Chapter 66 - The Dead Speak
Before Emma could process the revelation, a high-pitched digital chime rang through the cavernous chamber.
The central terminal, which had been dormant, suddenly flared with brilliant amber light. The servers behind them whined in harmony as power surged through the primary conduits. On the massive display overlooking the chamber, a biometric interface initialized.
*DNA VERIFICATION REQUIRED: BIOLOGICAL HEIR.*
"Bring her forward," Miller said quietly.
Emma stepped between Lily and the console, her pistol coming up instantly, pointed directly at Miller’s chest. "She doesn't touch anything until you tell me where my father is. That transmission wasn't just a recording. The signal latency on the capsule indicated a live feed within eighty nautical miles!"
Miller didn't flinch at the barrel pointed at his heart. He simply lifted his hand and pointed toward the rear blast wall of the control room.
Above the server racks, a thick, pressurized viewing window looked into a sterile, medical-grade observation chamber. Inside, surrounded by life-support machinery, heart monitors, and a cascade of intravenous drips, lay an elderly man. He was connected to a mechanical ventilator, his skin paper-thin, but his eyes were wide open, looking directly through the glass at Emma.
Francis Laurent was alive.
Emma’s hand shook violently. The weapon lowered an inch, then two. "Dad...?"
The intercom above them activated with a soft click. The voice that came through was no recording. It was weak, strained by the rasp of a ventilator, but unmistakably his.
"Emma..." Francis Laurent's voice came through the overhead speakers, brittle as dried leaves. "Forgive me... for the lie. For all the lies."
Tears blurred Emma's vision, but fury burned hotter beneath them. "You used me! You let me believe you were dead for seven years! You let Evelyn hunt us like animals! You put a target on my daughter’s back!"
"If you had known... you would have run earlier," the old man wheezed through the speaker, a faint, agonized twitch passing across his withered face. "And if you had run before her eighth birthday... the Council would have found you and extinguished the line without a trace. The eighth birthday was the legal threshold. By international maritime and trust law... until Lily reached eight, Evelyn retained power of attorney. Today, that power died."
He coughed, the monitors beside his bed flashing yellow warnings before stabilizing.
May you like
"Now, Emma... the Bastion is surrounded. Vance’s fleet was only the vanguard. The true Council... the men who own your mother... are already here."
***
