Chapter 14
Sarah's POV: "Bomb Squad"
I grabbed Harrison's fourth remote before he could press the button.
"No more bombs!" I shouted. "No more lies! No more people dying because of your choices!"
Harrison looked at me with sad eyes. "Sarah, your mother is running out of air. She's been dead for fifteen years."
"My mother is DEAD!" I yelled back. "You killed her! I saw her body!"
"You saw Agent Lisa Rodriguez's body," Harrison said. "The FBI agent who was pretending to be your mother."
Elena and Marcus were staring at us like we were speaking a strange language.
"Sarah," Elena said quietly. "What if he's telling the truth?"
"He's NEVER told the truth!" I said. "This man has lied about everything for twenty years!"
Through the window, I could see FBI officers getting ready to storm the hospital. Agent Rodriguez was talking into her radio, possibly giving orders to attack.
"We have thirty seconds before they come in shooting," Maya said.
I looked at the remote in my hand. It had five buttons on it, each named with a different location: BASEMENT, TUNNEL, CHAMBER, EXIT, and DETONATE ALL.
"Harrison, what do these buttons do?" I asked.
"BASEMENT collapses the hospital basement to create an entrance to the underground chamber where your mother is buried," he said. "TUNNEL opens the route between here and there. CHAMBER pumps fresh air into the room where she's been kept alive."
"And EXIT?"
"EXIT creates a way out of the chamber so we can rescue her."
"What about DETONATE ALL?"
Harrison's face went dark. "That one kills everyone. Your mother, us, and everyone in a six-block radius."
I stared at the remote. Five buttons that could save my mother or kill thousands of people.
"How do I know you're not lying?" I asked.
"You don't," Harrison said honestly. "You have to choose whether to trust the man who destroyed your family or let your mother die alone in the dark."
Agent Rodriguez's voice came through the bullhorn again: "Ten seconds to surrender!"
"Sarah, we have to decide now," Marcus said.
I looked at my newly found siblings. Elena, the fighter who spent her life fighting for justice. Marcus, the bodyguard who spent his time protecting people. Both of them looking at me to make the choice that would decide our mother's fate.
"If I press these buttons and you're lying, I become a murderer just like you," I told Harrison.
"If you don't press them and I'm telling the truth, you become the person who let your mother suffocate," he responded.
I heard the FBI agents breaking down the hospital's front doors. Heavy footsteps were running up the stairs toward us.
"Five seconds!" Agent Rodriguez shouted.
I pressed CHAMBER first, trying to pump air to my mother if she was really alive.
The building shook slightly, and we could hear machinery turning on somewhere beneath us.
"Now BASEMENT," Harrison said quickly.
I pressed BASEMENT, and the floor beneath our feet cracked. We could hear concrete breaking apart below us.
"TUNNEL," Harrison said.
I hit TUNNEL, and more rumbling sounds came from underground.
"Sarah, the FBI is almost here!" Maya warned.
Agent Rodriguez and six other agents burst through the security office door with their guns drawn.
"Everyone freeze!" she yelled.
"Agent Rodriguez," I said, still holding the key. "Is Harrison telling the truth? Is our mother alive?"
Agent Rodriguez looked confused. "Your mother Maria Kane died fifteen years ago, Detective Kane."
"But Harrison says she's buried alive underground."
Agent Rodriguez looked at Harrison with disgust. "Harrison Stone is a skilled liar. He's told so many lies that he probably believes them himself."
Elena stepped forward. "Agent Rodriguez, if there's any chance our mother is alive, shouldn't we check?"
"There's no chance," Agent Rodriguez said firmly. "I've been researching The Thirteen Shadows for twenty years. I know what happened to your family."
That's when Dr. Peterson, who had been quiet during our talk, started laughing again.
"Agent Rodriguez," he said. "There's something you don't know about the Kane family case."
"What?"
"You weren't investigating The Thirteen Shadows for twenty years," Dr. Peterson said. "You've been working FOR The Thirteen Shadows for twenty years."
Agent Rodriguez's face went white. "That's impossible."
"You're Thirteen Shadows member number seven," Dr. Peterson continued. "You've been reporting to us about the FBI's investigation this whole time."
"You're lying," Agent Rodriguez said, but her voice was shaking.
"Tell them about the night Agent Maria Kane was supposed to die," Dr. Peterson said. "Tell them how you were there."
Agent Rodriguez looked at all of us, then at Harrison.
"I was there," she admitted quietly. "But I was trying to save Maria Kane, not kill her."
"What happened?" I asked.
"The Thirteen Shadows ordered me to kill your whole family," Agent Rodriguez said. "But I couldn't do it. So I helped your mother fake her death and hide underground."
My heart started racing. "You mean Mom IS alive?"
"She was alive when I left her in the underground chamber fifteen years ago," Agent Rodriguez said. "But I don't know if she's still alive now."
I looked at the remote in my hand. One button left: EXIT.
"If I press this button, will it really free my mother?" I asked.
"It will open the chamber," Harrison said. "But Sarah, there's something else you need to know."
"What now?"
Harrison reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"This is a list of The Thirteen Shadows' future targets," he said. "People they plan to kill in the next year."
I opened the paper and saw dozens of names. Judges, police officers, FBI agents, politicians, protestors.
And at the top of the list, in red ink, were four names: Sarah Kane, Elena Cross, Marcus Stone, and Maya Chen.
"They're planning to kill all of us?" Maya asked.
"Next week," Harrison said. "Unless we stop them tonight."
Agent Rodriguez looked at the list and her face went pale.
"My name is on this list too," she said.
"Number twelve," Harrison revealed. "They plan to kill you after you help them eliminate us."
I realized we were all dead no matter what we did. If we trusted Harrison, we might save our mother but we'd still be hunted by The Thirteen Shadows. If we didn't trust him, our mother would die and we'd still be chased by The Thirteen Shadows.
"There has to be another way," Elena said.
"There is," Harrison said. "But you're not going to like it."
"What?"
Harrison looked straight at Agent Rodriguez. "You have to help me destroy The Thirteen Shadows completely. Tonight. Before they kill anyone else on that list."
"How?" Agent Rodriguez asked.
"By using the bombs in this hospital to collapse their underground headquarters," Harrison said. "It's located directly beneath the chamber where Maria Kane is buried."
I looked at him. "You want to use the bombs to kill The Thirteen Shadows and save Mom at the same time?"
"It's the only way to do both," Harrison said.
Agent Rodriguez shook her head. "If we collapse their headquarters, we might kill your mother too."
"If we don't collapse their headquarters, they'll kill all of us AND your mother," Harrison responded.
I looked at the remote in my hand, then at the list of possible victims, then at my siblings.
"How many Thirteen Shadows members are in the underground headquarters right now?" I asked.
"All of them," Dr. Peterson said with an evil smile. "They're having an emergency meeting because Harrison blew up their safe houses."
"How many people is that?"
"Thirteen members, plus about fifty hired killers," Harrison said. "Everyone who's ever murdered innocent families for money."
I realized Harrison was asking me to become a mass killer to save my family.
"Sarah," Elena said gently. "Whatever you decide, we'll support you."
"Even if I kill sixty-three people?" I asked.
"Even then," Marcus said.
I pressed EXIT.
The building shook severely, and we could hear massive explosions coming from deep underground.
"Did it work?" I asked.
That's when we heard a voice coming through the hospital's sound system. A woman's voice I hadn't heard in fifteen years.
"Sarah? Elena? Marcus? Is that really you?"
It was our mother.
She was living.
But her voice was coming from somewhere in the burning ruins beneath the hospital.
And we had no idea how to reach her before the building collapsed totally.