Chapter 14 - THE DNA REPORT
I did not believe Tyler.
That was my first reaction.
My second was worse.
I believed that he believed it.
Daniel stood ten feet away.
His face had gone completely still.
I turned toward him.
"Tell me he's lying."
Daniel did not answer.
The chapel became so quiet I could hear rain beginning against the boarded windows.
"Daniel."
His eyes closed.
That was enough.
I felt something detach inside me.
Not grief.
Grief required certainty.
This was the collapse of identity.
"Who is my father?"
Daniel looked at me.
"I am."
"Biologically?"
He hesitated.
"I don't know."
I laughed once.
Then again.
I could not stop it.
Vance moved closer.
"Claire."
I raised a hand.
"No."
I looked at Daniel.
"You used me as a memory vault."
"Yes."
"You built classified plans around me."
"Yes."
"You let me believe you were dead."
"I had no choice."
"And you don't even know if you're my father?"
Daniel's voice broke for the first time.
"I raised you."
"Until I was eight."
"I loved you."
"That is not the question."
I stepped closer.
"Who could be my biological father?"
Daniel looked toward Tyler.
Tyler looked away.
My stomach turned cold.
"Richard?"
No one answered.
I felt sick.
"Richard Bradley?"
Daniel finally spoke.
"Your mother and Richard knew each other before she met me."
Every part of me went rigid.
"How well?"
"I never knew for certain."
"You married her anyway."
"Because she said it was over."
"And when I was born?"
"I chose not to test."
"Why?"
His eyes filled with pain.
"Because you were mine."
I wanted that sentence to comfort me.
Instead, it made me furious.
Another man had made a decision about my identity because he believed his feelings were more important than my right to know.
"Where is the report?" I asked Tyler.
"Richard has the original."
"You saw it?"
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
"Ninety-nine point eight percent paternal probability."
"For Richard?"
Tyler nodded.
The world went silent again.
Richard Bradley.
The man who had spent thirty-three years calling me an outsider.
The man who said I carried his name only because he allowed it.
The man who worshiped his biological son.
According to the report, I was his biological daughter too.
The cruelty became almost impossible to understand.
Then I understood it perfectly.
If Richard knew, I was evidence.
Evidence of betrayal.
Evidence of a past relationship with my mother.
Evidence that Daniel had raised his child.
Maybe that was why he hated me.
I was the one secret he could never control simply by burying paperwork.
"How long has Richard known?"
Tyler shook his head.
"The test was new."
"Why did Cole order it?"
"Because he found an old letter from Mom to Richard."
"What letter?"
"Before you were born."
I looked toward my mother in my memory.
She had lied again.
Not a small lie.
The foundation of my life.
Vance's voice was careful.
"Claire, we need to verify before treating this as fact."
"I know."
My answer was sharper than necessary.
I took a breath.
"I know."
Then the speaker crackled back to life.
Richard had been listening.
Of course he had.
"Now you understand," he said.
I stared at the ceiling.
"Understand what?"
"Why Daniel never deserved you."
The rage came so cleanly that it steadied me.
"You don't get to say that."
"I'm your father."
"You called me a zero six hours ago."
Silence.
"You humiliated me in front of two hundred people."
"I was protecting you."
I actually laughed.
"There it is."
"You think this is funny?"
"No."
I looked around at everyone who had spent the day explaining how their abuse, lies, and manipulation were forms of protection.
"I think every coward in my life has used the same word."
Richard's voice hardened.
"Enter the seed sequence."
"No."
"You have my blood."
"That isn't authority."
"It is legacy."
"Then keep it."
I turned toward the chair.
The four illuminated symbols waited.
Blue.
Seven.
Silver.
Dawn.
I remembered my father's story.
The blue bird crossed seven bridges.
The silver fox waited beneath the fourth star.
At dawn, the bird returned home.
Four elements.
But perhaps the order mattered differently.
Richard wanted me to enter the sequence because the archive capsule he took was encrypted.
That meant the chair itself was only a verifier.
If I entered the sequence here, he could capture it remotely.
I stepped away.
"Not today."
The lights on the keypad went dark.
Richard cursed through the speaker.
That sound was more satisfying than it should have been.
Then a new voice cut into the system.
Martin Cole.
"Richard, stop."
Everyone looked up.
Cole continued.
"You said she would cooperate."
Richard answered, "She will."
"We are out of time."
"Then give me more."
"The President's staff has requested the Black Lantern suspension file."
Vance looked at me.
Our offline continuity route had not even been used.
Someone above Cole was already asking questions.
Good.
Cole continued.
"If they review the source authority, Rourke's involvement becomes visible."
Richard said, "Then remove Rourke."
Somewhere outside, a gunshot cracked.
Vance turned toward the door.
Another shot.
Then Keene's radio sounded.
"Man down near tree line."
We ran outside.
Major General Stephen Rourke lay beside the gravel road.
Blood spread beneath his jacket.
He was alive.
Barely.
Vance knelt beside him.
"Who shot you?"
Rourke's eyes found me.
He tried to speak.
I crouched close.
"Who?"
His lips moved.
"Bradley."
"Richard?"
Rourke shook his head weakly.
Then he whispered one word.
"Tyler."
I turned.
May you like
Tyler was gone.
