Chapter 8 - Elena Is Alive
Elias forgot the smoke.
"My daughter is alive?"
Samuel grabbed his chair.
"Move!"
Frank fired through the broken window to cover them.
The children ran into the basement tunnel.
Elias followed.
Samuel slammed the hatch.
Only then did Elias grab his coat.
"Tell me."
"She contacted me three days ago."
"Where?"
"Burner phone."
"What did she say?"
"That Haven was relocating. That Russell had discovered the church."
"Then why didn't you leave?"
"Because Tomas couldn't travel."
Tomas looked away.
His heart had improved after Grace touched him, but Lazarus had damaged his kidneys.
He needed dialysis equipment hidden beneath the church.
Elias's anger turned precise.
"My company did this to him."
Samuel said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Elias called someone he had avoided for years.
Mara Quinn.
Investigative reporter.
He told her enough.
She stopped joking.
"I can meet you."
"Bring nobody."
"You're Elias Vance. You don't get to order secrecy after hiding behind it for twenty years."
"Bring nobody, Mara."
At an empty warehouse, Mara watched Elena's files.
Her face broke when the video began.
Elena stared into the camera.
"If you're seeing this, Project Lazarus is no longer medicine. It is trafficking."
Elias turned away.
Mara paused the video.
"Look at me."
He did.
"Did you know?"
"No."
"Did you ignore warnings?"
"Yes."
Mara nodded.
"Then that's where your public statement starts."
Frank objected.
"Elias, legal will destroy you."
"Good."
Everyone looked at him.
Elias said, "If destroying my reputation gets them to Elena, do it."
Mara studied him.
"That's the first useful thing I've heard you say."
The flash drive contained coordinates.
A property owned through five shell companies.
Mara traced them.
"Saint Orison Recovery Center."
Samuel went pale.
"Haven."
Elias looked at the map.
"How far?"
"Forty minutes."
Frank shook his head.
"Too obvious."
Then Mara's phone rang.
She answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
"Mara?"
Mara's eyes widened.
"Elena?"
Elias grabbed the table.
The voice continued.
"If my father is with you, tell him not to come."
Elias leaned toward the phone.
"Elena."
Silence.
Then his daughter's voice cracked.
"Dad?"
He stopped breathing.
Before he could answer, a man's voice took the phone.
Russell Wynn.
"Bring me Grace, Elias."
May you like
The call ended.
And Elias realized his oldest friend had just used his daughter's voice as a ransom note.
