Chapter 11 - What William Mercer Built
Jonathan called Richard.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Vale smiled.
"He always was more practical than you."
Jonathan stepped toward him.
"Practical people don't erase evidence unless they're afraid."
Vale's smile disappeared.
Claire moved to the server rack.
"Physical disconnect."
Lila helped pull cables.
Delete progress froze at seventy-one percent.
Not enough.
Maybe enough.
Jonathan grabbed Vale's hard drive.
Vale held on.
"You have no idea what you're destroying."
"Good."
"The model saved lives."
Lila stared.
"Whose?"
Vale looked at her.
"People identified early."
"And the ones you priced out?"
He did not answer.
Sirens approached.
Vale released the drive.
Jonathan opened the mortality archive.
Names.
Dates.
Causes.
Settlement status.
Anna Hart.
Lila stopped him.
"Open it."
He hesitated.
"Open it."
Anna's file.
Exposure symptoms.
Cardiac complications.
Monitoring suspended.
Death:
HEART FAILURE.
Lila stared.
"That is what they told me."
Then a note.
FEDERAL CONTACT SUSPECTED.
MONITOR MEDICATION ACCESS.
Her throat tightened.
"What?"
Claire read over her shoulder.
"Anna planned to talk to someone."
Vale looked away.
Jonathan noticed.
"You knew."
Vale said nothing.
"Did you treat her?"
"No."
"Did you access her chart?"
Silence.
Police entered the building.
Vale raised his hands.
Jonathan kept reading.
One memo from William.
IF ANNA HART EVER TALKS, RICHARD HANDLES IT.
Jonathan stared.
His father.
Even dead, still speaking in orders.
Lila read.
Her hands shook.
"Handles it."
Vale said, "William used aggressive language."
Jonathan turned.
"Do not lawyer my father's murder memo."
Vale's eyes hardened.
"Nobody murdered Anna."
Claire looked at him.
Too fast.
Lila noticed too.
"I didn't say murder."
Vale went still.
Jonathan stepped closer.
"What happened to her?"
Vale said nothing.
Police cuffed him for obstruction pending further investigation.
Then Jonathan's phone rang.
Richard.
He answered on speaker.
"Stop digging."
Jonathan laughed.
"You're thirty years late."
Richard's breathing sounded rough.
"You think William built BM-17 to hide an accident."
"He did."
"Partly."
Jonathan looked at Lila.
"What else?"
Richard whispered:
"To find which children would survive it."
Lila's face went cold.
Then Richard said:
May you like
"Ask Vale about BM-01."
CUT.
