Chapter 15 - They Took Titan
Roman was moving before Mara finished the sentence.
"Lock the kitchen."
"I'm already in the pantry," Mara whispered.
"Do not come out until police reach you."
"Roman, the officers outside the door aren't answering."
Reeves turned toward his men.
"Call Brookline dispatch now."
Roman's voice stayed steady, but one hand had clenched so hard around his phone that his knuckles were white.
"Did you see who took him?"
"Two men."
"Police jackets."
Reeves's face changed.
"Uniforms?"
Mara heard him through the speaker.
"Not full uniforms."
"Dark jackets with police patches."
"I thought they were the officers from outside until one of them played that sound."
My stomach tightened.
"Three notes?"
"Yes."
"Titan fell back from the door."
"Then one man sprayed something into the hallway."
Roman closed his eyes.
"Cedar."
"I smelled wood."
Mara's voice shook.
"Titan started barking."
"The men had some kind of blanket."
"They covered his head."
"I tried to stop them."
Roman cut in immediately.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine."
"Mara."
"My wrist hurts."
"That's all."
Roman looked at Reeves.
Reeves was already issuing orders into another phone.
I stepped closer to Roman's speaker.
"Mara, did Titan bite either of them?"
A pause.
"I don't think so."
"Did he get loose at all?"
"For a second."
"He ran toward the breakfast room."
"Then the sound played again."
"He stopped."
I forced myself to breathe.
They had used the conditioning exactly as Harker described.
Not enough to make Titan attack.
Enough to control where fear pushed him.
"Did they take his collar?"
Mara answered.
"The soft one?"
"Yes."
"It came off near the garage."
Roman swore under his breath.
The collar had contained Titan's normal household locator.
Whoever took him knew that too.
Reeves ended his call.
"Brookline units are ninety seconds out."
"Your officers are alive."
"Someone hit them with a chemical irritant and stunned them."
"Ambulance is coming."
Roman's gaze turned toward Gabriel.
"Where would they take him?"
Gabriel looked at the steel case.
"Somewhere with a Red Harbor reader."
"They need the chip token."
Mason pulled out his phone.
"Can the legacy system show activations?"
Gabriel nodded.
"If the server is still online."
"I have a passive mirror on it."
Roman stared at him.
"You have what?"
"A copy of the access log."
"Every time an old credential authenticates, I see the device location."
"Why didn't you say that?"
Gabriel looked at his brother.
"Because until five minutes ago, nobody had stolen the dog."
Roman stepped toward him.
I put one hand against Roman's arm.
"Not now."
He looked down at my hand.
Then at me.
I could feel anger vibrating through him.
Underneath it was fear.
For Titan.
For Mara.
For the brother standing in front of him after six years.
For a family history collapsing faster than he could understand it.
"We need the log," I said.
Gabriel nodded.
He pulled a battered laptop from a bag hidden behind the locker row.
Mason stared at it.
"You've been living out of this building?"
"Not living."
"Working."
"There is a difference."
Gabriel connected through a cellular device and opened a plain text dashboard.
Most entries were old maintenance pings.
Then a new line appeared.
02:26:18.
AUTH A-41131984.
LOCATION 4113-NORTH READER.
Gabriel's face hardened.
"They scanned him."
Roman leaned over his shoulder.
"Where?"
"Warehouse 4113."
I looked down the dark corridor.
"The same number from the rescue records."
Gabriel nodded.
"The warehouse where Titan's litter was originally processed."
"I thought it was demolished."
"Half of it was."
"The lower loading level still exists beneath the north terminal redevelopment."
Roman was already walking toward the stairs.
Reeves caught up with him.
"You're not going in first."
"My dog is inside."
"And kidnappers want you angry enough to stop thinking."
Roman turned.
"You want me to wait?"
"I want you to let the people with badges do the part involving armed suspects."
Roman's jaw clenched.
I stepped between them.
"We need to think about Titan before anyone storms anything."
Reeves looked at me.
"Meaning?"
"If those men hear police coming, they may trigger him."
"If Titan panics in a confined space full of armed people, somebody will shoot him even if nobody planned to."
Roman went still.
That got through.
Gabriel closed the laptop.
"There is another entrance."
Reeves glared at him.
"Of course there is."
"Old inspection corridor."
"It connects to the south side without passing the loading bay."
Reeves pointed at Gabriel.
"You show my officers."
"You don't lead them into anything."
Gabriel nodded.
"Fine."
Roman looked at me.
"You stay here."
I laughed once.
It had no humor in it.
"No."
"Claire."
"They took Titan because of something inside his body that connects back to a rescue file with my name on it."
"They know who I am."
"They know where my store is."
"They have been watching me for seven years."
"There is no version of tonight where I'm suddenly uninvolved because you say so."
Roman's eyes hardened.
"You are not trained for this."
"Neither is Titan."
That stopped him.
I lowered my voice.
"If they have him restrained and terrified, a stranger rushing him could make everything worse."
