Chapter 7 - The Security Chief Who Betrayed Them
Silas refused to speak for eleven hours.
Reed refused to hit him.
The second fact surprised almost everyone more than the first.
Silas sat handcuffed in a secure room beneath an Ashford-owned office building while Reed stood across from him in silence.
Maisie watched through the glass with Pierce.
"Is he going to kill him?" she asked.
Pierce considered the question.
"Yesterday, yes."
"And today?"
"Today he has you."
Maisie looked at him.
"That is a terrifying amount of responsibility."
"Welcome to being loved by Reed Ashford."
Inside the room, Silas smiled.
"You always did prefer silence when you were angry."
Reed said nothing.
"Your father shouted. Broke things. You watched. Learned. Improved."
Still nothing.
Silas leaned back.
"Are you going to ask where Evelyn is?"
Reed finally spoke.
"You want me to."
"Of course."
"Then I won't."
Silas's smile faded slightly.
Reed continued.
"Pierce is tracing the transfer. Maisie is reading the ledgers. Walsh is with his daughter. Every minute I sit here, the number of things you control becomes smaller."
"You think this is about control?"
"Everything with you is."
Silas's eyes hardened.
"I saved this family."
"You burned it."
"Charles would have destroyed us."
"So you set the fire?"
Silas said nothing.
Reed watched him.
"There."
"There what?"
"Twenty-one years, and that is the first time you did not deny it."
Silas smiled again, but there was less confidence now.
Outside, Maisie looked at Pierce.
"He did it."
Pierce nodded.
"Looks that way."
Maisie opened one of the ledgers.
The entries were coded, but repetition revealed patterns. Payments to St. Catherine. Payments to social workers. Cash withdrawals near foster homes where Maisie had lived.
Then she found a name.
Mara Lel.
Maisie's heart stopped.
Lel was the surname she had been given in foster care.
"Pierce."
He moved beside her.
She pointed.
"Who is Mara Lel?"
Pierce searched.
"Former nurse. St. Catherine Behavioral Center. Died eight years ago."
Maisie stared at the name.
"She named me."
"Looks like it."
"Why?"
Pierce pulled another file.
"Because she was paid by Silas for fourteen years."
Maisie sat back.
Her entire life had suddenly acquired invisible hands.
Foster placements.
Name changes.
School transfers.
Why had records vanished whenever she tried to research her childhood?
Silas had not simply hidden her once.
He had watched her grow up.
"He knew where I was the whole time."
Pierce's face tightened.
"Yes."
Maisie looked through the glass at Silas.
"He watched me struggle."
"Maisie."
"I slept in a bus station when I aged out of foster care. He knew. I worked two jobs while living in a room with no heat. He knew."
Pierce did not offer comfort he had not earned.
"Probably."
Maisie stood.
"Let me in there."
"Reed won't like it."
"He'll survive."
Pierce opened the door.
Reed turned as Maisie entered.
"What happened?"
She placed the ledger in front of Silas.
"Mara Lel."
Silas's eyes flickered.
"Who was she?"
No answer.
Maisie leaned forward.
"She gave me my name. You paid her."
Silas remained silent.
"You knew where I was every year."
His face did not change.
Maisie's voice shook.
"Did you ever see me?"
Silas looked at her.
"Sometimes."
Reed went very still.
Maisie whispered, "Why didn't you help me?"
Silas's answer was almost gentle.
"Because comfort creates curiosity. A hungry child worries about dinner. A comfortable child starts asking where she came from."
Reed moved so fast the chair hit the wall.
His hand closed around Silas's collar.
Pierce stepped forward.
Maisie did not.
She stared at Silas.
"You kept me poor on purpose."
"I kept you alive."
"You made survival so hard I didn't have time to search for my family."
"And it worked."
Reed's fist tightened.
Maisie said, "Reed."
He looked at her.
"Let him go."
"Why?"
"Because I need him to see that I am not the frightened child he controlled."
Reed released Silas.
Maisie straightened.
"You watched me become a cook because kitchens were the only places I could always find work. You watched me sleep in bad apartments, count coins for groceries, and build a life with nothing."
Silas gave a small shrug.
"And yet you survived."
"Yes."
Maisie's tears disappeared.
"That is the part you should be afraid of."
For the first time, Silas looked uncertain.
Pierce's phone buzzed.
He stepped into the room.
"We found the transport vehicle that moved Eleanor Bell."
Reed turned.
"Where?"
"Abandoned near Lake Champlain. Driver dead. No patient."
Maisie closed her eyes.
Silas smiled.
Reed looked at him.
"Where is my mother?"
Silas said nothing.
Pierce added, "There's more. We found a secondary routing log. The transport was rerouted by a code from Walsh's security credentials."
The room froze.
Maisie looked at Pierce.
"Walsh?"
Reed's face changed.
"Impossible. He was with Lena."
"The credentials were used at 6:02 this morning."
Silas laughed softly.
"Loyalty is such an expensive fantasy."
Reed ignored him and called Walsh.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Pierce checked another screen.
"His phone is moving north."
Maisie felt sick.
"He took her?"
Reed's jaw locked.
"Or someone used his credentials."
