Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KEPT THE SECRETLucie's mother had died four years earlier.
A stroke.
Sudden.
Devastating.
At least that was what the doctors had told her.
Now, standing in a locked maintenance office beneath a prison controlled by a man who was supposed to be dead, Lucie began questioning even that.
Bellamy watched her through the screen.
"Your mother was a remarkable woman."
"Don't talk about her."
"She was brave. Intelligent. Unfortunately, she was also stubborn."
Lucie moved closer to the monitor.
"If you hurt her—"
"Your mother died of natural causes, Lieutenant. I had nothing to do with it."
"Why should I believe you?"
"You shouldn't. Trust is something people earn."
The casual cruelty of his answer made her furious.
"What do you want from me?"
Bellamy's smile faded.
"Your cooperation."
"With what?"
"A research project that could change millions of lives."
Mara laughed bitterly.
"That's what you called it when you started selling medical records to criminals."
Bellamy looked at her.
"Mara. I'm disappointed you're still alive."
She lifted her wounded shoulder.
"Your shooter needs more practice."
Bellamy ignored the insult.
"Lucie, your brother has been preventing us from completing an important transition."
"What transition?"
"Our entire system is moving to a new network. Julien has encrypted several essential components."
Lucie understood.
They had kept him alive because they needed his technical knowledge.
"Then release him."
"He refuses to cooperate."
"Good."
Bellamy sighed.
"You're very much like your mother."
The screen went black.
For a moment, the room was silent.
Then a printer beside the computer began working.
One page emerged.
A scanned letter.
The handwriting was familiar.
Lucie's mother.
My dearest children,
If you are reading this, it means the people I feared have finally found you.
Lucie's throat tightened.
She continued reading.
I made mistakes. I trusted people who promised to protect families, and I learned too late that some of them valued information more than human life.
But I want you to understand one thing.
You were never an experiment to me.
You were my children.
And everything I did afterward was to give you the ordinary life every child deserves.
Tears blurred the words.
Lucie pressed the paper against her chest.
For years, she had remembered her mother as someone who worried too much.
Now she understood that the worry had been love.
A love that never stopped working.
A love that had protected them without demanding gratitude.
Valois approached carefully.
"Lucie, there's something else."
She didn't look at him.
"Not now."
"Your mother gave me a package before she died."
Lucie turned.
"What package?"
"Documents. Photographs. A recording."
"Where is it?"
"In a secure evidence locker outside Montferrand."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"She made me promise I wouldn't reveal it unless the research program resurfaced."
Lucie stared at him.
"It resurfaced three years ago when Julien disappeared."
Valois looked ashamed.
"Yes."
"Then you should have told me."
"I know."
A loud bang echoed from the corridor.
Someone was forcing the outer security gate.
Mara struggled to her feet.
"We need to move."
Valois checked the ammunition in his spare magazine.
"There's a maintenance tunnel beneath the laundry facility."
Lucie folded her mother's letter and placed it inside her jacket.
"Then take us there."
They entered the corridor.
The lights flickered.
Far ahead, a door opened.
A man stepped into the hallway.
He wore a white medical uniform.
His face was hidden behind a surgical mask.
Lucie raised the gun.
"Don't move!"
The man stopped.
Slowly, he removed the mask.
His cheeks were hollow.
His hair had turned almost completely gray.
A thin scar ran along his jaw.
But his eyes were exactly as Lucie remembered.
"Hey, little sister."
The gun slipped from her fingers.
"Julien?"
He smiled weakly.
"I told you I'd find a way."
Lucie ran toward him.
For three years, she had dreamed of this moment.
She reached for her brother.
And then she saw the blood soaking through his shirt.
Julien collapsed into her arms.
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"LUCIE," HE WHISPERED, "THEY'VE ALREADY STARTED THE COUNTDOWN."
End of Chapter 5 — Cliffhanger: Julien has escaped, but he is seriously injured, and a hidden countdown threatens everyone inside the prison.
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