CHAPTER 7 — The Father Everyone Buried
The ceiling turrets rotated toward Alexander, Emily, and Marcus.
Tiny red laser dots settled across their chests.
No one breathed.
Eleanor Graves smiled as if she had already won.
"You've spent your whole life believing freedom was your birthright," she said calmly.
"It was never yours."
Alexander slowly raised his hands.
"If you wanted me dead, you could have done it years ago."
Eleanor nodded.
"Exactly."
"You were never meant to die."
"You were meant to replace me."
The words echoed through the underground vault.
Alexander frowned.
"I'd rather die."
Eleanor laughed.
"Every leader before you said the same thing."
Without warning, the room went dark.
A deafening explosion shook the walls.
Emergency lights flickered.
Marcus shouted, "Get down!"
Bullets ripped through the air—but not toward Alexander.
The machine guns had suddenly turned on Eleanor's own guards.
Chaos erupted.
Smoke filled the vault.
Someone else had hacked the defense system.
Marcus grabbed Alexander and Emily, pulling them behind a row of steel cabinets.
"Move!"
As alarms screamed through the underground complex, a distorted voice came over the speakers.
"Exit route unlocked. You have three minutes."
Alexander didn't recognize the voice.
Emily did.
Tears filled her eyes.
"It can't be..."
She sprinted toward a side corridor.
Alexander chased after her.
At the end of the hallway stood a man in his sixties wearing a dark maintenance uniform.
His face was scarred.
His beard was gray.
But his eyes...
Alexander had seen those eyes every morning in the mirror.
The man spoke only three words.
"My son..."
Alexander froze.
"Dad?"
Officially, Richard Blackwood had died in a private plane crash twenty-two years earlier.
The funeral had been broadcast nationwide.
His body had never been recovered.
Because there had never been one.
Richard looked exhausted.
"I've been their prisoner ever since."
"I stayed alive for one reason."
"To stop Eleanor."
Emily began crying.
Richard embraced her for the first time since she had been taken away as an infant.
But before the family could reunite...
A gunshot echoed through the corridor.
Richard staggered backward.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Standing behind him...
Holding the smoking pistol...
Was Marcus.
Alexander stared in horror.
"No..."
Marcus lowered the weapon slowly.
"I'm sorry."
"I never had a choice."
Then dozens of armed operatives flooded the hallway from every direction.
May you like
Marcus had been the organization's inside man...
From the very beginning.
