Chapter 8 - Julian Offered To Keep Me Dead
The meeting took place in a conference room above headquarters.
Not secret.
Not underground.
Fluorescent lights.
Water bottles.
Two legal officers.
Vanessa.
Julian Voss.
Leah, still masked.
Me.
A civilian investigator named Karen Holt sat at the head of the table.
She did not appear impressed by anybody's drama.
Good.
“Ms. Carter.”
“Captain Carter.”
Vanessa looked at me.
Holt corrected herself.
“Captain Carter, pending verification.”
Fair.
Julian smiled slightly.
“Verification is the issue.”
I wanted to hit him.
Bad habit forming.
Holt looked at Vanessa.
“You were asked to certify whether the woman known as Sarah Mercer was Captain Rachel Carter.”
Vanessa said:
“Yes.”
“And?”
Vanessa looked at me.
Julian watched her.
Leah did not move.
“No.”
My chest tightened.
Holt frowned.
“No, she was not?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“No, I will not certify they were different people.”
Julian’s smile disappeared.
Holt leaned forward.
“Clarify.”
Vanessa did.
“Sarah Mercer was a protective identity used by Captain Carter after the Fort Grant depot incident.”
Silence.
No thunder.
Just a legal officer starting to write faster.
Julian said:
“General, I suggest—”
Holt cut him off.
“You'll have your turn.”
I almost liked her.
Vanessa continued.
“I knew Captain Carter survived.”
“How long?”
“From the night of the incident.”
“And you allowed a death determination to remain?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I believed correcting it immediately could expose her to people misusing a casualty-relocation network.”
“Did you have authorization?”
“No.”
Julian said quietly:
“That's an oversimplification.”
Vanessa turned.
“Of course you think so.”
Holt raised one hand.
“General.”
Vanessa stopped.
Holt looked at me.
“Did you consent to using the Sarah Mercer identity?”
“For seventy-two hours.”
Vanessa flinched.
Good.
“After that?”
“I consented to extensions under pressure I did not fully understand.”
Julian leaned back.
“Captain Carter was given choices.”
I looked at him.
“By people who controlled every phone, door and piece of information around me.”
No one spoke.
Julian's eyes stayed calm.
“I never held you.”
“You didn't have to.”
That almost made him smile.
Then he looked at Leah.
“Would you like to participate?”
Leah said nothing.
Holt frowned.
“Ms.—?”
Julian answered:
“Sarah Mercer.”
Vanessa went pale.
I stared at him.
He continued:
“Or one of them.”
The masked woman finally removed her cap.
Then her mask.
Holt looked at Leah.
Vanessa stopped breathing for a second.
No mother-daughter reunion.
Wrong room.
Leah said:
“My name is Leah Cole.”
Holt looked toward Vanessa.
“Relation?”
“My daughter.”
That changed the room.
Julian folded his hands.
“Leah has also used the Mercer identity.”
Holt looked at Leah.
“Voluntarily?”
“Sometimes.”
“Were you coerced?”
Leah took a long time.
“Yes.”
Julian finally looked annoyed.
Not afraid.
“Leah.”
She ignored him.
Holt said:
“By Mr. Voss?”
“Sometimes by him. Sometimes by people using the system he built. Sometimes by my own fear of losing access.”
That was harder to dismiss.
Julian turned toward me.
“Rachel, let me simplify what everyone here is making theatrical.”
I almost laughed.
He continued:
“You were protected by an irregular system after a casualty error.”
“Used.”
“Protected first.”
“Then?”
“Then circumstances changed.”
“And my death stayed useful.”
His eyes sharpened slightly.
“Yes.”
Finally.
“What do you want?”
Julian looked toward Holt.
“The cleanest outcome is to recognize Sarah Mercer as a composite protective identity and leave Captain Carter's casualty status undisturbed until the full review is complete.”
I stared.
“You want me to stay dead.”
“Temporarily.”
“Three years wasn't enough?”
His face did not move.
“It kept you alive.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
Good.
Then he said:
“It also kept Laura Carter from becoming a target.”
My mother's name hit the table like a gunshot.
I leaned forward.
“What did you do to my mother?”
Julian smiled without warmth.
“Nothing.”
Leah looked at him.
That was the first time I saw fear in her face.
May you like
Not because he threatened violence.
Because she knew he had just opened a part of the story she had not controlled.
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