Chapter 10 - The Second Implant
The blinking light glowed below my collarbone.
Walter had lied again.
Marcus stared at it.
"There were two implants."
"You did not know?" I asked.
"No."
Noah pushed himself upright, coughing river water.
"Vale did."
The tunnel shook.
Somewhere beyond the wall, Briggs detonated the Nightglass node.
A shock wave moved through the concrete.
Every speaker screamed with static.
Then thousands of files began uploading automatically.
Vale's secrets.
Walter's secrets.
The government's secrets.
All of them racing toward the public internet.
Noah stared at the transfer screen.
"Briggs destroyed it."
"Good," I said.
"You do not understand. Vale wanted the purge."
A steel gate dropped between us and the exit.
On the other side, Adrian Vale appeared in person.
He wore no tuxedo now.
Only black tactical clothing and the same calm smile.
"At last," he said.
Emma clung to Vivian, coughing.
Marcus raised his gun.
Vale held up a dead-man switch.
"Shoot me, and the tunnel collapses."
"You always did love an audience," I said.
"And you always confused endurance with victory."
He pointed at the light beneath my skin.
"The true Nightglass key was placed near your heart. The capsule in your shoulder was a decoy."
I looked at Marcus.
"Who authorized that surgery?"
His face gave me the answer before he spoke.
"Walter."
Vale smiled wider.
"Your uncle did not simply sacrifice the crew. He selected you as the carrier before the Resolute ever left port."
My breathing stopped.
The explosion had not been an accident that turned me into a vault.
I had been the vault from the beginning.
Noah moved beside me.
His weapon lowered.
"You told me she volunteered," he said to Vale.
"She would have, eventually."
Noah's face changed.
Betrayal recognized betrayal.
Vale pressed the switch halfway.
Cracks spread across the ceiling.
"Commander, come through the gate. Alone."
I stepped toward him.
Vivian grabbed my hand.
"He will kill you."
"Not until he gets the key."
"And after?"
I looked at Noah.
May you like
He gave the smallest nod.
"After," I said, "he finds out what kind of crew I brought."
