Chapter 16 - Thomas Vale's Last Protocol
Darkness hit the laboratory.
Lily screamed once.
Marcus immediately lowered himself beside her.
"I'm here."
Emergency strips should have illuminated the floor.
They did not.
Caleb had killed more than the main circuit.
Dominic heard Adrian move in the dark.
He turned toward the sound and caught fabric, then an elbow.
Someone struck him in the ribs.
Vivian shouted his name.
A flashlight came on at floor level.
Caleb threw it toward Marcus.
"Stairwell B. Go."
Marcus took Lily's hand.
"Come on, kiddo."
Lily looked toward Dominic's silhouette.
"Daddy?"
"Go with Marcus."
"Are you coming?"
Dominic forced his voice steady.
"Always."
Marcus led her into the corridor.
Caleb stayed at the doorway with the laptop.
"I can give you ninety seconds before the backup generator reasserts control."
Dominic found Vivian beside the counter.
Julian had moved toward the rear exit.
Adrian was gone from the immediate light.
"Where is he?" Dominic asked.
Vivian whispered, "I don't know."
A figure came from the left.
Dominic turned and blocked a strike from Adrian.
They crashed against the wall.
Adrian hissed, "You should have let me disappear seven years ago."
Dominic drove him backward.
"I did. You came back."
Adrian swung again.
Dominic ducked and hit him in the body.
Adrian folded but stayed upright.
Julian reached the rear door.
Vivian saw him.
"You're leaving?"
Julian stopped.
"This is no longer under control."
She laughed in disbelief.
"That's your answer to everything, isn't it? Disappear when the room gets difficult."
Julian looked at her.
For a moment, something human crossed his face.
"Come with me."
Vivian stared.
"What?"
"You don't belong here."
"I belong exactly where I choose."
"Dominic will never see you the same now."
Dominic heard the words while holding Adrian against the wall.
He looked toward Vivian.
"He's right."
Vivian's face fell for an instant.
Dominic continued.
"I don't."
He shoved Adrian away.
"I see my sister who spent eight weeks terrified and still tried to protect my daughter without asking for credit."
Vivian's eyes filled.
Dominic looked at Julian.
"You don't get to rewrite her because a lab found your name in her blood."
Julian's expression hardened.
The backup warning lights began to blink.
Caleb shouted, "Sixty seconds."
Julian opened the rear door.
A security guard stood on the other side.
Not one of Dominic's men.
Owen Price, the fake Halden contractor.
He grabbed Vivian.
Dominic moved.
Adrian caught him around the waist.
They hit the floor.
Vivian drove her heel down on Owen's foot and twisted free for half a second.
Owen seized her again.
Julian said, "Don't hurt her."
Vivian spat back, "How thoughtful."
Caleb lifted the laptop and swung it into Owen's shoulder.
The fake contractor stumbled.
Vivian pulled free.
Owen struck Caleb across the injured shoulder.
Caleb collapsed with a cry.
Dominic finally threw Adrian off and reached Vivian.
The generator started.
White emergency lights flooded the room.
Adrian lay near the instrument cart.
Julian stood by the rear door.
Owen was recovering beside Caleb.
Dominic positioned himself between Vivian and all three.
Then a new voice came from the corridor.
"Nobody move."
Margaret Sloan stood there with two private security officers.
Dominic stared at her.
"You followed us."
"Of course I did."
She looked at Julian.
"Hello, Julian."
Julian's face changed in a way it had not when seeing Dominic or Vivian.
Hatred.
Old, deep hatred.
"Margaret."
She stepped into the room.
"Fourteen years and you still choose the worst entrances."
Dominic looked at her guards.
"Where's Marcus and Lily?"
"Your man reached the ground floor. They're safe for the moment."
"For the moment?"
Margaret ignored the question and looked at Adrian.
"You took the child after I told you not to."
Adrian wiped blood from his lip.
"You stopped paying."
"I stopped paying because you became unstable."
"You mean independent."
Julian laughed.
"He learned that from you."
Margaret's eyes sharpened.
"You taught him to sell loyalty by the hour."
Adrian looked between his father and Margaret.
"Keep talking. I enjoy hearing two people who ruined everybody pretend this is my character flaw."
Dominic had heard enough.
"Margaret, tell your guards to stand down."
She looked at him.
"I'm here to help you."
"People who help don't arrive with their own armed escort and ambiguous sentences about my daughter."
Margaret sighed.
"Still Thomas's son."
Dominic's voice chilled.
"Do not use my father as nostalgia."
Vivian crouched beside Caleb.
His shoulder wound had reopened.
She pressed cloth against it.
"Stay awake."
Caleb managed a weak smile.
"Trying."
Margaret turned to Vivian.
"You need to come with me."
Vivian actually laughed.
"Amazing. Every adult in this room except Dominic thinks kidnapping me is a reasonable form of conversation."
Margaret's expression softened.
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
Julian said, "By keeping her ignorant."
Margaret turned on him.
"By keeping her away from you."
Dominic heard something beneath the argument.
Fear.
Margaret was afraid of Julian.
Not physically.
Afraid of what he could reveal.
Dominic said, "What happened the night Elena died?"
Margaret went still.
Julian smiled.
"There it is."
"Answer him," Vivian said.
Margaret looked at Dominic.
"I hired Adrian to stop Elena's car before she reached a meeting with Benjamin Hale."
Dominic did not blink.
"How?"
"A staged roadside incident. A blocked lane. Nothing more."
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"That's the version she bought."
Dominic turned to him.
"What version did you sell?"
Adrian's smile disappeared.
"I paid a driver to force Elena onto the alternate route. He was supposed to scare her into taking the exit. He was drunk. He crossed too far."
Dominic's hands began to shake.
Vivian whispered, "You caused it."
Adrian looked away.
"I caused the route. Not the collision."
Dominic stepped toward him.
Margaret's guards tensed.
Dominic stopped inches away.
"You spent three years hiding behind grammar."
Adrian met his eyes.
"And you spent three years believing it was random because random hurt less than knowing someone chose the road."
Dominic wanted to hit him again.
He didn't.
Because Lily was safe downstairs.
Because every word needed to be recorded.
Because Thomas had left evidence, and Dominic would not destroy it by becoming exactly what Adrian expected.
Caleb, still on the floor, quietly lifted his phone.
A recording indicator glowed red.
Margaret noticed.
Her expression changed.
"Turn that off."
Caleb smiled weakly.
"Too late."
Margaret's nearest guard stepped toward him.
Dominic moved between them.
"Touch him and you explain yourself to every camera I own."
Margaret stared at Dominic.
Then Julian began laughing.
"You still don't understand, Margaret."
She turned.
May you like
Julian's smile was cold.
"Benjamin Hale isn't dead."
