Chapter 11 - The Doctor's Other Name
Dr. Bell did not reach for a weapon.
He did not need to.
Adrien and Marco already had guns trained on him.
The hospital garage became so quiet I could hear the fluorescent lights buzzing above us.
The name David Mercer unlocked another set of memories in my mother.
I could see them moving across her face before she spoke.
"You used to bring me oranges," she said.
Bell looked almost confused.
"What?"
"When I was eight and had pneumonia. You stole oranges from the neighbor's tree and told me vitamin C made theft legal."
Bell's mouth moved despite the guns pointed at him.
"You believed me."
"I was eight."
For a moment, brother and sister stood in front of us instead of suspects in a conspiracy.
Then Evelyn's face hardened again.
"You also taught me never to trust a locked drawer."
Bell's expression changed.
"Our father taught us that."
"No. Our father taught us to knock. You taught me how to open it."
I watched Bell carefully.
"What was your father like?"
Neither answered at first.
Evelyn finally spoke.
"A school principal. Honest to the point of making everyone uncomfortable."
Bell laughed softly.
"He returned a Christmas ham because a parent gave it to him after grades were posted."
"He thought it looked like a bribe."
"It was a ham."
Their shared irritation sounded so normal that I wanted to hold onto it.
But then I noticed something.
Bell remembered details with warmth.
He was capable of tenderness.
That made the possibility of betrayal worse, not better.
People liked to imagine monsters were missing the parts that made everyone else human.
It was easier that way.
But a person could remember stolen oranges and still make choices that destroyed lives.
Love was not always evidence of goodness.
Sometimes it only proved a person had once been given something worth losing.
Evelyn seemed to understand the same thing.
Her gun never lowered.
Bell slowly raised both hands.
"Evelyn."
My mother's gun remained pointed at his chest.
"David."
I looked between them.
"You know each other."
Neither answered.
Adrien's voice sharpened.
"Start talking."
Bell looked at Evelyn.
"You first."
She laughed once.
"Still arrogant."
"Still alive."
"Unfortunately."
I stepped between their lines of sight before anyone could stop me.
"Enough."
Adrien grabbed my arm and pulled me slightly aside.
"Do not stand between loaded guns."
"Then perhaps everyone could stop pointing them for thirty seconds."
No one moved.
I looked at Bell.
"Who are you?"
He exhaled.
"My name is David Bell."
Evelyn's mouth twisted.
"Now."
Bell closed his eyes briefly.
"My name was David Mercer."
The surname hit like a blow.
I stared at him.
"Mercer."
He nodded.
"Evelyn's brother."
I looked at my mother.
She said nothing.
I looked back at the man who had stitched my shoulder hours earlier.
"You're my uncle."
"By blood, yes."
I laughed because nothing else fit inside me anymore.
"Of course you are."
I pressed both hands against my face.
"Why would anyone in this family use one name when six will do?"
Bell almost smiled.
Evelyn did not.
"He betrayed us," she said.
The small moment of absurdity vanished.
Adrien's gun rose a fraction.
Bell looked tired.
"I made a choice."
"Samuel died because of your choice."
My blood chilled.
"What did he do?"
Evelyn's eyes never left her brother.
"David told Carlo that Samuel had copied the Orpheus archive."
"Why?"
Bell finally lowered his hands slightly.
"Because I thought Carlo would protect him."
"You thought a crime boss would protect a federal prosecutor who had evidence against his entire network?"
"Samuel and Carlo were already working together."
Adrien stared at him.
"What?"
Bell looked at Adrien.
"Your father was trying to leave Orpheus."
That changed the room.
"Carlo had spent decades believing he was buying influence."
Bell continued.
"Then Samuel showed him that many of those payments were not buying anyone."
"They were tribute."
Evelyn's voice was bitter.
Bell nodded.
"Exactly."
"To who?" I asked.
"We never knew the full structure."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
Bell looked at me.
"But believe this. Your father and Carlo planned to expose the network together."
Adrien lowered his gun slightly.
"My father never told me."
"Because you were twenty-one."
Bell's voice softened.
"And because Luca had spent years shaping you to distrust Carlo."
