Chapter 18 - THE LAST BETRAYAL
Frank's pistol did not waver.
The barrel pointed at the center of my chest.
Rachel stared at him in horror.
"Dad."
Harrow smiled beside her.
"Do it."
I looked at Frank.
Twenty years stood between us.
He had taught me how to drive when my father was too busy.
He had dragged me from a burning car.
He had held Ava's hand at the hospital after Noah was born premature.
He had also buried Lucas Miller's death.
He had hidden Ava's investigation.
He had handed Harrow half a key.
He had stolen the other half.
Now he was pointing a gun at me because the man he hated held his daughter.
For the first time, I understood exactly what Frank meant when he said he had been trying to save Rachel all these years.
Understanding did not make it forgiveness.
"Do not," Rachel whispered.
Frank's eyes remained on mine.
"I am sorry, Michael."
I believed him.
That was the worst part.
He fired.
The impact spun me sideways.
Pain exploded across my upper chest and shoulder.
I hit the concrete floor hard enough to lose my breath.
Emily shouted my name.
Federal agents raised their weapons.
Harrow dragged Rachel backward and pressed his gun against her neck.
"Nobody moves."
I tried to push myself up.
My left arm barely responded.
Blood spread beneath the edge of my jacket.
Frank stood frozen with the pistol still raised.
His face looked dead.
Rachel stared at him.
Not angry.
Not anymore.
Destroyed.
"You shot him."
Frank lowered the gun.
"I had to."
"No."
Her voice cracked.
"You chose again."
Harrow laughed softly.
"And at last he chose you."
Rachel turned her head toward him.
"You think that makes me grateful?"
Harrow's smile faded.
Frank took one step forward.
"Let her go."
"You completed your part."
"Now complete yours."
Harrow looked at the gun in Frank's hand.
"Put it down."
Frank did.
The pistol clattered onto the floor.
"Release her."
Harrow moved Rachel one step toward him.
Then he shot Frank.
The sound filled the archive room.
Frank stumbled backward.
Rachel screamed.
He collapsed beside the desk, one hand pressed against his abdomen.
Harrow pulled Rachel toward the rear passage.
"You never learn, Frank."
"That is why our deals are so easy."
Rachel fought him.
Krell appeared behind her and grabbed both arms.
Federal agents fired toward the doorway.
Harrow and Krell disappeared behind a steel partition.
The door slammed shut.
Emily reached me first.
"Michael."
"Frank."
"You are bleeding."
"Frank."
She pressed a folded cloth against my shoulder.
"Your wound looks through-and-through."
"I am not dying."
"You do not know that."
"Neither do you."
"I know you are being an idiot."
I almost laughed, but it hurt too much.
Frank groaned near the desk.
A federal medic dropped beside him.
"Gunshot abdomen."
Rachel's scream echoed faintly from the passage beyond the partition.
Frank tried to sit up.
"Go."
The medic pushed him down.
"Do not move."
Frank grabbed my sleeve when I crawled closer.
His hand was wet with blood.
"Go after her."
I stared at him.
"You shot me."
His face twisted.
"I aimed high."
"That is your defense?"
"No."
He coughed.
"There is no defense."
Emily knelt beside us.
"Frank, stay still."
He ignored her.
His eyes stayed on mine.
"I knew Harrow might kill me after."
"I thought if I hit you where you could survive, he would release Rachel."
"You trusted another deal."
"Yes."
"After everything."
"Yes."
His voice cracked.
"Because I could not watch my daughter die."
I looked toward the steel door.
I thought of Noah blue in the nursery.
I could not tell Frank I would have chosen differently.
That did not make what he did right.
It only made it human.
"You are an unbelievable bastard," I said.
A weak laugh escaped him.
"Thomas used to say that."
"Do not compare me to him right now."
"Fair."
The medic cut open Frank's shirt.
"We need evacuation."
Frank caught my wrist again.
"Sea tunnel."
"What?"
"Rear passage leads to sea tunnel."
"Harrow will have a vehicle at the cave mouth."
"How do you know?"
"Because I arranged the route twenty years ago."
Of course he had.
Emily stood.
"Federal team can take the wooded road to the south cave."
The tactical commander nodded and started issuing orders.
I pushed myself to my feet.
The medic tried to stop me.
"Sir, you need a hospital."
"I have one waiting."
"You have a bullet wound."
"Then tape it better."
Emily glared at me.
"Do not encourage him," I told the medic.
"I am not the problem here."
She wrapped my shoulder tightly enough to make me curse.
"That was deliberate."
"Yes."
The steel partition had an emergency release beneath the terminal.
Federal agents forced it open.
