My stomach knotted.
“What photograph?”
“The silver frame behind your desk.”
I had never kept personal photographs in my office. It was a security rule I had followed throughout my career.
“Are you certain?”
Noah nodded.
“The man had the same eyes as the person in the portrait.”
I looked toward Tessa.
“Who entered my office this week?”
“Cleaning staff and security personnel. Standard access only.”
“Pull every record.”
She reached immediately for her tablet, but the screen flickered and lost its connection.
“We are too far from the network.”
Colonel Sloane had supposedly died years earlier.
Yet someone had placed his photograph inside my office, where Noah would find it.
Someone had been watching us long before tonight.
The wind rose into a howl. The helicopter shuddered around us.
The pilot’s voice came through the intercom.
“Visibility is collapsing. I need to set down. There is a clearing two miles ahead.”
“Is it on the lodge property?” General Rowan asked.
“Yes. A maintenance cabin should be nearby.”
“Land there.”
The aircraft sank into a solid wall of snow. The ground appeared only seconds before the landing skids struck it.
The pilot shut down the engine.
When the rotors died, the silence became enormous.
Tessa opened the side door. Bitter air and stinging snow burst into the cabin.
Emma stirred.
“Are we there?”
“Almost.”
We moved the children through ankle-deep snow. General Rowan led us with a flashlight. Ethan carried Ivy, who had fallen asleep against his chest.
A small maintenance cabin emerged between the trees.
The door was unlocked.
Inside were several bunks, a propane lantern, shelves of supplies, and a wood-burning stove.
General Rowan lit the lantern.
Warm amber light pushed back the shadows.
For the moment, we had shelter.
But the same storm had sealed us inside.
I settled the children onto the bunks. Ethan placed Ivy beside Emma. His hand hovered near her hair before he slowly brushed it away from her face.
Noah sat on the floor with his knees drawn against his chest.
“What is wrong?” I asked.
“The man from the portrait came to our school.”
Cold moved through my body.
“How often?”
“Three times. He watched us during recess. Once he spoke to the custodian.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“I told Mrs. Alder. She thought he was a parent waiting for someone.”
“Did she report him?”
“She said she would.”
Tessa began writing everything down on paper.
“We need to find out who Mrs. Alder contacted,” I told her.
“I will check as soon as we regain a signal.”
General Rowan started the stove. Flames caught and slowly breathed warmth into the room.
Ethan sat on the edge of a bunk.
“We need a plan for morning.”
“We move as soon as the roads are safe.”
“They will locate this place eventually.”
“I know.”
I drew out the drive.
“We start by opening this.”
The shield gleamed beneath the lantern.
Four sections.
Four engraved names.
Four children tied to a secret older than any of them.
“We need an offline computer,” I said. “A standalone terminal that will not alert anyone when we access the files.”
General Rowan considered it.
“There is a decommissioned research facility about thirty miles north. It has been abandoned for years, but some equipment remains. It is entirely off-grid.”
“Can we reach it?”
“Not tonight. The roads will be impassable until the storm weakens.”
“Then we leave at first light.”
Outside, the wind battered the cabin walls.
Somewhere beyond the storm, Valerie and Colonel Sloane were escaping with the knowledge that Project Eclipse had found my children.
Caleb stirred.
“Mom?”
I sat beside him.
“I’m here.”
“Did Grandpa die because of us?”
The question cut more deeply than anything Lenora had said.
“Your grandfather died protecting the people he loved,” I answered carefully. “That includes you.”
“Even before we were born?”
“Even then.”
He closed his eyes.
When I looked up, Ethan was watching me.
“You raised them well,” he said.
I gave no response.
Words could not erase eight years.
Perhaps actions could.
I stayed awake through the entire night with my hand close to my weapon.
By dawn, the storm had begun to weaken. Gray light seeped through the windows, revealing the sleeping children and the ashes inside the stove.
General Rowan returned from checking the road.
“We can drive, but our landing marks will be visible from the air. If Project Eclipse has access to satellite imagery, they may already know we stopped here.”
“Then we leave now.”
We woke the children and gave them bottled water and granola bars.
Caleb rubbed his eyes.