Adrien's face became stone.
I looked at Evelyn.
"Why do you hate him?"
"Because he told Carlo about Samuel's copy."
"And Luca intercepted the message," Bell said.
"You don't know that."
"We know it now."
He looked at me.
"The authorization ordering Samuel's death used Carlo's code, but Carlo was in Montreal that night."
Marco frowned.
"Codes can travel."
"Not that one."
Bell reached slowly into his coat.
Three guns shifted toward him.
"Easy."
He removed a small card and placed it on the hood of a parked car.
It contained a faded security diagram.
"Carlo's execution authorization required a physical token."
Adrien studied it.
"The black seal."
"Yes."
Adrien's face tightened.
"It disappeared the year after Pier Nineteen."
Bell looked at Evelyn.
"It disappeared the night Samuel died."
"Who had access?" I asked.
Bell answered.
"Carlo. Adrien. Luca."
My eyes moved to Adrien.
He did not flinch.
"I was at the warehouse."
"You were," Bell said.
"Without the seal."
Adrien stared at him.
"How do you know?"
"Because I had it."
No one spoke.
Bell reached into his shirt and pulled out a chain.
A small black disk hung from it.
Adrien crossed the distance in two steps and grabbed him by the collar.
"You had this for fifteen years?"
"Yes."
"You let me believe my father ordered that execution."
"I needed everyone to believe the seal was missing."
"Why?"
"Because the real seal had already been copied."
Adrien released him slowly.
Bell turned the disk over.
A hairline crack ran through the edge.
"This was the original."
"Luca made a duplicate?" Marco asked.
"We thought so."
Bell looked toward Evelyn.
"Until three years ago."
My mother lowered her gun for the first time.
"Tell him."
Bell's eyes moved to me.
"The duplicate appeared in a federal corruption case in Chicago."
"What does that mean?"
"It means someone outside the Viscari family had Carlo's highest authorization credential."
The network expanded again in my mind.
Every time we found the edge, another room appeared behind it.
"Judge Halden?"
Bell's expression changed.
"Why did you say that name?"
Adrien took out the ledger page.
"HLD-7."
Bell read it.
His face drained of color.
"Where did you get this?"
"Box 417."
He looked at Evelyn.
She looked equally disturbed.
"That page was supposed to be destroyed."
"Apparently no one in this family is particularly good at destroying things," I said.
Bell pointed at the HLD code.
"Halden was Samuel's contact inside the court system."
I stared at him.
"He helped my father?"
"At first."
There it was again.
At first.
The most dangerous phrase in my life.
"What happened?"
"Samuel discovered Halden was feeding selected information back to Orpheus."
"So he was a double agent."
"More than that."
Bell looked toward Adrien.
"Halden knew which witnesses Samuel planned to move before anyone else did."
Evelyn leaned against the car.
Her face had gone gray from blood loss.
"We lost three people in six weeks."
"Killed?"
"Two."
"And the third?"
My mother looked at me.
"Disappeared."
"Who?"
Before she could answer, my phone rang.
Marcus.
I stared at the screen.
Adrien nodded once.
I answered on speaker.
Marcus was whispering.
"Lena, don't hang up."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know."
Metal scraped somewhere behind him.
His breathing sounded ragged.
"They took me."
My anger toward him collided with something older and more instinctive.
Fear.
"Who?"
"I never saw faces."
"Marcus, listen to me. Can you see anything?"
"Concrete. Pipes."
He coughed.
"Water. I can hear trains."
Marco was already typing into his phone.
"What do they want?"
Marcus laughed weakly.
"You."
Adrien's face hardened.
"Not happening."
Marcus heard him.
"Viscari, they don't need her body."
"What does that mean?"
"They need her to say the sequence."
I felt Evelyn go still beside me.
Marcus continued.
"They know about the song."
My mother's face changed from pain to terror.
"How?"
Marcus's next words came through a burst of static.
"Because someone in that garage told them."
The call died.
Nobody moved.
I looked at Adrien.
Then Marco.
Then Bell.
Then my mother.
Four people stood around me.
Every one of them knew about the sequence.
May you like
And according to Marcus, one of them had already betrayed me.
