Chapter 10 - ONE CHILD MISSING
Lawson forgot Malcolm existed.
Forgot the gunfire.
Forgot the men on the floor.
Forgot the empire.
He ran.
Prescott caught him outside.
“I’m driving.”
“Move.”
“You’re shaking.”
“Prescott.”
“Get in the car.”
They reached the hospital in eleven minutes.
Lawson did not remember the drive.
Nora met him near the service elevator.
Blood streaked one side of her face.
Not much.
Enough.
Lawson grabbed her shoulders.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“How did they get in?”
“Transport uniforms.”
“You let them take her?”
The words came out before he could stop them.
Nora recoiled.
Lawson saw it.
Immediately hated himself.
But terror was stronger.
“What happened?”
Nora swallowed.
“They had legitimate credentials. Real hospital IDs. They triggered an alarm on another floor and redirected security.”
“Where was my team?”
“Two were pulled toward the alarm. One was unconscious in the stairwell.”
“Jonah?”
“Safe.”
“Blythe?”
Nora’s voice shook.
“She was sleeping. I noticed one transport officer had the wrong badge color.”
“What did you do?”
“I stopped them.”
She touched the blood on her temple.
“One hit me.”
Lawson went completely still.
“They hurt you?”
“This is not about me.”
“What happened next?”
“I pulled the emergency alarm. They abandoned the stretcher but one grabbed Blythe and carried her through the service stairwell.”
“Camera?”
“Disabled for seven minutes.”
Prescott appeared beside them.
“Vehicle left loading dock at 12:19.”
“Plate?”
“Stolen.”
“Direction?”
“West.”
Lawson turned toward the wall and punched it.
Nora flinched.
He did it again.
“Stop.”
Again.
“Lawson!”
She grabbed his wrist.
He turned on her.
“Do not tell me to calm down.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Then what?”
“Use it.”
He stared.
“Use what?”
“The part of you everyone is afraid of.”
Her eyes were wet.
“But use your brain with it.”
He stopped.
Nora continued.
“Crosby didn’t take Blythe randomly.”
“Obviously.”
“He chose her.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s weaker.”
Lawson’s face went white.
Nora immediately regretted the phrasing.
“But she’s also the one wearing Genevieve’s necklace.”
Lawson froze.
The key.
The blue box.
Except the key was no longer on the necklace.
Lawson had kept it.
“Crosby thinks the key matters.”
Prescott nodded.
“He may believe Genevieve hid something else.”
Nora looked at Lawson.
“Then Blythe is leverage.”
“That does not make me feel better.”
“It means they need her alive.”
Lawson closed his eyes.
Alive.
He held onto that word.
Prescott’s phone buzzed.
“Traffic camera caught the van.”
“Where?”
“Heading toward industrial district near the river.”
Lawson moved.
Nora followed.
“No.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“You stay with Jonah.”
“I can help.”
“You already almost died.”
“So did Blythe.”
“This isn’t a hospital room.”
“I know.”
He looked at the blood on her face.
“No.”
Nora’s expression hardened.
“Blythe knows me.”
“She knows me too.”
“If you go through a door with a gun, she’ll know something terrible is happening.”
Lawson stared.
“If I go through first, maybe she stays calm.”
Prescott looked between them.
“She has a point.”
Lawson looked ready to fire him.
Twenty-five minutes later, Nora sat in the back of an armored SUV wearing a borrowed coat.
Lawson sat opposite her.
Neither spoke.
Finally Nora said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For losing her.”
“You didn’t.”
“I was there.”
“So were fifteen people paid to keep her safe.”
“I should have noticed sooner.”
Lawson looked at her.
“Stop.”
She blinked.
“You told me frightened people blame themselves for things they couldn’t control.”
“That was different.”
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“It wasn’t.”
Nora looked away.
They reached the industrial district at 1:04 a.m.
Prescott’s team traced the stolen van to an abandoned warehouse once owned by Meridian Clinical Solutions.
The irony was almost too perfect.
Lawson checked his weapon.
Nora saw.
“Remember what Blythe said.”
His eyes lifted.
“Hurting people makes more hurting.”
“This is not the time.”
“It’s exactly the time.”
He said nothing.
Prescott approached.
“Thermal scan shows seven adults inside. One smaller heat signature in the office section.”
Blythe.
“Crosby?”
“Possibly.”
“We go.”
The team entered through two points.
Nora remained behind Lawson despite his repeated order to stay near the vehicle.
Inside smelled like rust and old chemicals.
Rows of empty shelving stretched through darkness.
A voice came over a speaker.
“Lawson.”
Crosby Vane.
Lawson stopped.
Nora felt the hatred in the room before he answered.
