Chapter 5 - The Answer Nathaniel Feared
Nathaniel looked at me for so long that I began wishing I had never asked.
Then he knelt.
He did not try to touch me.
“I don’t know.”
I felt something collapse inside my chest.
“But you think I am.”
“Yes.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“My mom told me my father died.”
Nathaniel’s face tightened.
“She may have believed she was protecting you.”
“From you?”
The question hurt him.
I could see it.
“Possibly.”
I wiped my face angrily.
“I don’t want possibly.”
“I know.”
“I want my mom.”
“So do I.”
Those words came out differently.
Not like the most feared man in America.
Like someone who had spent eleven years grieving a woman who had been alive the entire time.
Dante interrupted gently.
“We found the source of the transmission.”
The map changed.
“It wasn’t Pier Nine.”
Nathaniel nodded.
“I expected that.”
“Signal originated from an old Graves shipping terminal on the south river.”
“Calder used one of ours.”
“Abandoned seven years.”
Nathaniel stood.
“Perfect place for a trap.”
Dante pointed toward another monitor.
“There’s more.”
The eviction notice appeared on screen.
Meridian Property Holdings had ordered only one eviction in my entire building.
Ours.
Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed.
“So this was targeted.”
“Yes.”
“And the order?”
Dante enlarged the digital signature.
The authorization had come from an executive office inside Graves Tower.
Everyone looked around.
There was a traitor in the building.
Nathaniel slowly turned toward his security staff.
“Lock every internal network.”
“No communication leaves this room.”
A man near the rear door suddenly stepped backward.
Dante noticed.
“Stop.”
The man ran.
Two guards tackled him before he reached the hallway.
A phone fell from his pocket.
On the screen was an unfinished message.
GRAVES KNOWS ABOUT THE CHIP.
Nathaniel stared at the traitor.
“Who are you sending that to?”
The man said nothing.
Dante dragged him away.
I watched Nathaniel.
“You have bad employees.”
To my surprise, he almost smiled.
“Apparently.”
Then he became serious.
“Ruby, I need you to do something difficult.”
“What?”
“Stay here.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“If Calder wants you, bringing you near him gives him leverage.”
“But he already has Mom.”
“Yes.”
“And I cannot give him both of you.”
I looked down at the bracelet.
Nathaniel had returned it to my wrist.
“You said the chip matters.”
“It does.”
“Then maybe he thinks it’s still inside.”
Nathaniel’s eyes sharpened.
I continued.
“He doesn’t know you opened it.”
Dante understood first.
“She’s right.”
Nathaniel looked furious that we had a point.
“We could duplicate the bracelet.”
“No.”
“Sir.”
“No.”
Dante remained calm.
“We don’t bring Ruby.”
“We bring something Calder believes is Ruby.”
Nathaniel turned toward him.
A plan began forming.
Twenty minutes later, a convoy left Graves Tower.
One armored vehicle carried Nathaniel.
Another carried twenty armed men.
A third carried a small figure beneath a hooded coat.
From a distance, it looked exactly like me.
But I was still inside Graves Tower.
May you like
At least everyone believed I was.
Because nobody noticed the small eight-year-old climbing into the back of Dante’s equipment van before the garage doors closed.
