Chapter 6 - The Second Authentication
For the first time that night, everyone was looking at me as though I were the secret.
Daniel Mercer lay on the floor beneath the staircase, blood darkening one sleeve. Detective Renner stood several feet away with his gun lowered but ready. My mother had one arm around Sienna. My father was staring at the tiny black capsule in my palm.
And Mercer had just told me that the second authentication for Harbor Glass was me.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Mercer swallowed.
“I don't know everything.”
“That answer is becoming very unpopular.”
“I was compartmentalized.”
“You broke into my grandmother's house with a weapon.”
“I was following orders.”
“Cross's?”
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
My father laughed bitterly.
“Your precious task force.”
I looked at him.
“Not now.”
“No, Clara. Now is exactly the time.”
He pointed at Mercer.
“You spent months treating me like a criminal while working for one.”
“You paid Detective Renner eighty-five thousand dollars.”
Renner glanced at Richard.
My father didn't deny it.
“That wasn't a bribe.”
“Then what was it?”
Richard looked toward Renner.
“Tell her.”
Renner's jaw tightened.
“Richard.”
“Tell her what the money was for.”
I raised the gun slightly.
“I'm listening.”
Renner finally said, “Protection.”
“For whom?”
“Eleanor.”
Silence.
Sienna stared at him.
“You took Dad's money to protect Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“From who?”
“Cross.”
My father wiped blood from his mouth.
“I knew someone inside the government was searching for my father's records. I didn't know who.”
“So you hired Renner?”
“I paid him to find out.”
“And he framed me?”
Richard looked at Renner.
“That was never part of the arrangement.”
Interesting.
I turned to Renner.
“Was the warrant Cross's idea?”
“No.”
“Yours?”
“Yes.”
Sienna looked horrified.
“You told me Clara stole from Grandma.”
“I needed the accusation to look real.”
“You destroyed her reputation.”
“I needed Cross to believe Clara was isolated.”
I stared at him.
“You tried to arrest me to protect me?”
“To move you.”
“To where?”
“Somewhere Cross couldn't reach you.”
“You ordered officers to deliver me directly to Central.”
“Because I had a secure team waiting.”
“Convenient.”
“Believe whatever you want.”
I almost shot back an answer.
Then Mercer laughed.
Weakly.
All of us turned.
“Renner doesn't have a secure team.”
Renner raised his weapon.
Mercer smiled despite the pain.
“He hasn't had one for three months.”
“Shut up.”
“Cross owns Central.”
Renner stepped toward him.
“Paul,” I warned.
He stopped.
Mercer looked at me.
“If those officers had delivered you there tonight, you wouldn't have left.”
I felt the truth of that immediately.
Renner's face told me the rest.
“You knew,” I said.
“No.”
“You knew Central was compromised.”
“I suspected.”
“And you still ordered them there?”
“I had people—”
“Who?”
He didn't answer.
“Names.”
“I can't give them to you.”
“Then you're finished.”
I turned back to Mercer.
“What makes me the second authentication?”
He looked at the capsule.
“Your grandfather designed the archive to require two factors.”
“Something you have and something you know?”
“No.”
“Something you have and something you are?”
His silence answered me.
Biometric.
I felt a chill.
“Fingerprint?”
“No.”
“Retina?”
“No.”
“DNA?”
Mercer looked away.
My stomach tightened.
“DNA.”
“Yes.”
Sienna stared at me.
“Why Clara?”
“I don't know.”
“Why not Dad?” she demanded. “He's Grandpa's son.”
Mercer didn't answer.
Richard went completely still.
I noticed.
So did my mother.
“Dad?”
“Don't.”
One word.
Quiet.
Terrified.
I looked at Evelyn.
She was crying again.
Not because of Mercer.
Because of me.
A possibility entered my mind.
I rejected it immediately.
Then it returned.
“Why wouldn't Dad's DNA work?”
Mercer closed his eyes.
“I don't know.”
“Mom?”
Evelyn stepped backward.
“Clara.”
My voice became quieter.
“Why wouldn't Richard Sterling's DNA authenticate Charles Sterling's archive?”
My father said, “Enough.”
I looked at him.
“Are you Charles Sterling's son?”
Sienna gasped.
Richard's face became hard.
“Yes.”
Too fast.
