CHAPTER 10 THE TRAP CALLED "BLUEBIRD"
Daniel crushed the phone in his hand.
"No."
The room fell silent.
Marcus reached for the device.
"Let me see."
Daniel handed it over without taking his eyes off the photograph.
The young woman looked terrified.
Her wrists were tied behind a steel chair.
A blindfold covered her eyes.
Behind her, the words BLUEBIRD FOUND were spray-painted across an old concrete wall.
Marcus enlarged the image.
"The metadata was stripped."
"Can you locate it?"
"I'm trying."
Ava stepped beside Daniel.
She stared at the woman for several long seconds.
Then whispered,
"I know her."
Daniel turned.
"What?"
"I've seen her."
"Where?"
"She visited my father's grave."
Everyone froze.
Rachel looked up sharply.
"When?"
"Last year."
"You never told me."
"I thought she was another mourner."
Ava closed her eyes, trying to remember.
"She brought fresh white lilies."
"My father's favorite flowers."
Charles slowly sat down.
"Samuel loved lilies."
Ava nodded.
"She cried."
Daniel frowned.
"Did she speak to you?"
"No."
"Did she see you?"
"I don't think so."
Marcus zoomed in again.
The woman's necklace became visible.
A tiny silver locket.
Rachel gasped.
"The locket..."
Everyone looked toward her.
Rachel's hands trembled.
"I bought that."
Silence.
"I had two."
Ava stopped breathing.
"What?"
"When the twins were born..."
Rachel's voice cracked.
"...Samuel gave me matching lockets."
She looked at the photograph again.
"I buried one with the empty crib."
"And the other?"
"I put it around Ava's neck."
Ava instinctively touched her own necklace.
She had stopped wearing it years ago after the chain broke.
Rachel looked at the picture.
"She has the second one."
No one needed another DNA test.
No one spoke.
The woman in the photograph...
...was almost certainly Ava's twin sister.
Marcus's computer suddenly chimed.
"I have something."
The room rushed toward his desk.
"The image wasn't geotagged."
"But?"
"The reflection in the window wasn't edited."
He enhanced the photograph.
An upside-down street sign appeared in the glass.
Three letters became readable.
RIV
Marcus searched city maps.
"River District."
Hundreds of warehouses appeared.
Daniel looked impatient.
"Can you narrow it down?"
Marcus zoomed farther.
Another reflection.
A faded company logo.
"Blackwood Shipping."
Charles immediately stood.
"I know that building."
"You do?"
"It was abandoned after Victor's shell companies were exposed."
Marcus already had tactical units moving.
"ETA?"
"Eleven minutes."
Daniel shook his head.
"Too long."
Ava grabbed her coat.
Daniel caught her wrist.
"Where are you going?"
"He said I come alone."
"No."
"If we wait—"
"We are not sending you into a trap."
"He already has my sister."
"You don't even know if she's alive."
Ava looked directly into his eyes.
"I've already lost one lifetime with her."
Daniel's voice softened.
"I'm not losing you too."
Ava placed both hands against his face.
"You won't."
Before Daniel could answer...
She kissed him.
Not desperately.
Not dramatically.
Just long enough to remind both of them what they were fighting for.
When she stepped back...
She smiled sadly.
"If something happens..."
Daniel interrupted immediately.
"Don't."
"Daniel—"
"I won't hear goodbye."
"I'm saying..."
A tear escaped despite her effort to stop it.
"...thank you."
Daniel wrapped both arms around her.
"You'll tell me that when we're eighty."
Thirty minutes later...
Rain had stopped.
Fog rolled across the abandoned shipping yard.
Warehouse 18 stood alone near the river.
Its broken windows reflected the flashing blue lights of approaching federal vehicles still several blocks away.
Marcus watched through binoculars.
"Movement inside."
Daniel checked his pistol.
Charles stepped beside him.
"I should go first."
Daniel looked at the man who had missed eight years of his life.
"No."
"You don't understand Victor."
"I understand enough."
Charles sighed.
"He always shoots the person people expect to survive."
Daniel stared.
"You think that's comforting?"
"No."
"It's honest."
Ava quietly walked toward them.
"I'm going in."
Daniel took her hand.
"We go together."
"He asked for me."
"He'll get both of us."
Marcus listened through his earpiece.
"Snipers in position."
"Can they see Victor?"
"No."
"The hostage?"
"No."
Daniel nodded once.
