CHAPTER 4 – THE SECRET INSIDE ELI
CHAPTER 4 – THE SECRET INSIDE ELI
The fourth sniper round never came.
Instead...
Every phone inside the lobby vibrated at exactly the same time.
Mine.
Vivian's.
The security guards'.
Even the unconscious attacker's phone lit up.
One message.
One sentence.
HAND OVER THE BOY. OR EVERYONE DIES.
Silence.
No logo.
No number.
Just a black screen.
Vivian clutched Eli so tightly he whimpered.
"What do they want with my son?"
Damon closed his eyes.
"I prayed you'd never have to know."
"Know what?"
He looked at me.
"Mr. Brennan..."
I nodded cautiously.
"You seem to be the only person Eli trusts."
"I don't know why."
"I do."
His answer chilled me.
"Because your son and mine attended the same research center twelve years ago."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"My Danny never attended—"
"He did."
I stopped speaking.
Impossible.
Danny had gone to a state-funded developmental program for only six months before I pulled him out.
No billionaire connections.
Nothing unusual.
At least...
that's what I believed.
Damon continued.
"The center wasn't what parents thought it was."
Vivian slowly turned toward him.
"What are you saying?"
"It was a behavioral research project."
"They were studying children whose brains processed patterns differently."
Autistic children.
Nonverbal children.
Children like Danny.
Children like Eli.
My blood ran cold.
"You used our kids?"
"I tried to stop them."
"You worked with them!"
"I infiltrated them."
"You signed every agreement!"
"So I could expose them."
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I listened.
Because pieces were beginning to fit together.
Danny's nightmares.
The sudden closure of the center.
The missing medical files.
The anonymous payments that had mysteriously appeared after we left.
Things I'd buried years ago.
Eli suddenly reached toward me.
Not Vivian.
Me.
He pressed the yellow toy sun into my hand.
Then pointed toward the maintenance hallway.
I frowned.
"What is it, buddy?"
He pointed again.
More urgently.
The hallway.
Then the ceiling.
Then my toolbox.
At first it made no sense.
Then I remembered.
This morning...
before the meltdown...
I'd repaired a damaged fiber-optic panel above that exact corridor.
Someone had cut the communication lines from inside the building.
Not today.
Days ago.
Premeditated.
"They're still here," I whispered.
"What?"
"The sniper isn't working alone."
I looked toward the ceiling.
"They've got someone inside the tower."
As if on cue...
The fire doors behind us slammed shut with explosive force.
The emergency lights died.
Backup power failed.
Once again...
Darkness swallowed the building.
But this time...
it wasn't an accident.
A distorted voice echoed through the lobby speakers.
"Mr. Brennan..."
It knew my name.
"Thank you for calming the child."
"You've made our job much easier."
Cold sweat ran down my back.
"You've spent twenty years protecting one extraordinary boy."
The voice paused.
"Now..."
"You'll have to choose."
"Your son..."
"Or hers."
A monitor above the reception desk flickered to life.
The screen split into two live video feeds.
On the left—
Danny.
Now twenty-seven years old.
Standing outside the small auto repair shop where he worked.
Completely unaware.
On the right—
A thermal image of the building.
Red dots.
Dozens of them.
Surrounding us.
The voice returned.
"We finally have both of our missing subjects."
My heart stopped.
Danny had never escaped.
Neither had Eli.
Neither had any of us.
And whoever was hunting them had just revealed the horrifying truth—
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This had never been about kidnapping a billionaire's child.
It had been a hunt that began twenty years earlier... and tonight, it was finally reaching its end.