My mother covered her mouth.
There.
Another answer.
I looked at her.
“Mom.”
She shook her head.
“Please.”
“Tell me.”
“This isn't the time.”
“Apparently someone is shooting people because my DNA opens six hundred million dollars' worth of secrets. I think we've reached the time.”
Richard stepped between us.
“She doesn't know what she's talking about.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Move.”
Something in my voice convinced him.
He stepped aside.
My mother looked twenty years older.
“Your father is Charles's son.”
I waited.
“But?”
She looked at Richard.
“But Charles wasn't your biological grandfather.”
Silence.
Sienna sat down slowly.
“What?”
My mother continued.
“Richard was adopted.”
My father closed his eyes.
There it was.
A family secret that suddenly explained why he had reacted to the question.
“Did Grandma know?”
“Yes.”
“Did Grandpa?”
“Of course.”
“Then why did he choose my DNA?”
“I don't know.”
Mercer whispered, “Because it isn't Sterling DNA.”
I turned.
“What?”
“The archive doesn't authenticate family lineage.”
“Then what does it authenticate?”
“Someone Charles designated.”
“That could still be me.”
“No.”
Mercer shook his head.
“The biometric protocol was created before you were born.”
I stared at him.
“That is impossible.”
“Not if Charles didn't designate you.”
Sienna whispered, “Then whose DNA does Clara have?”
No one answered.
My mother began to cry harder.
I knew before she spoke.
Some truths arrive as information.
Others arrive as recognition.
“Mom.”
She looked at me.
“Richard isn't your biological father.”
My father flinched as though she had struck him.
Sienna whispered, “What?”
I felt strangely calm.
Perhaps there was a limit to shock.
Once crossed, the mind simply stopped reacting.
“Who is?”
My mother couldn't answer.
Richard could.
“Julian Vale.”
Marcus's surname.
My eyes went to Mercer.
He looked surprised.
At least someone in the room hadn't known.
“Who was Julian Vale?”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“Ask your deputy commander.”
I remembered Marcus's father.
The state prosecutor.
The man who recruited Charles Sterling into Harbor Glass.
“No.”
My mother stepped toward me.
“Clara—”
“Marcus's father?”
She nodded.
The room tilted.
I wasn't Richard Sterling's biological daughter.
My biological father was the man who had recruited my grandfather into Harbor Glass.
And Marcus—
“Is my brother?”
“No,” my mother said quickly.
“Half brother?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
“Julian wasn't Marcus's biological father either.”
Sienna laughed hysterically.
“Does anyone in this family have the parents they think they have?”
Nobody answered.
A sound came from outside.
Three engines.
Renner went to the window.
“Vehicles.”
“Cross?” I asked.
“Probably.”
Mercer tried to sit up.
“If Cross gets the capsule, this is over.”
“What happens?”
“He finds the archive.”
“And?”
“He doesn't expose it.”
Mercer's face became serious.
“He erases it.”
Headlights swept across the front windows.
Renner checked his ammunition.
“We have maybe ninety seconds.”
Richard looked toward the rear hallway.
“There's another exit.”
“The cellar passage,” I said.
He stared at me.
“You know?”
“Apparently Grandpa trusted children more than adults.”
We moved.
I helped Mercer stand.
Renner objected.
“He came here to kill us.”
“He came here for the capsule.”
“Difference?”
“He can still answer questions.”
We reached the cellar.
Above us, someone struck the front door.
Once.
Twice.
Then wood shattered.
Sienna opened the hidden wine rack.
We entered the passage.
Gunfire erupted upstairs.
Not random.
Controlled bursts.
Someone else was still inside the house.
Renner looked back.
“Who is shooting?”
Richard's expression changed.
“Evelyn?”
I turned.
Mom wasn't with us.
“Mom!”
I ran back.
Richard caught me.
“No.”
“She stayed upstairs!”
“She knows what she's doing.”
“What does that mean?”
He wouldn't answer.
Then my mother's voice came through the house intercom.
“Clara, keep moving.”
I froze.
The intercom hadn't worked in years.
Or I thought it hadn't.
“Mom?”
No response.
Then:
“Richard, get our daughters out.”
My father looked shattered.
“Evelyn.”
A massive explosion shook the house.
Dust fell from the tunnel ceiling.
