31. Wynn #2
“So Kane needs me alive until I open the system.”
“Yes.”
“And Minser?”
“He believes the key will make him Meridian’s new director.”
Aras leaned back against the wall.
“He’s wrong.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Kane changed the protocol.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
The timing struck me.
Our divorce.
The surveillance team disappearing.
The moment Lucas and I separated.
“What did he change?” Lucas asked.
Aras looked at me.
“The second key now requires biometric confirmation from both registered custodians.”
“Lucas and Ghost?” Adam asked.
“No.”
Aras smiled.
“Lucas and Wynn Spencer.”
The cabin went silent.
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“Kane discovered the Geneva account remained active after your divorce. He copied its dual-control structure into Fate and registered the two account holders as custodians.”
“Why?” Lucas demanded.
“To keep Minser from activating Fate alone—and to ensure Kane always had a way to control you.”
Through me.
Kane had made me both a safeguard and a weapon he could hold against Lucas.
“He didn’t care about your marriage license,” Aras continued. “He cared that the account remained in both names and required both of you to access it.”
Lucas Spencer.
Wynn Spencer.
The joint account had connected us inside Fate’s security system.
“What biometric confirmation?” Lucas asked.
“Fingerprint. Voice. Retinal scan.”
Aras looked between us.
“You don’t merely possess the second key. You are its custodians.”
A chill swept through me.
Meridian hadn’t kept me alive only because I could open the bank box.
They needed me to control Fate.
Lucas’s face turned cold.
“You’re lying.”
“Test it.”
“How?” I asked.
“Connect the wafer to a secure terminal.”
Ghost shouted through the radio.
“Don’t.”
Lucas looked toward the private speaker.
“Why?”
“The wafer is passive until it connects to Fate’s network. Once activated, it will transmit.”
“To whom?”
“Every operational cell connected to Fate.”
Hawk understood.
“It announces that the second key is active.”
“And gives them our location,” Adam added.
“Yes.”
Aras smiled through the blood on his face.
“Activate it. See for yourself.”
The aircraft-navigation alarm sounded.
Hawk returned his attention to the controls.
“We’re approaching restricted airspace.”
“Course to Geneva?” Adam asked.
“Restored.”
“Arrival?”
“Two hours and forty-three minutes.”
The vault had more than five hours remaining before its containment system could no longer guarantee the seal.
We still had time.
Barely.
Adam contacted the other aircraft.
“Hospital team, status?”
Ghost answered.
“Five minutes from Garrison Eighteen.”
Boone’s voice came next.
“We’re beginning our approach.”
The live hospital feed remained on the terminal.
General Kane was no longer visible.
Janice stood beside Samir.
The man in medical scrubs was gone.
“They know you’re coming,” I said.
Ghost answered.
“Yes.”
“You’ll be walking into an ambush.”
“Yes.”
Russ spoke quietly.
“So will you.”
Two teams.
Two traps.
Both moving forward.
Lucas sat beside me and took my injured hand.
His thumb rested over my bandaged palm.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“That Kane registered me inside Fate without my knowledge. He built his weapon around our marriage.”
“Not our marriage,” Lucas said. “Our connection. The one neither of us managed to break.”
He looked toward the wafer.
“Kane thought he could use it.”
“Maybe we can use it first.”
His silver eyes found mine.
“How?”
“We activate the duplicate key.”
“No.”
“It controls every Meridian cell.”
“It also exposes our location.”
“They already know where we’re going.”
“It gives them access to you.”
“They already have access to me.”
I pointed toward Aras.
“Every threat. Every attack. Every person they hurt was designed to push us toward Geneva. They need us to activate Fate.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“So we don’t.”
“And Elise dies. Camille dies. The people inside Garrison Eighteen die.”
“We can’t keep reacting to Kane,” I said. “We need to make him react to us.”
Adam looked toward me.
“What are you suggesting?”
“We activate the second key before we reach Geneva.”
Ghost’s voice exploded through the radio.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Because Fate will ask for an operational command.”
“Then we give it one.”
“What command?”
I looked toward Lucas.
The man who had carried the original key for eight years.
The man Kane believed he could control through fear.
The man who had once let me go to save me.
This time, we would make a different choice.
“Shut down Meridian.”
Aras laughed.
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
“There is no universal shutdown. Every cell operates independently.”
“Then we issue an order they can’t ignore.”
Lucas studied my face.
“What kind?”
I looked toward the live feed of Garrison Eighteen.
Toward Janice.
Samir.
The sleeping children.
Then toward the frozen countdown inside the Geneva vault.
“We tell every Meridian cell that General Kane has betrayed them.”
Aras’s smile disappeared.
Adam slowly nodded.
“Kane built Meridian on secrecy.”
“And money,” Hawk added from the cockpit.
“If the cells believe Kane exposed them…” I began.
“They’ll turn on him,” Lucas finished.
Ghost remained silent.
I knew the plan was dangerous.
Uncertain.
Possibly insane.
Which meant the Brave might actually approve.
Lucas touched the black wafer.
“If we activate this, every Meridian cell will know exactly where we are.”
“Yes.”
“And if your command fails?”
“Every Meridian operative in Europe comes after us.”
Boone’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Sounds like Tuesday.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Lucas looked at me.
Then at Adam.
The commander considered the plan for several seconds.
Finally, he nodded.
“Prepare the duplicate key.”
Ghost cursed.
Hawk opened a panel on the secure communications terminal.
Lucas inserted the wafer.
The screen requested the first encryption key.
Hawk entered the sequence recovered from Wynn’s drive.
For one terrible second, nothing happened.
Then the wafer’s surface warmed beneath the terminal’s reader.
Its encrypted pattern unfolded across the screen.
Tiny characters appeared.
Almost invisible.
The lights inside the medical jet flickered.
Every screen went black.
Then one message appeared.
FATE CUSTODIANS IDENTIFIED.
LUCAS SPENCER.
WYNN SPENCER.
BIOMETRIC CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Before either of us could move, a second warning filled the screen.
ACTIVE DEPLOYMENT DETECTED.
LOCATION: GARRISON EIGHTEEN.
DISPERSAL IN: 05:00.
The live feed changed.
A camera beneath the medical ward activated.
A second portable dispersal unit sat inside the bunker’s ventilation system.
General Kane had built another clock into his trap.
And Boone, Russ, and Ghost were already inside.