Chapter 11 - Frank
Elias stared at the closed elevator.
Mateo whispered, "Frank?"
Elena grabbed the wall.
"He's with Russell."
Elias shook his head.
"He's been with me twenty-two years."
"That doesn't answer me."
The words echoed Ruby's earlier warning.
Rich people buy everything.
Sometimes loyalty too.
Mara found the stairwell.
"Roof access."
They moved.
Elias's arms burned from forcing the chair uphill on the emergency ramp.
Elena saw.
"Grace touched you?"
"Yes."
Her face went pale.
"How long?"
"Hours."
"Any fever?"
"No."
"Vision changes?"
"No."
"Pain?"
"Only the usual."
She looked terrified.
"What?"
"Dad, the response isn't predictable."
"I know."
"No. You don't."
She crouched beside him.
"One subject regenerated nerve pathways, then developed uncontrolled cardiac tissue."
Elias went still.
"He died?"
"Yes."
Mateo heard.
His face changed.
Elias said, "Keep moving."
"Dad--"
"Later."
On the roof, a helicopter spun up.
Russell stood near it with the silver case.
Frank aimed at the stairwell door.
Elias rolled out first.
Frank's hand shook.
"Don't."
Elias looked at him.
"Why?"
Frank's eyes filled.
"My wife."
"What about her?"
"Cancer. Stage four."
Elias understood.
Russell had promised him Grace.
A cure.
A miracle.
"Frank."
"Don't say my name like you understand."
"I do."
"You got six years of specialists because you're rich."
The words hit.
"My wife got denials."
Elias had no answer.
Frank's gun lowered an inch.
Russell shouted, "He can't save her!"
Elias said, "Neither can Grace."
Frank looked at the baby.
"How do you know?"
"Because she is not medicine you can steal."
Russell stepped toward the helicopter.
Frank turned.
For one second, choice hung between them.
Then Russell shot him.
Frank fell.
Mateo screamed.
Elias drove the chair forward.
Russell climbed into the helicopter.
Mara threw herself behind an air unit as the blades accelerated.
Elena crawled to Frank.
"He's alive!"
Federal vehicles stormed through the gate below.
The helicopter lifted.
Russell smiled through the glass.
Then the silver case slipped from his hand.
It hit the roof.
Burst open.
Hundreds of pages scattered into the rotor wash.
Mara laughed.
"Idiot."
But Elena did not.
She picked up a page.
Her face drained.
"This isn't the master archive."
Elias looked at her.
"What is it?"
"A decoy."
She pointed at the helicopter.
"Russell still has the real one."
Then Elias's chest tightened.
Hard.
May you like
His vision flashed white.
And he fell from the chair.