"If I can get close enough for him to hear me, I may be able to bring him down."
Reeves thought about it.
"You stay behind my team until we know the scene is secure."
Roman looked at him.
"Absolutely not."
Reeves looked back.
"You don't get a vote on her."
I almost thanked him.
Roman looked at me instead.
"If anything changes, you leave."
"If anything changes, I'll use my judgment."
"That is not reassuring."
"Good."
Gabriel stared between us.
"You two have known each other how long?"
"Too long," Roman said.
"About five hours," I said.
Gabriel looked at his brother.
"That explains nothing."
For one second, tension cracked.
Then Gabriel's laptop chimed.
A second authentication appeared.
02:31:02.
AUTH A-41131984.
LOCATION 4113-VAULT.
Gabriel stopped smiling.
"They reached the vault reader."
Roman looked at the steel case.
"What does that open?"
Gabriel's face tightened.
"The original Red Harbor server room."
"If Matteo gets Titan's token into that system, he can revoke mine."
"Then he can wipe the only hardware key capable of decrypting Isabella's crash video."
Roman looked toward the stairs.
"Then we move."
The north terminal was less than a mile away by service road.
We reached it in minutes.
Police sealed the outer entrances while Reeves coordinated with harbor security.
No sirens.
No flashing lights near the building.
The old warehouse hid beneath a newer glass-and-steel complex like a buried skeleton.
Gabriel led Reeves to a concrete access tunnel behind a locked maintenance gate.
Roman, Mason, and I waited one level above with another officer.
Waiting was unbearable.
Roman paced once.
Then stopped.
Then paced again.
"He hates blankets over his head," I said.
Roman looked at me.
"Since the rescue?"
"Kennel fear."
"Probably from Harrow."
Roman's face tightened.
"Isabella never told me."
"Maybe she didn't know all of it."
"I should have."
"How?"
"He was my dog."
"He is your dog."
I looked at him.
"That doesn't make you a mind reader."
Roman's eyes dropped.
"I let Lucian handle him."
"You trusted someone who had earned your trust for nine years."
"Apparently badly."
"Maybe."
"But Lucian's choices belong to Lucian."
Roman looked at me.
"You defend people for a living too?"
"No."
"Mostly dogs."
"They're easier."
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Roman answered.
No one spoke.
Then a familiar voice came through.
Damian.
"Cousin."
Roman's entire body went still.
"Where is Titan?"
Damian laughed softly.
"Still skipping hello, I see."
"Where is my dog?"
"Close."
"Alive."
"For the moment."
I saw Roman's restraint strain.
Damian continued.
"You found Gabriel, didn't you?"
Roman's eyes snapped toward me.
Damian laughed again.
"That silence is adorable."
"He always did have a flair for dramatic entrances."
Roman's voice went cold.
"If you hurt Titan, there is nowhere you can go."
"Still threatening people as if you control the map."
"You don't anymore."
"What do you want?"
"The case from locker B-19."
"And Gabriel."
Roman's expression hardened.
"No."
"Then the dog becomes unnecessary."
My chest tightened.
I stepped closer to the phone.
"Damian."
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
"Claire Bennett."
Hearing my full name from him was worse than the unknown text.
"You remember me."
"I've known your name longer than Roman has."
"Why?"
"Because Isabella was sentimental."
"She trusted people for ridiculous reasons."
"A woman who sat with a frightened puppy for three weeks apparently qualified as incorruptible."
My anger rose.
"Where is Titan?"
"He'll come when he's called."
"You already proved he doesn't."
Damian went silent.
I had touched something.
"That's what bothers you, isn't it?"
I continued before Roman could stop me.
"You spent weeks teaching him fear, and the moment he got one real choice, he ran."
"Not to you."
"Not to Lucian."
"Not to Roman."
"To me."
Damian's voice became colder.
"You mistake accident for loyalty."
"No."
"You mistake control for loyalty."
Roman looked at me sharply.
I kept going.
"That's why you don't understand him."
A sound came through the phone.
A low canine whine.
Titan.
Every thought in my head vanished.
"Ash."
I said it before I could stop myself.
The whine stopped.
Damian went silent.
Then Titan barked once in the distance.
He had heard me.
My eyes burned.
"He's listening," I said.
Damian's voice returned.
"Good."
"Then he can listen to this too."
Three notes played through the call.
Titan screamed.
I lunged for Roman's phone as if I could reach through it.
"Stop!"
Damian ended the call.
Roman stared at the dark screen.
Something in him changed.
Not louder.
Not wilder.
Colder.
"Reeves goes now," he said.
The officer beside us touched his radio.
A reply came almost immediately.
Teams were moving.
Then my own phone vibrated.
A video message arrived from Damian.
Titan lay behind a steel gate in a concrete room.
He was alive.
His head was up.
Beside the gate, a digital clock counted down from twenty minutes.
A handwritten sign filled the final frame.
CLAIRE COMES ALONE.
May you like
OR THE SERVER ERASES EVERYTHING.
