Because in that room, I did.
Noah looked between us. For once, he chose for himself.
“No,” he said. “I’m done obeying people just because they sound certain.”
Calder sighed.
His two officers moved.
Price moved faster.
Chaos erupted. Sloane drew her weapon. I knocked one man down with a chair. But in the confusion, my father grabbed the field unit.
The device scanned his thumb.
Witness accepted.
Alarms screamed through the base.
Calder smiled.
He had used my father’s panic as a key.
Not to release the truth.
To steal it.
I grabbed the device and led everyone through the emergency dark into the laundry level, where old systems still had access points no modern officer cared about. I connected the unit to a hidden terminal and began stopping Calder’s reroute.
Noah watched me work.
“You really built an exit?”
“I built several.”
“Why?”
“Because men like Calder think they are the only ones allowed to betray people.”
The terminal flashed.
Manual key required: N. Ellison.
This time, the choice was truly Noah’s.
Before he touched it, Calder’s voice came through the laundry door.
“Noah, ask your sister what happened to Nadia.”
