CHAPTER 8: THE FIRE ABOVE THE CITY
Mercer’s men spread across the rooftop.
Six came through the stairwell behind us.
Three stood near the helicopter.
We had nowhere to go.
Smoke poured from the roof vents. Sirens wailed in the streets below. Patients and staff crowded the sidewalks while firefighters entered the lower floors.
Mercer extended his hand.
“Clara.”
Maren held the baby tighter.
“You’ll have to kill me.”
“That can be arranged.”
I stepped forward.
“You need her alive.”
“Not anymore.”
“Then why are you here?”
Mercer smiled.
“To make sure the genetic sequence is complete.”
Dr. Shaw went pale.
“The blood samples.”
“Yes, Doctor. Your sequence was excellent, but several markers degraded during transfer. We require one final sample.”
“You burned a hospital for a blood sample?”
“We started a controlled fire in an empty records wing. Panic is simply useful.”
Mercer looked at Isabel.
“And Subject Seven will be returning with us.”
Isabel’s face became empty.
It was the expression of someone transported instantly back into captivity.
Maren noticed.
She handed Clara to me and stepped beside her mother.
“You are never taking her again.”
Mercer laughed.
“You have no idea how many governments signed agreements benefiting from this work.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should. Laws are only meaningful when powerful people agree to enforce them.”
A helicopter searchlight swept across the rooftop.
For one hopeful second, I thought police had arrived.
Then I saw the Helix emblem beneath the aircraft.
Another Consortium team.
Mercer frowned.
He had not expected them either.
The second helicopter hovered above the neighboring building.
A voice came over a loudspeaker.
“Daniel Mercer, stand down and transfer the assets.”
Assets.
That was all we were to them.
Mercer shouted back, “I have operational authority.”
“Authority has been revoked.”
The men near the stairwell raised their weapons toward the second aircraft.
Chaos erupted.
Gunfire shattered rooftop equipment.
I pulled Maren and the babies behind a concrete ventilation unit.
Dr. Shaw and Isabel crouched beside us.
Mercer’s men fired at the helicopter. The aircraft banked away while two figures descended on cables to the adjacent roof.
“They’re fighting each other,” Maren said.
“Good,” I replied.
“It won’t stay good.”
A bullet struck the concrete inches from my head.
Dr. Shaw examined Clara.
“She’s not breathing normally.”
I looked down.
Clara’s face had gone pale.
“What’s wrong?”
“Smoke exposure. We need oxygen.”
The nearest emergency oxygen station was beside the helicopter.
Mercer stood between us and the equipment.
“I’ll get it.”
Maren grabbed my sleeve.
“No.”
“She needs it.”
“You’ll be killed.”
“I’ll stay low.”
“That isn’t a plan.”
“It’s what we have.”
I handed Clara to her and crawled behind the ventilation units.
Smoke reduced visibility.
Shots continued between Mercer’s team and the Consortium operatives crossing from the adjacent roof.
I reached the oxygen station.
A body lay beside it.
One of the hospital security officers.
I pulled the portable tank free.
“Rowan.”
Mercer’s voice came from behind me.
I turned.
He aimed his gun at my chest.
“You create extraordinary inconvenience.”
“You framed an innocent woman, stole children, and burned a hospital.”
“I processed paperwork.”
“Cowards always make evil sound administrative.”
His expression hardened.
“You think confession makes you better than the rest of us? You destroyed Maren without needing payment.”
“I know.”
“That is why you were easy to control. You wanted evidence supporting what you already feared.”
He moved closer.
“You feared she would discover you were not the man she believed you were.”
He was right.
Maren had loved me before the company grew, before magazines called me brilliant, before powerful families invited me into private rooms.
She knew the insecure young man beneath the expensive suit.
When the fabricated affair appeared, part of me had believed it because betrayal was easier than facing the possibility that I had become unworthy of her.
“You’re right,” I said.
Mercer blinked.
“I failed her.”
His gun remained steady.
“I failed my children. I ignored cruelty when it benefited me. I trusted money more than love.”
“Moving speech.”
“But I am done letting shame make my decisions.”
