Chapter 7 - THE GHOST IN THE FAMILY TREE"Mom..." Eli whispered, staring at the badge in absolute horror.
"She wasn't a victim of a car crash, Eli," Victor said, his voice dropping into a hollow, dead register that chilled the air inside the cabin. "She was deep-cover CIA. And the people hunting us right now... aren't criminals."
The mercenary co-pilot turned around slowly, pulling down his balaclava to reveal a face covered in old burn scars. He looked directly at Eli. "Your father isn't the boss of the Kane syndicate, kid. He's the man who built it from the inside out to destroy the agency that murdered your mother."
Eli felt the world tilt on its axis. The school bag slipped from his fingers, spilling a cascade of encrypted flash drives, microfilms, and coded notebooks onto the metal floor.
"You lied to me... about everything," Eli breathed, backing away until his spine hit the cold aluminum hull of the chopper.
"I protected you," Victor snapped, leaning forward, his eyes blazing with fierce, desperate intensity. "Every lie, every move, every second of this nightmare was designed to keep you breathing long enough to deliver those files to the one person in Washington who isn't compromised."
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Before Eli could answer, a blinding red warning light flashed on the cockpit dashboard.
"Boss! We've been painted by an anti-air lock!" the pilot yelled, her face draining of color. "They're locking missiles onto our heat signature! We're going down!"
