Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE BENEATH THE HARBOR
The message led us to an abandoned research facility beneath Boston Harbor.
Dominic wanted me nowhere near it.
I refused.
“My father asked for me.”
“Exactly.”
“You need me.”
“I need you alive.”
“You barely know me.”
Dominic looked at me.
“I knew your voice before I knew daylight again.”
That ended the argument emotionally.
Not practically.
I went anyway.
The facility had once belonged to Bennett Biomedical.
Marcus brought six men.
Dominic carried a gun despite my objections.
“I’m your nurse.”
“Tonight you're terrible at it.”
We entered through an old service tunnel.
Inside we discovered laboratories abandoned in appearance only.
Fresh footprints.
Running servers.
Medical files.
Hundreds of them.
At the center was a project called JANUS.
Samuel Bennett and Victor Vale had created it twenty-eight years earlier.
Not drugs.
Not weapons.
Information.
JANUS was a private intelligence network built through shipping manifests, hospital records, insurance databases and political donations.
Victor used it to control ports.
Samuel wanted something larger.
Leverage over everyone.
When Victor tried to shut the project down, Samuel disappeared.
The plane crash was staged.
My mother discovered the truth.
She took me and ran.
I found her recorded testimony on an old server.
Rebecca appeared on-screen.
Young.
Terrified.
Holding a seven-year-old girl.
Me.
“If Claire ever sees this, Samuel is alive.”
My hands started shaking.
“He believes information makes people predictable. Controllable. He doesn't see people anymore. Only pressure points.”
Rebecca looked directly into the camera.
“I loved him once. Then I learned what he was.”
She revealed one more secret.
Victor Vale hadn't destroyed JANUS.
He stole it.
Dominic's father had continued using the network for years.
Dominic stared at the screen.
“My father lied.”
Rebecca continued.
“Samuel will eventually come back for Claire because her identity is the final encryption key.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“How can a person be an encryption key?”
Biometrics.
Samuel had embedded part of JANUS's authentication system around genetic markers from his own family.
My DNA.
Dominic immediately destroyed the terminal.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure nobody uses you.”
“We need evidence.”
“We have copies.”
Then applause echoed through the laboratory.
Samuel Bennett stepped from the shadows.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
My father.
“Hello, Claire.”
I couldn't breathe.
He smiled like a father meeting his daughter at an airport.
“You look like Rebecca.”
“You killed her.”
His expression softened.
“Your mother made unfortunate choices.”
Dominic stepped in front of me.
Samuel smiled.
“Dominic Vale.”
“You killed Gabriel.”
“I gave the order.”
Dominic's gun rose.
Samuel didn't flinch.
“Shoot me and you never learn why your brother was at Pier Nine.”
Dominic froze.
Samuel looked at me.
“Gabriel was working for me.”
“No,” Dominic said.
“He discovered what your father built. He wanted to expose it.”
“You're lying.”
“Gabriel contacted Claire six months ago.”
I stared.
“I never met him.”
“No.”
Samuel smiled.
“But you applied to Mercy West because someone anonymously recommended the position.”
My stomach dropped.
Gabriel.
“He was trying to put you near Dominic.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel knew someone planned to kill his brother.”
Dominic went still.
Samuel continued.
“He couldn't identify the traitor. So he placed the one person JANUS couldn't easily manipulate beside Dominic.”
“Me?”
“You.”
Gunfire erupted.
Samuel's men attacked.
The laboratory became chaos.
Marcus returned fire.
Dominic pulled me behind concrete.
Smoke filled the room.
Samuel escaped through a tunnel.
We barely made it out.
Outside, under freezing rain, Dominic leaned against the seawall.
Blood soaked his shirt.
“Dominic!”
“Not mine.”
Then he collapsed.
I caught him.
His pulse was weak.
For the second time in my life, Dominic Vale lay unconscious in my arms.
But this time, before his eyes closed, he whispered one word.
“Stay.”
May you like
So I did.
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