Chapter 9 - The Fingerprint
Emily stepped back.
“No.”
Nobody accused her.
That made it worse.
“Dad, I didn’t—”
“I know.”
“You don’t know.”
“Yes, I do.”
Adrian said it without hesitation.
He did not care what the screen showed.
He knew his daughter.
Mara stood.
“Fingerprint systems can be spoofed.”
“Not ours,” Adrian said.
“Everything can be spoofed.”
Claire pointed at the metadata.
“Not this easily.”
Emily stared at the date.
Then her expression changed.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“That day.”
She looked at Adrian.
“You had surgery.”
Adrian remembered.
A minor procedure on his wrist after an old fracture started causing nerve pain.
He had gone straight from headquarters to the clinic.
Emily continued.
“You used the biometric pad before we left.”
“To sign payroll authorization.”
“Was anyone else there?”
Adrian pictured the office.
Mara.
Emily.
And a technician replacing the security hub.
“What was his name?” Emily asked.
Mara answered.
“Evan Rook.”
Claire looked up sharply.
Adrian caught it.
“You know him.”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
Claire’s eyes moved toward Pike’s body.
“Evan Rook is not a technician.”
“Then who is he?”
Claire whispered, “North.”
Mara stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Evan Rook died six years ago.”
Claire gave a tired laugh.
“So did Thomas Vale.”
The tunnel suddenly felt too small.
Adrian lifted the tablet.
“Find everything we have on Rook.”
Mara pulled out her phone.
No signal.
Emily checked hers.
“Nothing.”
Claire pointed deeper into the passage.
“Signal jammer.”
Adrian’s head snapped toward her.
“How do you know?”
“Because this tunnel was built as a dead zone.”
“By Victor?”
“No.”
Claire looked at him.
“By your father.”
A faint scraping sound came from behind them.
Mara spun.
The hidden door at the top of the tunnel slammed shut.
Then came the mechanical click of a lock engaging.
Emily whispered, “Dad…”
A red emergency light flickered on overhead.
A speaker crackled.
A man’s voice filled the tunnel.
Not Victor’s.
Not Pike’s.
Not Thomas Vale’s.
“Adrian.”
Mara raised her weapon toward the ceiling.
The voice continued.
“You always were difficult to kill.”
Adrian recognized it.
Evan Rook.
The technician from his office.
The man who had died six years ago.
“Bring Emily to the steel door at the end of the tunnel,” Rook said calmly.
“Come alone.”
Adrian looked at his daughter.
Then Rook added one final sentence.
May you like
“Or I’ll show her what you did to her mother.”
