Chapter 17 - THE NIGHT THE HAWTHORNES FOUGHT BACK
The facility became chaos.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Gunfire echoed through the corridors.
Michael pushed Maya behind a concrete wall.
Daniel returned fire from the doorway.
Alexander stood beside him.
Despite his age and injuries, the old general still moved with terrifying precision.
“Three men approaching from the west corridor,” Alexander said.
Michael nodded.
“I see them.”
The attackers moved closer.
Then silence.
A grenade rolled around the corner.
Daniel kicked it away.
The explosion shook the building.
Maya covered her ears.
Smoke filled the corridor.
Someone shouted.
Michael rushed forward.
Alexander grabbed Maya.
“Stay behind me.”
“I can help.”
“You've already done enough.”
“No.”
Maya looked at him.
“I spent my entire life believing I didn't belong to anyone.”
She tightened her grip.
“I'm not losing you now.”
Alexander's expression softened.
Then he nodded.
“Stay close.”
They moved through the facility.
The attackers were not random criminals.
They were professionals.
Maya recognized one of them.
A security officer she had seen at Conrad Sterling's events.
The realization terrified her.
Conrad's network was still active.
They reached the main control room.
Michael shut the door.
“There's a communications terminal.”
Alexander looked at Maya.
“You need to send the evidence.”
“To whom?”
“Everyone.”
Maya understood.
News organizations.
Federal agencies.
International investigators.
If the evidence was released simultaneously, nobody could bury it.
She connected the archive.
Files began uploading.
Ten percent.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Outside, footsteps approached.
Daniel stood guard.
Fifty percent.
Sixty.
Then the door exploded inward.
Michael fired.
Alexander returned fire.
Maya kept typing.
Seventy.
Eighty.
A bullet struck the console.
The screen flickered.
“Ninety.”
The attacker entered.
Daniel tackled him.
The upload reached one hundred percent.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
Maya exhaled.
The truth was free.
It could no longer be erased.
Then she heard sirens.
Lots of them.
Federal agents surrounded the facility.
The attackers surrendered.
Within hours, Conrad Sterling was arrested at his home.
His accounts were frozen.
His private planes grounded.
His network collapsed.
But the greatest revelation came during the interrogation.
Conrad admitted that Alexander had been kept alive because he was the only person who knew where the original evidence was hidden.
And he admitted something else.
The person who had first betrayed Alexander had been Richard Vale.
Maya finally had the complete truth.
It didn't make the past less painful.
But it gave it an ending.
When she returned home, her son ran toward her.
“Mommy!”
She dropped to her knees.
He wrapped his arms around her.
Alexander watched from the doorway.
His eyes filled with tears.
Maya looked at him.
“Dad.”
May you like
He smiled.
For the first time in twenty-four years, he was home.