The rear corridor descended steeply toward the sea.
Blood drops marked the floor.
Not Frank's.
Rachel's wrist had been cut by the restraint.
We followed.
The corridor passed beneath the oldest wing of St. Augustine.
Small patient rooms opened on either side.
Some still contained rusted cribs.
Emily slowed beside one doorway.
A name had been scratched into the paint.
LUCAS.
Rachel had probably done it years earlier while waiting beside her son.
Emily touched the letters once.
Then she kept moving.
The tunnel widened near the original records room.
The door stood open.
Inside, shelves held boxes labeled with trial numbers.
The physical mirror of the Crown Ledger sat in fireproof cabinets.
Harrow had not had time to destroy it.
Emily stopped.
"This is what Claire wanted us to find."
I looked at the corridor where Rachel had disappeared.
"Then Claire can wait another five minutes."
We continued.
A gunshot sounded ahead.
Then another.
We reached a stairwell descending into the sea cave.
Krell stood halfway down firing toward federal agents entering from the opposite side.
He saw us and turned.
Emily pulled me behind the wall as a shot struck the railing.
"You are not bulletproof today," she snapped.
"I noticed."
The tactical team returned fire.
Krell retreated toward the cave.
We followed when the commander gave the signal.
Cold salt air poured upward.
At the bottom, waves echoed against rock.
A motorboat idled beside a hidden dock.
Harrow stood on it holding Rachel by the arm.
Krell jumped aboard.
The pilot pushed away from the dock.
"Rachel!"
I shouted.
She turned.
Harrow dragged her down behind the windshield.
Federal agents fired at the engine but the angle was poor.
The boat accelerated through the cave mouth into black water.
Emily ran to the edge of the dock.
"There is another launch."
An old clinic boat was tied beneath a tarp.
The engine started on the second try.
The tactical commander ordered us to wait for Coast Guard support.
I ignored him.
Emily jumped aboard beside me.
"You are coming?"
"Someone has to stop you from bleeding into the ocean."
Two federal agents climbed in behind us.
We shot out of the cave.
Harrow's boat was already a dark shape moving north along the cliffs.
The sea was rougher than before.
Fog hid the shoreline in pieces.
Our driver pushed the old engine hard.
We gained slowly.
Rachel appeared at the stern of Harrow's boat.
Her hands were bound again.
Krell forced her down.
Then Harrow lifted something for us to see.
A black portable drive.
The clean Crown Ledger copy.
Emily swore.
"He took a server drive from the archive room."
Harrow held it over the water.
Even at that distance, I understood the threat.
He would destroy the evidence before he let us take him.
Our boat drew closer.
Krell fired.
A bullet struck the bow.
The federal agent beside me returned fire.
Harrow's pilot swerved.
Rachel was thrown against the side rail.
She kicked backward at Krell.
He lost his balance.
For one second, she was free.
She looked at us.
Then she did something none of us expected.
She jumped overboard.
"Rachel!"
Harrow's boat kept moving.
Our driver cut the engine hard and turned.
A dark head appeared between waves.
Emily threw a flotation ring.
Rachel grabbed it.
One federal agent pulled her aboard.
She was coughing, shaking, and alive.
I looked toward Harrow's disappearing boat.
Rachel grabbed my coat.
"Do not let him get away."
"You are bleeding."
"I am fine."
"Where is he going?"
She coughed seawater.
"The old lighthouse pier."
"There is a road on the other side."
Emily looked at her.
"How do you know?"
Rachel's face hardened.
"Because he told Krell the plane leaves before dawn."
The federal agent radioed the Coast Guard.
No aircraft had yet been detected.
Harrow still had time.
Then Rachel looked at my shoulder.
"Did Dad shoot you?"
I met her eyes.
"Yes."
Her face crumpled.
"I told him not to."
"I know."
"He thought it would save me."
"I know that too."
She looked toward the dark coastline.
"Is he alive?"
"When we left."
She closed her eyes.
"He always thinks love gives him permission to decide who gets hurt."
I had no answer.
The lighthouse appeared through the fog ahead.
A small pier jutted beneath it.
Harrow's boat was already there.
Krell and Harrow were climbing toward a road where headlights waited.
I told the driver to go faster.
Rachel suddenly grabbed my arm.
"Michael."
"What?"
She pointed toward Harrow.
He was not carrying only the Crown Ledger drive.
A second object hung from his shoulder.
A small insulated medical case marked with the Vantage symbol.
Emily stared at it.
"NRX-17."
Rachel shook her head.
"No."
"That case is newer."
She had seen the labeling at Northreach.
Her face went pale.
"That is not NRX-17."
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"It is the next trial."