“Bring me my daughter.”
“You brought Nora Bennett.”
Crosby sounded amused.
“She really is a nuisance.”
Nora’s skin crawled.
“You knew my brother.”
Silence.
Then Crosby laughed softly.
“Evan.”
Lawson looked at her.
Nora stopped breathing.
Crosby continued.
“Such an unfortunate case.”
“You remember him?”
“I remember his sister causing problems.”
Nora stepped toward the speaker.
“What did Meridian give him?”
“Nora,” Lawson warned.
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“You tell me.”
Crosby sighed.
“Your brother was already very sick.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Children die, Miss Bennett.”
Lawson saw her break.
Not loudly.
Her face simply folded for one second.
Then hardened.
“Where is Blythe?”
“Office upstairs.”
Lawson raised his weapon.
“What do you want?”
“The Mercer archive.”
“You don’t care about Genevieve’s box.”
“No.”
“What then?”
“Your father kept records.”
Lawson understood.
The old logistics network.
Names.
Payments.
Politicians.
Police.
Businessmen.
Enough secrets to control half the city.
“I don’t have them.”
“But Malcolm does.”
Lawson almost smiled.
“You kidnapped the wrong child.”
Crosby’s voice sharpened.
“Did I?”
A light switched on above the office.
Through dirty glass, Lawson saw Blythe.
She sat in a chair wrapped in a blanket.
A man stood behind her.
Nora whispered, “She’s awake.”
Blythe looked terrified.
But alive.
Lawson lowered his weapon slightly.
“I’ll give you Malcolm.”
“No.”
Crosby laughed.
“I already have what I need from Malcolm.”
A second light came on.
Another room.
Malcolm Reeve sat tied to a chair.
Prescott swore.
“How?”
Lawson turned.
The wounded Malcolm had been under Mercer guard.
Someone had taken him during the hospital chaos.
The betrayal was still inside.
Crosby’s voice returned.
“Your organization leaks badly when you’re emotional.”
Lawson clenched his jaw.
“What do you want?”
“Prescott Hale.”
Everyone looked at Prescott.
Prescott frowned.
“Me?”
“You have Daniel Hale’s ledger.”
Prescott went pale.
Lawson stared.
“What ledger?”
Prescott said nothing.
“Prescott.”
Finally:
“My brother mailed something to me before he disappeared.”
Lawson’s face changed.
“You had evidence all these years?”
“I couldn’t decode it.”
Crosby’s voice filled the warehouse.
“But Genevieve could.”
Nora understood.
The blue box.
The corporate files.
The key.
They were pieces.
Prescott’s ledger was another.
Crosby needed all of them.
“Bring the ledger tomorrow night,” Crosby said. “Then perhaps Blythe comes home.”
Lawson stepped forward.
“No.”
A gun pressed against the window behind Blythe.
Her eyes widened.
Lawson stopped.
“Tomorrow,” Crosby repeated.
Then Nora noticed something.
Blythe was tapping her fingers against the chair.
One.
Two.
Pause.
One.
Two.
Three.
Nora stared.
The knight-and-chicken story.
Earlier, Nora had taught the twins a silly tapping game.
Two taps meant look.
Three meant door.
Look.
Door.
Nora’s eyes shifted behind Blythe.
A red EXIT sign.
There was another way into the office.
She slowly moved her hand behind her back.
Tapped Prescott.
Twice.
Then three times.
He looked.
Understood.
Prescott disappeared silently between shelves.
Lawson kept Crosby talking.
“You hurt her and there is nowhere on earth you can hide.”
“Your father used to say things like that.”
“I’m not my father.”
“No.”
Crosby’s voice turned cruel.
“Richard Mercer would never have let a pair of children make him weak.”
Lawson looked through the glass at Blythe.
“No.”
His voice was calm.
“They made me stronger.”
The office lights went out.
A crash.
A scream.
Gunfire.
Lawson ran.
He reached the stairs as Prescott opened the office door from inside.
The gunman was down.
Blythe screamed.
“Daddy!”
Lawson dropped his weapon.
He crossed the room and lifted her carefully into his arms.
She wrapped both arms around his neck.
“I knew you’d come.”
He could not speak.
Nora entered seconds later.
Blythe reached toward her too.
“Nora.”
“I’m here.”
“I did the taps.”
“You did perfectly.”
Blythe began crying.
So did Nora.
Across the warehouse, Crosby Vane was gone.
A hidden exit stood open.
Malcolm remained tied in the neighboring room.
Lawson looked toward him.
Malcolm lifted his head.
“He’ll kill all of us for that ledger.”
May you like
Prescott approached.
“Then maybe it’s time we find out what’s in it.”
