CHAPTER 26 DECLAN #3
Words burned across the white screens, one line after another.
LIVING CHILD ROUTES UNSEALED
GUARDIAN REVIEW REQUIRED
PRIMARY WATCH: STONE HEIR
SECONDARY WATCH: brOOKS DAUGHTER LINE
ACTIVE CHILD NODE DETECTED: EAST RIVER MERCY ANNEX
TRANSFER WINDOW: OPEN
A map snapped into place. New York bloomed in blue lines, then narrowed to one pulsing point across the river.
Vale laughed against the floor, blood smeared under his cheek. "There. Now you understand. Mothers were only the first door."
Nora's hand found mine.
I looked at the pulsing point, then at Vale, then at Isabella's hand locked over her stomach.
Gabriel's voice came through the comm, quiet enough to chill the whole bay. "Declan."
"I see it," I said.
Nora leaned against my side, still bleeding, still standing, still looking at the map like she was already running toward it.
My hand closed around hers before the thought could become movement.
"Little bird," I said, "this time we leave together."
Her eyes cut to mine. "Children are there."
"And you are here with an open wrist."
"Declan."
"I know what you're going to say. I respect the madness. I married it in my head three emergencies ago."
Her lips parted, and the color that touched her face had nothing to do with the bleeding. Maeve gave me a look sharp enough to skin a man, but Nora only squeezed my hand once.
"You don't get to say things like that during a route crisis," she said.
"Then stop creating route crises."
"You are not a gentleman."
"Good. Gentlemen keep losing you in corridors."
The map pulsed again. EAST RIVER MERCY ANNEX brightened, then split into two linked points. One line ran toward an old clinic marker near the river. The other ran into a residential block with no label, no legal name, no clean explanation.
Cormac swore softly through comms. "The annex has a transport blind. Old Mercy address, buried under a pediatric shell clinic. I have no current license on record."
"Say that in English," Aidan called.
"It's a place for moving children without official eyes," Cormac answered. "And it may still be active."
A cold pressure settled behind my ribs. Nora felt my hand change around hers and looked back at the map. The fight in her face sharpened.
"How many children?" she asked.
The case answered with a soft chime.
ACTIVE NODE COUNT: UNKNOWN
TRANSFER WINDOW: NINETY MINUTES
GUARDIAN REVIEW REQUIRED TO PREVENT AUTOMATIC RELOCATION
Vale twisted under Aidan's knee and spat blood on the floor. "There is your good news, Miss Brooks. Save mothers, lose children. Save children, lose the heir. Mercy always understood choice."
Nora moved before I could hold her. One step, fast and furious, toward the man on the floor. I caught her around the waist and hauled her back against me. Her whole body bucked once in my grip.
"Let me go."
"Gladly, after Siobhan stitches you and someone removes the murder from your eyes."
"He knows where they are."
"He knows pieces. Cormac has the map, Gabriel has men, Maeve has half the city bought and offended. We use all of that before we let him lead us by the throat."
Vale laughed again. "Listen to Reeve. His father understood leading girls by the throat."
I released Nora's waist only long enough to cross the floor. Aidan shifted his knee. Maeve did not stop me. Vale's eyes flicked up, bright with the hope that he had finally pulled the wrong string.
My boot came down on his wounded wrist.
The scream tore through the bay and bounced off every old ambulance door. Nora said my name behind me, sharp and shaken, but she did not tell me to stop.
I leaned over Vale until he could see every promise in my face. "My father is dead. Your house is open. Your case belongs to the women you buried inside it. Try to make me into him again, and I will show you how little of him survived me."
Vale panted against the floor, his cheek pressed into his own blood.
"East River," I said. "Who is moving them?"
His answer came out ragged. "Mercy transport kept more drivers than Stone ever found."
"Names."
"The case has them."
"Then you won't mind losing another finger while Cormac looks."
"Declan," Gabriel said through comms. His voice sounded like pain standing upright. "Bring him alive. Bring Nora breathing. Maeve will take the bay. You take the East River team once Siobhan clears your wounds."
Nora made a sound of protest behind me. I turned and found her swaying, one hand on Isabella's shoulder now, the other wrapped tight in green trauma cloth.
"Once needs to be quick," I said.
"It will be," Siobhan snapped. "Because both of you are too stupid to lie down properly."
Nora's eyes stayed on mine while Siobhan caught her elbow. The fight had not left her. It had only found my hand and held there.
"Together," she said.
I went back to her because there was no other place my body knew how to stand anymore. The map pulsed blue over us. Vale bled into Stone custody. Marian breathed under Isabella's hand. Somewhere across the river, living children were being moved through an old Mercy road.
"Together," I said, and closed my hand around hers.