
“I understand it better than you.”
“No. William built traps into the system.”
David went quiet.
Megan looked at Thomas.
“What traps?”
“I suspected there were decoy files.”
David's voice sharpened.
“You're lying.”
Thomas smiled.
For the first time that night, Megan recognized her husband.
Not the guilty ghost.
The investigator.
“Am I?”
The screen reached:
99.7%.
David said, “Megan, place your hand on the scanner.”
A panel illuminated.
She stared at it.
“No.”
“If you don't, I upload the archive publicly.”
Roman frowned.
“You want leverage, not exposure.”
“I want control.”
“Public release gives you neither.”
David paused.
Roman had found the weakness.
Megan understood.
“You need me to verify the real files.”
Silence.
Thomas smiled.
“There it is.”
David's voice became colder.
“Put your hand on the scanner.”
Megan approached it.
Roman caught her eye.
Not her arm.
Not an order.
A question.
She nodded.
Then pressed her palm against the glass.
The system scanned.
A new prompt appeared.
WILLIAM HART LEGACY AUTHORIZATION.
SPEAK TERMINATION PHRASE.
Megan froze.
David's voice came through the speakers.
“Do it.”
“I don't know it.”
“Yes, you do.”
She closed her eyes.
Her father.
Old kitchen.
Sunday mornings.
Math homework.
He used to tell her something whenever she was afraid.
Not about bravery.
About truth.
Megan whispered:
“Secrets only own you while you protect them.”
The system beeped.
AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
Everyone stared.
Thomas exhaled.
Roman looked at Megan.
The screen changed.
TERMINATE ARCHIVE?
YES / NO.
David shouted, “No!”
Megan pressed YES.
Nothing happened.
Then:
SECOND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Megan frowned.
“Whose?”
A name appeared.
ROMAN VITTORIO DELUCA.
Roman stared.
Thomas whispered, “William designed it so Hart and DeLuca blood had to agree.”
Vittorio's voice suddenly came through the speaker.
“No.”
Roman looked at the screen.
His father's voice became frantic.
“Roman, don't touch it.”
Roman walked toward the scanner.
Vittorio shouted, “That archive protects this family!”
Roman placed his hand on the glass.
David's voice snapped.
“Roman, if you destroy it, I destroy your mother.”
Roman stopped.
The camera feed enlarged.
Reese held a gun against Elena's head.
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“Roman.”
Her son's face tightened.
“Mother.”
“Do it.”
Vittorio turned toward her.
“Elena.”
She didn't look at him.
“I burned one building trying to protect my son.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I will not let another generation live under our mistakes.”
Roman's hand remained on the scanner.
Reese cocked the gun.
“Take it off.”
Megan looked at Roman.
He looked at his mother.
Then the system announced:
SECOND AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
David screamed, “STOP!”
Roman pressed TERMINATE.
The screens went black.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then the server racks began wiping.
10%.
20%.
30%.
Gunfire erupted elsewhere in the building.
Nico shouted.
Roman pulled Megan behind the console.
Thomas fired toward the doorway.
Adrian ran for Elena's holding room.
The wipe reached 61%.
Then stopped.
ERROR.
BACKUP NODE ACTIVE.
Thomas went white.
“There shouldn't be a backup.”
David's laughter echoed through the room.
“William Hart wasn't the only one who believed in insurance.”
A new map appeared.
BACKUP NODE: REMOTE.
Roman stared.
“Where?”
Coordinates flashed.
Thomas read them.
His face collapsed.
Megan grabbed his arm.
“What?”
Thomas looked at her.
“The backup isn't in Chicago.”
“Where is it?”
His eyes filled with horror.
“It's transmitting from our old house.”
Megan froze.
The home where she and Leo had lived before Thomas's supposed death.
May you like
Thomas whispered:
“And according to this signal, someone is inside it right now.”