Pierce looked at him.
"We have to consider both."
Reed left the room.
Maisie followed.
"You don't believe Walsh did it."
"I believe evidence, not feelings."
"That's not what I asked."
Reed stopped.
"No. I don't believe it."
They reached the operations room.
A map showed Walsh's phone moving toward Vermont.
Then a second signal appeared beside it.
Lena's hospital bracelet tracker.
Pierce frowned.
"They're together."
Maisie said, "Maybe he is running with her."
Reed nodded.
"Call Lena's number."
Pierce did.
A young woman's voice answered, breathless.
"Hello?"
Reed took the phone.
"Lena, this is Reed. Where is your father?"
"Driving."
"Put him on."
There was rustling.
Then Walsh's voice.
"Boss."
"Why are your credentials tied to my mother's transfer?"
Walsh swore.
"Because Silas made copies months ago. I told you he had access through me. I found a manifest in the warehouse where they held Lena. Your mother is being moved to an old clinic near the Canadian border. We are twenty minutes ahead of your team."
Reed's anger shifted into focus.
"Coordinates."
Walsh gave them.
"Do not go in alone," Reed said.
Walsh laughed once, bitterly.
"You know me better than that."
"I know you are trying to repay a debt."
Silence.
Reed continued.
"You gave Silas information because he had your daughter. I understand why. That does not mean you owe me your life."
Walsh's voice roughened.
"I almost got Maisie killed."
Maisie stepped closer to the phone.
"Then help us get our mother back. That is enough."
Walsh was quiet.
"Copy that."
Walsh and Lena were waiting at a dark roadside turnout when Reed's convoy caught them.
Lena was twenty-two, thin, exhausted, and wrapped in a hospital blanket. The moment Walsh saw Reed step from the vehicle, he handed his weapon to Pierce without being asked.
"I broke protocol."
Reed looked at the gun, then at Walsh.
"Yes."
"I left the city without clearance."
"Yes."
"I used a compromised credential trail without telling you."
"Also yes."
Walsh's jaw tightened.
"If you are going to remove me, do it after we get your mother."
Lena stepped between them.
"Dad."
Walsh looked at her.
"It's all right."
Reed watched the exchange.
Then he looked at Lena.
"Are you injured?"
"Bruised. Nothing serious."
"Did Silas hurt you?"
"He barely came near me. Other men handled everything."
"Can you identify them?"
"Some."
Reed nodded.
Then he turned back to Walsh.
"You are not removed."
Walsh stared.
Pierce looked surprised.
Reed continued.
"You will take leave after tonight. You will spend it with your daughter. When you return, we will rebuild access from zero."
Walsh swallowed.
"Boss, I fed him routes."
"Because he had Lena."
"I nearly got Maisie killed."
Maisie stepped out of the second SUV.
"I am standing right here and would like the court to note I am difficult to kill."
Lena looked at her with a shaky smile.
Walsh lowered his eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Maisie walked closer.
"Then help us find my mother. After that, we can decide how angry I still am."
Walsh gave a rough laugh.
"Fair."
Reed looked at Pierce.
"Do we trust the coordinates?"
"Satellite heat signatures show generator activity. Three vehicles arrived within the last six hours. One matches the transfer route."
Reed nodded.
Lena reached into the blanket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"I took this from the warehouse."
Walsh looked at her sharply.
"You what?"
"One of them left it near the chair when they moved me. I hid it in my sock."
Pierce unfolded it.
A medication schedule.
Patient: E. Bell.
Maisie's breath caught.
Reed read the dosage list and his face changed.
"What are these?"
Lena answered.
"Sedatives. Heavy ones. I am a nursing student. Some of those doses would keep an elderly patient disoriented most of the day."
Reed went very still.
"For how long?"
Pierce looked at the records.
"If this schedule matches Halcyon history, years."
Maisie put a hand on Reed's arm.
"We are close."
He looked at the low brick clinic visible through the trees.
"Twenty-one years close."
Before the team moved, Reed faced Walsh again.
"One more thing."
"Yeah?"
"You stay with Lena."
Walsh shook his head.
"No."
"That was not a request."
"I can help."
"You already did. Now be her father."
Walsh looked at Lena.
For once, he obeyed without argument.
They reached the clinic forty-three minutes later.
It was a low brick building hidden among pine trees, officially closed for a decade.
Walsh waited outside with Lena in the car.
Reed's team entered first.
No gunfight.
No ambush.
Just empty corridors, old medical equipment, and one room at the end of a locked hallway.
Reed opened the door.
An elderly-looking woman sat beside the window in a hospital gown.
Her hair, once dark, was silver.
Her hands trembled.
Her face was thinner than the face in Reed's photographs.
But he knew her instantly.
"Mom."
The woman turned.
Her eyes moved over him without recognition.
Reed stopped breathing.
Maisie stepped into the room behind him.
The woman's gaze shifted.
She looked at Maisie's scar.
Then at her face.
Her lips parted.
"Little sparrow?"
Maisie's knees nearly gave out.
The woman began to cry.
"Maeve?"
Reed stood frozen beside them.
May you like
His mother had recognized his sister.
But not him.