I threw the oxygen tank toward the ventilation unit.
Mercer fired.
The bullet struck my shoulder.
I fell.
Maren screamed my name.
Mercer turned toward the sound.
Isabel emerged from the smoke and struck him with a metal emergency box.
The gun slid away.
Maren grabbed the oxygen tank and rushed back to Clara.
Mercer seized Isabel by the throat.
“You should have died twenty years ago.”
Isabel clawed at his hands.
I forced myself up despite the pain in my shoulder.
Before I could reach them, a shot rang out.
Mercer released Isabel.
Blood spread across his shirt.
He collapsed.
Tessa stood near the rooftop door holding the gun.
She wore a hospital maintenance uniform. One wrist remained handcuffed, a broken chain hanging from it.
Everyone stared at her.
“You escaped custody,” I said.
“Clearly.”
“Why did you shoot him?”
“He was going to kill the only person who can identify the Consortium’s founding members.”
Isabel looked at her.
Tessa lowered the weapon.
“Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not here to apologize.”
“Where are the officers guarding you?” Maren asked.
“One is unconscious. The other accepted money.”
“You really are your father’s daughter,” I said.
Tessa flinched.
She looked toward the approaching Consortium operatives.
“We have approximately ninety seconds before those men reach this roof.”
“Do you know another exit?”
“There’s a window-washing platform on the south side.”
We moved toward the edge.
The suspended platform hung one floor below.
Firefighters were still evacuating patients through the main stairwells.
Dr. Shaw fitted an oxygen mask over Clara’s face.
“She’s improving, but we need to move.”
Tessa opened a maintenance gate.
Maren stared at her.
“You took my child.”
“Yes.”
“You made me believe she was dead.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me live in poverty while raising your fiancé’s sons.”
Tessa’s face remained pale.
“Yes.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
The answer surprised us all.
Tessa looked at Clara.
“But my father promised the Consortium would cure him. Instead, they used him until he was no longer useful. Mercer planned to kill me after the wedding transfer. I found the order.”
“So this is revenge,” I said.
“Partly.”
“And the other part?”
For the first time, shame crossed her face.
“I heard Clara crying at the estate.”
Maren’s eyes narrowed.
Tessa continued.
“She was alone in that medical room. I had heard children cry in the facilities before. I told myself they were sick. I told myself suffering was necessary.”
Her voice shook.
“But when Clara cried, I knew her. I had held her after she was taken from the hospital.”
Maren went still.
“You held my daughter?”
“For three hours.”
“And then gave her away.”
“Yes.”
The Consortium operatives reached the roof.
Bullets struck the railing.
Tessa opened the maintenance hatch.
“Go!”
We climbed onto the window-washing platform.
Firefighters below saw us and began raising a ladder.
Tessa remained on the roof.
“Aren’t you coming?” I shouted.
She held up the gun.
“Someone has to release the platform manually.”
Maren stared at her.
Tessa looked directly at Clara.
“I named her.”
“What?” Maren whispered.
“The facility called her Subject Forty-One. I wrote Clara on her chart because she needed a name.”
The platform began descending.
Tessa stepped backward as armed men surrounded her.
Maren looked up.
“Tessa!”
For a second, Tessa smiled.
Not the polished smile from the gala.
Something smaller and sadder.
Then smoke swallowed the rooftop.
The platform dropped toward the firefighters.
Clara began breathing normally again.
We reached the ground safely.
Police surrounded the hospital.
I searched every face emerging from the building.
Tessa did not appear.
Three hours later, firefighters found the rooftop empty.
Two Consortium operatives were dead.
The others had escaped.
There was no body matching Tessa.
Only her broken handcuff remained near the edge.
She was either dead, captured, or running.
Before I entered surgery for my shoulder, an officer handed me a sealed envelope recovered from Mercer’s coat.
Inside was a photograph of the Helix Consortium’s governing council.
Twenty-two faces.
Conrad appeared in the front row.
Leonard Price stood behind him.
And seated at the center was a woman I recognized immediately.
May you like
My mother.
Helen Brooks.
