Chapter Ten Archive in London #4
Something changed in his face.
Naomi saw recognition before understanding.
“Dad?”
The knocking repeated.
Lucas rushed toward the shelves.
Adrian helped him move the lower cabinet.
A narrow service door appeared.
Lucas opened it.
Hudson stumbled forward.
Blood ran down one side of his face.
His shirt was torn.
One eye had already begun swelling.
Lucas caught him before he hit the floor.
“Dad.”
For a second Hudson simply held onto him.
Not chairman and heir.
Not two generations of Taylor pride.
A father who had survived long enough to see his son.
“Kells.”
Lucas tightened his grip.
“We know.”
Hudson shook his head.
“No.”
He struggled for air.
“You don't.”
Naomi crouched beside them.
Hudson looked toward her.
Something almost apologetic entered his face.
“He's not running.”
Lucas stared.
Hudson swallowed.
“He took the archive to Taylor International.”
Anthony went pale.
“Why?”
Hudson looked at his son.
“Because he's going to release selected files.”
Naomi frowned.
“Selected?”
“Enough to bring down governments.”
Adrian understood first.
“But not enough to expose everyone.”
Hudson nodded.
“Exactly.”
Lucas helped him into Arthur’s chair.
Hudson winced.
“Dad, we need an ambulance.”
“You need to listen.”
“The ambulance can listen too.”
Despite everything, Hudson almost smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
The smile disappeared.
Hudson looked around Arthur’s study.
“Kells worked for your grandfather for decades.”
Lucas crouched before him.
“He told you?”
“I made him.”
Hudson touched the blood at his temple.
“He sold Covenant intelligence. Arthur discovered it.”
Naomi's eyes narrowed.
“The betrayal Joseph warned about.”
Hudson nodded.
“He was never sworn into the Covenant. Arthur wanted someone outside it who could do things members were forbidden to do.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“An off-book operative.”
“Yes.”
“And eventually the operative realized the secrets were worth more than loyalty.”
Hudson gave him a tired look.
“You really are Naomi's brother.”
Adrian glanced toward her.
“I'm choosing to consider that praise.”
“It was.”
Naomi’s chest tightened.
Hudson turned back to Lucas.
“Kells poisoned Arthur.”
Lucas went motionless.
“Say that again.”
“Digitalis. Small doses over four months.”
Lucas looked toward Arthur’s empty desk.
Naomi saw grief return to his face in a form she had never witnessed.
Arthur had hurt his family.
Hidden Gabriel.
Manipulated Hudson.
Helped build systems that should never have existed.
But he had also been Lucas’s grandfather.
Love did not disappear merely because truth became uglier.
Hudson reached for Lucas.
His hand landed against the side of his son's neck.
“I’m sorry.”
Lucas looked at him.
“For what?”
“For making you spend so much of your life believing that becoming a Taylor meant becoming us.”
Hudson glanced toward Arthur’s portrait.
“My father spent years telling me I wasn't ready. I spent years trying to prove I was.”
His gaze returned to Lucas.
“And then I did the same thing to you in a different language.”
Lucas's eyes filled.
Hudson continued.
“Kells told me Arthur would despise the man I've become.”
“What did you say?”
Hudson's bruised mouth curved.
“I told him that might be progress.”
Lucas laughed once.
It broke halfway through.
Naomi looked away to give them what little privacy the crowded study allowed.
Hudson tightened his hand against Lucas's shoulder.
“I don't need you to carry this family anymore.”
Lucas stared at him.
“You understand?”
Hudson nodded toward Naomi.
“Build your life.”
Then toward Adrian.
“Choose your people.”
Finally back to his son.
“Let Taylor International become something worth keeping, or burn the damn thing down if it can't.”
Lucas smiled through wet eyes.
“Mother is going to be furious she missed you saying that.”
“Your mother has been trying to get me to say it for thirty years.”
Anthony cleared his throat.
“I hate to interrupt what may be Hudson Taylor's first emotionally functional conversation—”
Hudson looked at him.
“I've never liked you.”
Anthony smiled.
“Good. Head injury hasn't changed your personality.”
“But he's right,” Hudson said.
Lucas stood.
“Kells.”
Hudson's expression turned grim.
“He knows the building better than you.”
“So did Arthur.”
Hudson frowned.
Lucas looked toward Naomi.
A quiet understanding passed between them.
Arthur’s architecture.
Joseph’s lessons.
Naomi’s eye for patterns.
Adrian’s training.
Different skills.
No single Keeper.
No solitary heir carrying everything.
Naomi reached for Lucas’s hand.
This time Hudson saw it.
And instead of judgment, something gentler crossed his face.
Approval.
“Go,” he said.
Lucas squeezed his father's shoulder.
“We'll finish it.”
Hudson shook his head.
“No.”
Lucas paused.
Hudson looked at Naomi.
Then Adrian.
Anthony.
His son.
“You'll finish it together.”
Outside, Big Ben began striking the hour.
Ten clear notes carried across London.
And somewhere inside the Taylor empire, Simon Kells was preparing to decide which truths the world was allowed to survive.