Ch.24: The Video Diary

The helicopter ride back to the mainland was silent. Silas piloted, his jaw set in a grim line. Mia sat in the back, handcuffed to the seat frame, staring out the window at the receding lights of the oil rig.

I sat opposite her, holding the bottle of Pinot Noir like it was a grenade.

I looked at the man we had rescued. The spare judge. He was shivering, wrapped in a thermal blanket.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Arthur," he whispered. "Arthur Halloway."

"And your brother?"

"Richard. The Honorable Richard Halloway." Arthur let out a bitter, choked laugh. "He was always the ambitious one. I just wanted to teach history."

I looked at Mia. She refused to meet my gaze.

"You knew," I said. "You knew Richard had a twin."

"I knew Sterling had leverage," Mia said, her voice flat. "I didn't ask for the details."

"Leverage?" I scoffed. "He kidnapped a man and locked him in a metal box for six months. That's not leverage. That's torture."

"It's business, Harper!" Mia snapped, finally looking at me. Her eyes were red, but not from tears. From rage. "Sterling owns the courts. He owns the police. He owns the city. You don't fight a man like that. You join him."

"Is that why you helped him kill Liam?"

Mia flinched. "I didn't help him kill Liam! I tried to stop him!"

"You lured him to the alley," I said, remembering the video. "I saw you."

"I was trying to get him out of the city!" Mia shouted, straining against the cuffs. "Sterling found out about the encryption key. He was going to send a hit squad. I told Liam to meet me in the alley so I could get him to a safe house. But..."

She trailed off.

"But what?"

"But Kael was there," Mia whispered. "She was waiting for us."

I looked at Silas. He was listening, his eyes on the horizon.

"So you helped them load the body," I said, my voice shaking. "You closed the door."

"They told me if I didn't cooperate, they'd kill you too," Mia said. "They said it was a trade. One sibling for another."

"So you chose yourself."

"I chose the survivor!" Mia screamed. "Liam was already dead, Harper! He was stupid and he got caught and he was dead the moment he tried to sell that key! But you... you had a chance."

She slumped back in the seat.

"I did it to save you," she said, her voice breaking. "Everything I did, I did to keep Sterling from looking at you."

I wanted to believe her. God, I wanted to believe her.

But then I looked at the wine bottle. At the silk robe she was still wearing under the heavy coat Silas had given her.

"If you were trying to save me," I asked, "why were you drinking vintage wine in a luxury suite while I was being framed for murder?"

Mia didn't answer. She just looked out the window at the dark water.

We landed on the roof of an abandoned textile factory in Sector 3. Silas had a safe house in the basement.

We hustled Arthur and Mia down the stairs. The place was grim—concrete walls, cots, a generator humming in the corner.

"I need to get Arthur's statement," I told Silas. "On video. A sworn deposition."

"We don't have time," Silas said, checking his watch. "Sterling knows she's gone. He'll be tracking the chopper."

"We have to make time. This is the smoking gun, Silas. A judge who was replaced by a twin? It invalidates every ruling Halloway has made in the last six months. It frees Julian. It destroys Sterling."

I pulled out my phone. I set it up on a crate.

"Arthur," I said gently. "I need you to tell the camera everything. Who took you. When. Where you've been."

Arthur nodded, trembling. He sat on a crate. He looked into the lens.

"My name is Arthur Halloway," he began, his voice weak but clear. "And for the last 180 days, I have been held against my will by Marcus Sterling..."

I recorded it. Every word. The kidnapping. The switch. The threats against his family if he tried to escape.

When he was done, I uploaded the file to three different secure servers. Including Julian's.

"It's done," I said.

"Not yet," Silas said. He was standing over Mia, who was sitting on a cot, sullen and silent.

"We need the shard," Silas said. "We need the encryption key."

"I don't have it," Mia said.

"Liar," I said. "You asked me for it on the rig. You said you needed to give it to Sterling."

"I thought *you* had it!" Mia shot back. "That's why I tried to get it from you!"

"If you don't have it, and I don't have it..." I paused.

I realized something.

When I was in my office, downloading the logs... Julian told me to pull the shard.

I did.

But then Sterling's men burst in. I hid it in my boot.

And then I went to jail.

They took my clothes. They gave me a uniform. They put my personal effects in a bag.

"The evidence locker," I whispered.

"What?" Silas asked.

"The shard," I said, horror dawning on me. "It's in my boot. In the evidence locker at the 9th Precinct."

Silas swore.

"It's sitting in a bag with my name on it," I said. "If Sterling audits the evidence..."

"He'll find it," Silas finished. "And he'll have the key to the Ghost Drive. He'll have everything."

"We have to get it back," I said.

"Break into a police station?" Silas looked at me like I was crazy. "Harper, that's suicide."

"It's the only way."

I looked at Mia. She was watching us, her eyes darting back and forth.

"You know the layout of the 9th," I said to her. "You interned there."

Mia stayed silent.

"Help us," I said. "Prove you're not one of them."

Mia looked at me. Then she reached into the pocket of the silk robe.

She pulled out a tablet.

It wasn't hers. It was the one I had found in the rig. The one with the low battery.

"I didn't just drink wine," she said softly. "I looked through Kael's files."

She tapped the screen. It flickered to life.

A video started playing.

It wasn't a surveillance feed. It was a video diary.

Kael was on screen. She looked younger. Softer. She was holding a baby.

*"Project Chimera is a go,"* Kael said to the camera. *"Sterling promised me he'd keep them safe. He promised."*

The video cut.

Another clip. Kael, older now, the cybernetic eye in place. She looked hard. Broken.

*"He lied,"* she whispered. *"He killed them. Both of them. And now he owns me."*

Mia looked up at me.

"Kael hates him, Harper. She hates him more than you do. She's not a loyal soldier. She's a slave."

I looked at the tablet.

"We don't need to break into the precinct," I realized. "We just need someone on the inside to open the door."

"Kael?" Silas asked, skeptical. "She tried to kill you."

"She *let* me live," I corrected. "She gave me the code to the service entrance. She gave me the Faraday bag."

I looked at the video again. The pain in Kael's eyes.

"She's waiting for a chance to strike," I said. "We just have to give it to her."

I took the tablet. I found Kael's contact info embedded in the metadata.

I typed a message.

**I KNOW ABOUT CHIMERA. HELP US GET THE SHARD, AND WE HELP YOU KILL HIM.**

I hit send.

We waited. One minute. Two.

The tablet buzzed.

**KAEL:** *Meet me at the back entrance. 0400. Come alone.*

I looked at Silas. "I'm going."

"It's a trap," he said.

"Maybe," I admitted. "But it's the only play we have."

I turned to Mia.

"You stay here. Silas watches you. If you try to run, if you try to signal Sterling..."

"I won't," Mia said. Her voice was small. "I want him dead too, Harper. He promised me a partnership. He promised me a future."

She looked down at her hands.

"He promised me Liam would be safe."

I looked at her. Really looked at her. She wasn't the villain I thought she was. She was just another victim who made a deal with the devil and lost.

My stomach turned. She wasn't scared. She was... collaborating? No. She was drowning.

"We're going to fix this," I said. "Stay here."

I grabbed my coat and the stun baton.

I was going back into the lion's den. And this time, I was bringing a whip.