"Then we move."
Inside...
The warehouse smelled of rust and engine oil.
Dust floated through beams of gray light.
Rows of old shipping containers stretched into darkness.
Victor's voice echoed.
"Right on time."
Daniel raised his weapon.
"Show yourself."
Victor stepped out from behind a container.
He smiled.
"Where's the army?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Victor looked at Ava.
"You came."
"I came for my sister."
Victor chuckled.
"You came for answers."
"Same thing."
Victor slowly clapped.
"Samuel would be proud."
"Where is she?"
Victor pointed toward the far end of the warehouse.
A single spotlight switched on.
The young woman sat tied to a chair.
Her blindfold remained in place.
She was breathing.
Alive.
"Ava..."
Rachel whispered from behind Daniel.
The woman tilted her head.
She had heard the name.
Victor noticed.
"Interesting."
He walked closer to the hostage.
"She doesn't know who she is."
Daniel tightened his grip on the pistol.
"Let her go."
"Why?"
"Because this ends tonight."
Victor smiled.
"It already did."
He removed the woman's blindfold.
She blinked against the light.
Then looked directly at Ava.
For several seconds...
Neither woman spoke.
It was like looking into a mirror from another life.
The same eyes.
The same smile hidden beneath fear.
Even the way they tilted their heads was identical.
The woman whispered,
"...Who are you?"
Ava couldn't answer.
Tears filled her eyes.
Victor laughed quietly.
"I spent thirty-two years making sure this moment happened exactly the way I wanted."
The woman frowned.
"What is he talking about?"
Ava slowly stepped forward.
"My name is Ava."
The woman's breathing caught.
"...Mine is Emily."
Rachel covered her mouth.
"No..."
Emily looked confused.
"Do... do I know you?"
Ava's voice trembled.
"I think..."
She fought back tears.
"...you're my sister."
Emily stared.
Then laughed nervously.
"That's impossible."
"I wish it was."
Victor interrupted.
"Oh, it's very possible."
He tossed a folder onto the floor.
Birth records scattered across the concrete.
DNA reports.
Hospital photographs.
Medical charts.
Emily looked down.
Then back at Ava.
Then at Rachel.
Rachel whispered,
"I'm your mother."
Emily's world shattered.
She looked at Victor.
"This isn't funny."
"It isn't."
She looked at Daniel.
"Who are these people?"
Daniel lowered his weapon slightly.
"They're your family."
Emily shook her head violently.
"My parents died when I was sixteen."
Victor smiled.
"So you were told."
Emily stared at him.
"What?"
"They weren't your parents."
Silence swallowed the warehouse.
Emily looked as though she could no longer breathe.
Victor continued.
"They bought you."
"No..."
"They raised you."
"No!"
"They loved you."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"But they weren't your parents."
Emily screamed,
"STOP!"
The sound echoed through the empty warehouse.
Ava instinctively moved closer.
"It's okay."
Emily looked at her.
"No..."
"It isn't."
Marcus suddenly spoke into his radio.
"Movement!"
Everyone turned.
More armed men emerged from behind the shipping containers.
Not two.
Not five.
More than twenty.
Victor hadn't come alone.
Daniel realized immediately.
"This was never an exchange."
Victor smiled.
"No."
"It was a reunion."
The warehouse lights abruptly went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Gunfire exploded.
People shouted.
Glass shattered.
Daniel grabbed Ava and pulled her behind a steel container.
Marcus ordered the tactical team forward.
Flashlights cut through the darkness.
Somewhere inside the warehouse...
Emily screamed.
"Ava!"
Daniel looked toward the sound.
"Ava, stay here."
She grabbed his arm.
"No!"
Another scream.
Then silence.
The emergency lights flickered back on.
Victor was gone.
Half his men had escaped through the loading dock.
Emily's chair...
...was empty.
Only the ropes remained on the floor.
Daniel looked toward the open dock doors.
A black helicopter lifted into the night sky.
Marcus lowered his rifle.
"We're too late."
Ava stood frozen.
She had found her sister...
For less than three minutes.
Before losing her all over again.
Then Daniel noticed something on the concrete where Emily had been sitting.
A small silver locket.
He picked it up.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Only four handwritten words appeared.
Trust no Blackwood.
Daniel slowly looked toward his father...
...and then toward his wounded mother.
For the first time since this nightmare began...
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He no longer knew which member of his own family the warning was about.
