Chapter 12 - TWO THOMASES
Thomas said nothing.
Then the line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Dad immediately called police.
“Get to Margaret Cross now.”
Officers reached the Brooklyn apartment twelve minutes later.
The door was open.
Margaret was gone.
Blood stained the kitchen floor.
The Northstar drive was missing.
But police found one thing.
A photograph.
Two identical young men stood beside each other.
Twins.
Thomas Reed had a brother.
I had never known.
His name was Jonathan.
Dad remembered him.
“They stopped speaking twenty years ago.”
“Why?”
“Thomas never told me.”
Mom did.
“Jonathan worked for Victor.”
We all turned.
She continued.
“Early Northstar.”
“What happened?”
“He became obsessed with the leverage.”
“Thomas wanted him removed.”
“Victor protected him.”
Thomas called again.
I answered carefully.
“Tell me about Jonathan.”
Silence.
Then Thomas sighed.
“You found out.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because I believed he was dead.”
I laughed without humor.
“Apparently that's becoming a family tradition.”
Thomas explained.
Jonathan had disappeared eleven years earlier after stealing Northstar records.
Everyone assumed Victor killed him.
But no body was recovered.
I asked,
“Could he have attacked Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have copied the files?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have shot Richard?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Dad asked,
“Why come back now?”
Thomas answered,
“Because Northstar is worth more today than it ever was.”
I understood.
Politicians.
Executives.
International companies.
Decades of secrets.
Jonathan didn't need to control one family.
He could control hundreds.
My phone buzzed.
A video arrived.
Margaret appeared tied to a chair.
Alive.
A man stepped into frame.
Thomas's face.
But colder.
Harder.
“Hello, Claire.”
Jonathan.
“I've heard quite a lot about you.”
Dad leaned closer.
Jonathan smiled.
“You did something impressive tonight.”
“You locked the doors.”
“You trapped everyone.”
“You forced the truth into the open.”
His smile widened.
“Perhaps Evelyn chose well after all.”
Mom whispered,
“No.”
Jonathan continued.
“I have Margaret.”
“I have Northstar.”
“And I have the one thing your family no longer has.”
“Control.”
The video cut.
Then a message appeared.
COME ALONE.
An address followed.
Dad immediately said,
“No.”
“I wasn't asking.”
“Neither was I.”
Police advised against going.
Thomas insisted Jonathan would expect surveillance.
Vanessa begged us to save her mother.
Damian offered to go instead.
Jonathan rejected every alternative.
Then another message arrived.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
BRING EDEN.
I looked at Mom.
“What does he mean?”
She understood.
“The succession key.”
“What succession key?”
“The ability to authenticate Northstar.”
I stared at her.
“You told me Northstar was decentralized.”
“It is.”
“But Eden can validate the master ledger.”
Jonathan had data.
Without authentication, buyers might question whether it was genuine.
With Eden, he could prove everything.
Dad shook his head.
“We destroy it.”
Thomas interrupted.
“If you destroy Eden, Margaret dies.”
Vanessa looked at me.
I could see the plea in her eyes.
I remembered Lily.
How many people had been sacrificed because powerful families decided one life was acceptable collateral?
“No.”
Dad looked at me.
“What?”
“We save her.”
“Claire.”
“We save Margaret.”
“And then?”
“We destroy Northstar.”
Mom whispered,
“It can't be destroyed.”
I looked at her.
“Everything can.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Northstar isn't the servers.”
“It isn't the files.”
“It isn't Eden.”
“Then what is it?”
She looked around the ballroom.
At the powerful people still being interviewed.
“It's the agreement between people who believe rules don't apply to them.”
That was when I understood.
Destroying the database wouldn't destroy Northstar.
We had to destroy the system that kept rebuilding it.
And the only way to do that was to expose enough truth that nobody could quietly resurrect it.
I looked at Dad.
“I know what we're going to do.”
He recognized the expression on my face.
“I'm not going to like this, am I?”
“No.”
“What are you planning?”
I looked at the screens.
Then at the hundreds of witnesses.
“We're going to make Northstar worthless.”
“How?”
“By taking away the only thing that gives secrets power.”
Dad understood.
“Secrecy.”
I nodded.
May you like
Tomorrow night, Jonathan expected me to bring him Eden.
Instead, I was going to bring him the end of everything his brother, Victor, Richard, Rachel, and my mother had built.
