Chapter 11 - The Woman on the Phone
I read the message three times.
COME ALONE.
Then the second one appeared beneath it.
YOUR MOTHER IS WAITING.
My fingers went numb.
For twenty-six years, I had trained myself not to imagine that sentence.
Not because I didn't want it.
Because I did.
Too much.
Every birthday after my mother died, I'd wondered what she would have said if she had stayed.
Every promotion, every award, every bad night when I needed someone older to tell me I wasn't failing, I'd wondered whether she would have answered the phone.
And now someone was telling me she was alive.
I looked at General Marcus Hale.
He was still standing beneath the fluorescent lights, his face drained of color.
"Did she call you before?" I asked.
He didn't answer.
"Hale."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
"No."
"Then why do you look like you know exactly what this is?"
His jaw tightened.
"I know what Eleanor was afraid of."
"That's not what I asked."
Blake moved between us.
"Maya, don't go anywhere."
I turned on him.
"She could be alive."
"I know."
"You don't understand."
"I understand exactly what you think is happening."
"No, Blake. You don't."
My voice broke.
"My mother just called me."
The room went quiet.
Lorraine looked at the phone in my hand.
"Did you record it?"
"No."
"Did you trace it?"
"Not yet."
Hale reached for his secure phone.
I stepped back.
"No."
His hand stopped.
"You just told me not to trust you."
"I told you Eleanor's message said that."
"Same difference."
His eyes met mine.
"Colonel Caldwell, if that call was genuine, whoever made it knew exactly where you were. They knew what evidence was in this building. They knew the transmission had been discovered. They also knew enough to use your mother's voice."
"She said my name."
Hale's expression changed.
"What exactly did she say?"
I hesitated.
"She called me her daughter."
"And?"
"She told me not to trust you."
Hale nodded slowly.
"Anything else?"
"No."
He looked toward the federal officers by the door.
"Lock this facility down."
One of them immediately spoke into his radio.
I stared at Hale.
"You don't get to lock me down."
"You are the most valuable witness in this building."
"I'm not a witness."
"You are the target."
"Then maybe that's exactly why I need to go."
Victor grabbed my arm.
"No."
I looked at him.
"You don't get to stop me."
"I know."
His voice was different now.
Smaller.
"I know I forfeited that right a long time ago."
He released my arm.
"But I'm begging you not to make the mistake I made."
"What mistake?"
"Believing that the person calling you is necessarily the person you think she is."
Adrian laughed quietly from across the room.
Everyone turned.
His wrists were cuffed.
There was blood on his sleeve.
Yet somehow, he looked more relaxed than anyone else.
"You all keep assuming the wrong thing."
Hale glared at him.
"Be quiet."
Adrian leaned back.
"Eleanor doesn't call unless she has a reason."
My stomach tightened.
"You know where she is."
He looked at me.
"I know where she was."
"Where?"
He smiled.
"You've been asking the wrong question."
I stepped toward him.
"Then give me the right one."
"Ask yourself who benefits from convincing you she's alive."
I stared at him.
"You could have told me that before."
"I wanted you to hear it after the message."
"Why?"
"Because fear makes people honest."
He glanced at Victor.
"Especially fathers."
Victor's face hardened.
"You don't know anything about being a father."
"No."
Adrian's voice became cold.
"But I know what it looks like when a man spends decades paying for a secret."
I looked at Victor.
"Did you know this call was coming?"
He shook his head.
"No."
"Did you know where my mother is now?"
"No."
"You saw her three years ago."
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you follow her?"
"I tried."
"What happened?"
Victor swallowed.
"She disappeared before my security team reached the facility."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Did she speak to you willingly?"
He looked down.
"Yes."
"What did she look like?"
Victor's eyes filled with something I had never seen there before.
Grief.
"Older."
My throat tightened.
"Of course she was older."
"No."
He shook his head.
"That's not what I mean."
He took a breath.
"She looked tired, Maya. She was thinner. Her hair was almost completely gray."
I felt something inside me collapse.
My mother had been alive all this time.
Somewhere.
Aging without us.
Suffering without me.
I pressed my hand against my mouth.
Blake stepped beside me.
"We need to establish whether this call was real before she does anything."
"I know."
Hale looked at the evidence bag holding the photograph.
"The message at your apartment wasn't random."
"What do you mean?"
"The transmission originated from there."
"The apartment was empty."
"Exactly."
Adrian suddenly leaned forward.
"What did they leave?"
I looked at the photograph.
"My mother."
"No."
Adrian shook his head.
"They left you."
Nobody spoke.
He continued.
"That picture was meant to make you move."
"Move where?"
"Virginia."
My skin prickled.
"Why?"
Adrian smiled.
"Because your mother's safest location and the worst place for you to go are the same place."
Hale's eyes snapped toward him.
"Shut up."
Adrian looked pleased.
"I wondered when you'd say that."
I turned to Hale.
"What is in Virginia?"
He didn't answer.
"Hale."
"There are facilities."
"Which one?"
"Several."
"Which one did my father see her outside?"
Hale stayed silent.
That was the answer.
I stepped closer.
"You know."
His voice was quiet.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I can't tell you here."
"Then tell me somewhere else."
"Not tonight."
I stared at him.
"You don't understand how long I've been waiting for one person to tell me my mother survived."
"No."
He looked at me.
"I understand exactly."
For the first time, he sounded afraid.
"Because I was the one who helped her disappear."
The room froze.
Victor turned.
"What?"
I stared at Hale.
"You what?"
Hale exhaled.
"Three years ago, Eleanor contacted me."
"Why?"
"Because someone was trying to kill her."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"Then why did she tell me not to trust you?"
Hale looked at me for a long moment.
"Because she believed I had already been compromised."
"By whom?"
He glanced toward Adrian.
Then toward the security door.
"I don't know yet."
A federal officer ran into the room.
"General."
Everyone turned.
He handed Hale a tablet.
Hale read the screen.
His face changed.
"What is it?" I asked.
He looked at me.
"The phone that called you is still active."
"Where?"
He swallowed.
"Inside this building."
A second message appeared on my phone.
DON'T LET THEM STOP YOU.
Then:
ROOM 17.
I looked toward the corridor.
Room 17 was on the other side of the security wing.
The federal officers started moving.
Hale shouted, "Nobody goes alone."
I was already walking.
Victor followed.
Blake followed him.
And behind us, Adrian started laughing again.
I turned.
"What's funny?"
He looked directly at me.
May you like
"Room 17 doesn't exist anymore."
The lights went out.
