Chapter 13
Marcus's POV: "Final Fight"
I tackled Harrison just as the blasts started going off across the city.
"Are you insane?" I shouted, pulling the remotes out of his hands. "You just blew up half of Chicago!"
Harrison fought back, even though he was older and weaker than me. "I had to! It was the only way to save everyone!"
Through the guard office windows, we could see fires burning in the distance. Harrison had detonated bombs in dozens of places at the same time.
"Marcus, let him go!" Sarah yelled. "We need to evacuate the hospital!"
But I couldn't let go of Harrison. My head was still pounding from my headache, but I knew this man was dangerous.
"He just killed thousands of people!" I said.
"I killed Thirteen Shadows members," Harrison said, fighting beneath me. "Check the news. Those blasts hit their safe houses, not innocent people."
Elena was crying as she watched us fight. "Please stop! We need to work together!"
Dr. Peterson started laughing like a fool. "It doesn't matter what you do now. You're all too late."
"Too late for what?" Maya asked.
Dr. Peterson held up a third remote control that none of us had seen before.
"This one controls the REAL bombs in this hospital," he said. "The ones Harrison doesn't know about."
My blood went cold. "You have more bombs?"
"Twenty years of planning, Marcus. Did you really think I'd only have one backup plan?"
Sarah aiming her gun at Dr. Peterson. "Don't press that button."
"I'm not going to press it," Dr. Peterson said with an evil smile. "It's on a timer. Sixty seconds and counting."
We all stared at the remote in his hand. Numbers were counting down: 59, 58, 57.
"How do we stop it?" Elena asked hurriedly.
"You can't," Dr. Peterson said. "Unless you give me what I want."
"What do you want?" I asked, still holding Harrison down.
"I want Harrison's wife. I want to know where he hid Agent Maria Kane."
Harrison's eyes went wide. "You don't have my wife?"
"We lost her three months ago," Dr. Peterson revealed. "She fled from the warehouse. Harrison's been getting fake videos of her ever since."
I felt Harrison go limp beneath me. "You mean my wife has been free for three months?"
"Free and helping the FBI build a case against The Thirteen Shadows," Dr. Peterson said. "She's the one who's been feeding Harrison information to help him plan this whole operation."
The timer on the remote showed 45 seconds.
Sarah stared at Harrison in shock. "Your wife is alive and working with the FBI?"
"Agent Maria Kane never stopped being an FBI agent," Dr. Peterson said. "Even when she married Harrison, she was working undercover."
Elena looked confused. "Mom was undercover?"
"For twenty years," Dr. Peterson continued. "She married Harrison to get close to The Thirteen Shadows' best killer. Everything was part of a long-term FBI plan."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You're saying Harrison's wife has been spying on him?"
"I'm saying Harrison's wife has been protecting her daughters by pretending to love the man who killed their father," Dr. Peterson said.
Harrison looked like he was going to be sick. "Maria never loved me?"
"She loved her mission," Dr. Peterson said. "Just like you loved yours."
The timer showed 30 seconds.
"Where is she now?" Maya asked.
Dr. Peterson pointed at the TV camera, which was still streaming live. "She's watching this broadcast with ten thousand FBI agents, waiting for the right moment to attack."
"Attack what?" I asked.
"This hospital," Dr. Peterson said. "They're going to storm the building as soon as I detonate the bombs."
25 seconds.
I let go of Harrison and grabbed Dr. Peterson. "Give me the remote!"
"It won't matter," Dr. Peterson said as we fought. "Even if you get the remote, you can't stop the timer."
"Then how do we get out of here?" Sarah asked.
"You don't," Dr. Peterson said. "This hospital is surrounded by FBI officers and Thirteen Shadows members. Everyone shoots anyone who tries to leave."
20 seconds.
Harrison stood up slowly. "Dr. Peterson, there's something you don't know."
"What?"
"Those FBI agents outside aren't here to arrest The Thirteen Shadows," Harrison said. "They're here to arrest ME."
"What do you mean?" Elena asked.
"Agent Maria Kane has been gathering evidence against me for twenty years," Harrison said sadly. "She's going to watch me die in this explosion, then tell the world that I was the leader of The Thirteen Shadows."
15 seconds.
I stared at Harrison. "You're saying your own wife set you up?"
"I'm saying my wife is a hero who sacrificed her happiness to bring down a criminal organization," Harrison said. "And I'm the criminal she's been hunting."
Dr. Peterson started laughing again. "Harrison, you still don't understand."
"Understand what?"
"Agent Maria Kane isn't your wife," Dr. Peterson said. "She never was."
10 seconds.
"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked.
"The woman Harrison married was an FBI agent named Lisa Rodriguez," Dr. Peterson said. "Agent Maria Kane died fifteen years ago, killed by The Thirteen Shadows."
Elena screamed. "You're lying!"
"The woman who's been pretending to be Harrison's wife is Elena and Sarah's aunt, not their mother," Dr. Peterson said.
5 seconds.
Harrison looked at Elena and Sarah with tears in his eyes. "Your real mother is dead. I've been in love with a lie for twenty years."
"But that means—" Sarah started to say.
4 seconds.
"That means Elena and Sarah don't have any family left except each other," Dr. Peterson ended.
3 seconds.
I grabbed the remote from Dr. Peterson and smashed it against the wall.
2 seconds.
The timer stopped at 00:01.
We all stared at the broken remote in silence.
"Did that work?" Maya whispered.
That's when we heard Agent Lisa Rodriguez's words coming through a bullhorn outside the hospital.
"This is the FBI! The building is circled! Harrison Stone, Elena Cross, Sarah Kane, Maya Chen, and Marcus Stone, you have thirty seconds to submit!"
Harrison looked at all of us. "She's using our real names. All of them."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Marcus, your real name isn't Marcus Stone," Harrison said. "It's Marcus Kane."
I felt like I was going to pass out. "That's impossible."
"You're Sarah and Elena's brother," Harrison said. "The FBI hid you after your parents died, just like they hid Elena."
Sarah stared at me. "Marcus is our brother?"
"The Kane family had three children," Harrison said. "Sarah, Elena, and Marcus. The Thirteen Shadows thought they killed all three of you. But the FBI saved Elena and Marcus by giving you new IDs."
Elena was crying again. "We're all family?"
"You're all family," Harrison said. "And I killed your parents."
That's when Agent Rodriguez's voice came through the bullhorn again.
"You have ten seconds to surrender, or we're coming in with full force!"
Harrison looked at the three Kane brothers standing together for the first time in fifteen years.
"There's something else you need to know," he said.
"What?" we all asked at the same time.
Harrison pulled out a fourth radio control.
"The bombs in this hospital aren't controlled by Dr. Peterson's remote," he said. "They're controlled by this one."
"Why do you have it?" Sarah asked.
"Because I planted the bombs," Harrison said. "And they're not set to kill you."
"Then what are they set to do?" I asked.
Harrison looked out the window at the FBI agents circling the building.
"They're set to collapse the hospital in a way that creates an underground tunnel," he said. "A tunnel that leads to the place where your real mother is buried."
"What?" Elena whispered.
"Agent Maria Kane isn't dead," Harrison said. "She's been buried alive for fifteen years, waiting for her children to find her."
The bullhorn crackled again: "Five seconds!"
Harrison held up the remote. "I can save your mother, but only if you trust me one more time."
Sarah, Elena, and I looked at each other.
We had five seconds to decide whether to trust the man who destroyed our family.
Or let our mother stay buried forever.