Sienna screamed.
“Mom!”
Richard dragged her forward.
“Move!”
We ran.
Behind us, the mansion alarms began screaming.
Smoke entered the passage.
We reached the cellar entrance and emerged into the rain.
Flames were visible through the western windows.
My mother was still inside.
I started back.
Richard grabbed me.
I punched him.
He didn't let go.
“She made her choice!”
“Let me go!”
“Clara!”
“She is my mother!”
“And she knew this day might come!”
That stopped me.
“What?”
He was crying.
I had never seen my father cry.
Not at Grandpa's funeral.
Not at Grandma's.
Never.
“What did Mom know?”
Before he could answer, someone stepped from behind the trees.
Marcus.
Gun raised.
“Everyone down.”
Renner aimed at him.
Marcus aimed back.
For one terrible second, neither moved.
“Where is Margaret?” I demanded.
Marcus looked at me.
“Gone.”
“Where is Eleanor?”
“I don't know.”
“Lower the gun.”
“Not while he's holding one.”
“Both of you.”
Neither obeyed.
I took out the capsule.
“Then maybe I'll destroy this.”
That worked.
“Clara, don't,” Mercer said.
“Guns down.”
Marcus lowered his first.
Renner followed.
I looked at Marcus.
“Did you know Julian Vale was my biological father?”
His expression changed.
So he did.
“How long?”
“Clara—”
“How long?”
“Eleven years.”
I laughed.
Of course.
Another person I trusted.
Another decade-long secret.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Julian made me promise.”
“Before he died?”
Marcus stared at me.
Then he said:
“Julian isn't dead.”
I closed my eyes.
“Of course he isn't.”
Sienna almost laughed.
Nobody in Harbor Glass stayed dead.
“Where is he?”
Marcus looked at the capsule.
“He's the reason Cross wants that.”
“No. Cross wants the archive.”
“They're the same thing.”
“What does that mean?”
“Julian built the biometric system.”
“And?”
“He didn't use your DNA because you're his daughter.”
I felt my pulse accelerate.
“He used your DNA because of what was done to you when you were born.”
My mother had said nothing about that.
“What was done to me?”
Marcus looked toward the burning mansion.
Then back at me.
“You weren't born Clara Elise Sterling.”
A coldness spread through my body.
“What?”
“Your birth certificate was created six days after your actual birth.”
“Why?”
“To give you a new identity.”
“Who was I?”
“I don't know your original name.”
“Who does?”
“Julian.”
“Where is he?”
“That's the problem.”
Marcus took out his phone.
He showed me a photograph received eleven minutes earlier.
A man sat tied to a chair.
Gray hair.
Blood on his face.
Alive.
Behind him was a digital display.
02:00:00.
A countdown.
It was already at 01:41:26.
Below the photograph was a message.
BRING CLARA AND THE AUTHENTICATION CAPSULE.
OR JULIAN VALE DIES FOR REAL THIS TIME.
I stared at the man who was apparently my biological father.
Then something else in the photograph caught my attention.
On the wall behind Julian was a framed emblem.
I knew it.
I had walked past it hundreds of times.
“That's task-force headquarters.”
Marcus nodded.
Cross wasn't hiding Julian somewhere outside the investigation.
He had imprisoned him inside the building where I had spent six months hunting Harbor Glass.
My phone vibrated.
Nathaniel Cross.
This time, he sent a video.
Julian lifted his battered face toward the camera.
For several seconds, he simply stared.
Then he spoke.
“Clara, if you're seeing this, Cross has found you.”
His voice trembled.
“Do not bring him the capsule.”
Someone behind the camera struck him.
Julian coughed blood.
Then he looked up again.
“Listen carefully. Harbor Glass isn't money. It isn't evidence.”
A hand grabbed his hair.
He forced out the next words.
“It's a list of people.”
I already knew that.
Then he added:
“Not corrupt people.”
The countdown continued behind him.
01:40:03.
01:40:02.
01:40:01.
Julian stared directly into the camera.
“People who were secretly replaced.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Mercer whispered something I almost didn't hear.
“Cross was right.”
I turned.
“About what?”
Mercer looked toward my father.
Then my sister.
Then me.
“Harbor Glass was never a corruption investigation.”
His face had gone pale.
“It was an identity program.”