Chapter 13 - SOPHIE’S CHOICE
Edward ripped open the generator panel.
Inside, beneath cables and fuel lines, a digital timer counted down.
01:47
Ortiz still held Daniel’s arm.
Claire’s fingers were going numb.
Sophie stood in the rain, staring at the device.
Edward shouted, “There are four wires!”
Ortiz called back, “Do not touch anything!”
“We don’t have time.”
The timer reached 01:31.
Daniel hung below the ledge.
His face had gone strangely calm.
“You should let me fall.”
Claire looked down at him.
“You want that.”
“I want this finished.”
“No. You want the last decision.”
He stared at her.
Even now, he wanted to control how the story ended.
Claire tightened her grip.
“You don’t get it.”
Edward examined the wires.
“Red, blue, white, black.”
Sophie looked at the tablet.
“The diagram says the white wire controls the wrist signal.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Claire noticed.
“She’s right.”
He looked away.
“Sophie,” Claire called, “stay back.”
“I can read it.”
“You are not touching a bomb.”
“I’m not.”
Sophie held the screen toward Edward.
“The blue wire goes to the timer. The black one goes to the battery.”
Edward looked at Ortiz.
“Which do I cut?”
Ortiz shook her head.
“Cutting the battery may trigger a backup.”
Daniel smiled again.
Sophie studied the diagram.
Then she frowned.
“There’s something else.”
“What?” Edward asked.
“The wires don’t matter.”
The timer reached 00:58.
Sophie enlarged the image.
“There’s a pressure plate under the battery.”
Edward froze.
“If I move anything…”
“It explodes.”
Daniel laughed softly from below.
“Smart girl.”
Sophie stared toward him.
“Did you build this?”
“I designed it.”
“Why?”
“To protect what was mine.”
She looked at the tower beneath her feet.
“All these people were yours?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Sophie stepped closer to the edge.
Claire shouted, “Stay back!”
She stopped.
The timer reached 00:41.
Sophie looked at the wrist sensor around Daniel’s arm.
Then at the diagram.
“The bomb listens to his heartbeat.”
Ortiz answered through clenched teeth.
“Yes.”
“What happens if the signal stays steady?”
“It doesn’t detonate.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
“Then we don’t need to cut anything.”
Claire understood.
“The sensor needs a constant signal.”
Sophie nodded.
“Like the machine in Eli’s chest.”
Edward stared at her.
“The defibrillator transmitter.”
Thomas had connected Eli’s device to a portable monitor.
A steady artificial pulse.
But Eli was miles away.
Sophie held up the tablet.
“It still has the medical connection.”
Claire stared.
During the helicopter flight, Thomas had paired Eli’s monitor with the tablet.
The broken screen still displayed the device network.
Daniel looked afraid for the first time.
“You can’t reroute it.”
Sophie ignored him.
She touched the screen.
The timer reached 00:22.
A menu appeared.
EXTERNAL CARDIAC SIGNAL
Sophie selected it.
The tablet searched.
No connection.
“Come on,” she whispered.
The timer hit 00:14.
Claire’s arms screamed with pain.
Daniel looked down at the street.
“Goodbye, Claire.”
The tablet chimed.
DEVICE FOUND: ELI B.
Sophie pressed connect.
The timer reached 00:06.
A steady green pulse appeared.
00:05
00:04
00:03
The rooftop lights went dark.
Claire held her breath.
00:02
00:01
The timer stopped.
A new message appeared.
PRIMARY SIGNAL OVERRIDDEN
No explosion.
For several seconds, only rain and sirens filled the air.
Sophie looked at Claire.
“Did it work?”
Edward pulled her into his arms.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
His entire plan had been defeated by the heart of the child he tried to erase.
Claire looked down at him.
“Eli saved the tower.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Ortiz shouted, “Pull!”
Together, she and Claire dragged him over the ledge.
He hit the roof hard.
Ortiz tore the sensor from his wrist and replaced it with a relay attached to the tablet.
The artificial signal continued.
Daniel lay on his back, breathing heavily.
Claire stood over him.
He looked smaller.
Not physically.
In every other way.
Ortiz handcuffed him.
“You are under arrest for attempted murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, fraud, obstruction, and terrorism.”
Daniel stared at Claire.
“You think they’ll convict me?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t understand the courts.”
Ortiz pulled him upright.
“Kane is already cooperating.”
Daniel’s face went still.
“Rachel too,” Claire added.
“That means nothing.”
“Cole gave us the accounts.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Cole is dead.”
Claire did not answer.
She did not know.
Daniel looked toward Sophie.
“You should come with me.”
Sophie stepped behind Edward.
“No.”
“I’m still your father.”
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “You were supposed to be.”
Daniel flinched.
Ortiz led him toward the hatch.
The building shook again.
The technician’s voice came through the rooftop speaker.
“Secondary supports failing. Immediate evacuation required.”
The bomb had stopped.
The foundation damage remained.
Ortiz pushed Daniel ahead of her.
“Move.”
They descended to the boardroom.
James remained on the floor.
His face was pale.
His breathing shallow.
Sophie rushed to him.
“The bomb stopped.”
James opened his eyes.
“You did it?”
“Eli did.”
A faint smile touched his lips.
“Of course he did.”
Claire pressed new bandages to his wound.
“We need to get everyone down.”
Edward looked toward the main stairwell.
“Fifty floors.”
The chairman pointed to the emergency plans.
“There are reinforced rescue elevators.”
“The main power is down,” the technician said.
“Backup?”
“Damaged.”
Julian looked through the cracked glass wall.
A rescue helicopter hovered several floors below, unable to rise due to wind.
Claire searched the room.
There had to be another route.
Daniel laughed softly from Ortiz’s custody.
“You stopped the bomb.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“But the tower is still dying.”
Claire stood.
“How do we stabilize it?”
“You can’t.”
“You designed the security systems.”
“Not the foundation.”
Edward moved closer.
“But you studied it.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You want me to save you?”
“I want you to save your daughter.”
Daniel looked at Sophie.
She stared back without hope.
Without trust.
That seemed to affect him more than fear or arrest.
The tower groaned.
A long crack spread across the ceiling.
Daniel looked toward the security terminal.
“There is a counterweight system.”
The technician frowned.
“That was removed during renovation.”
“No. I hid it.”
“Where?”
“Sublevel three.”
Claire stared.
“You damaged one support knowing another could balance it.”
“I always build an exit.”
“For yourself.”
Daniel did not deny it.
“How do we activate it?” Edward asked.
“A physical lever.”
“Can it be reached remotely?”
“No.”
“Who can get there?”
Daniel looked around the room.
“No one in time.”
Claire thought of the lower levels.
Bomb squads.
Firefighters.
Employees evacuating.
Then Ortiz’s radio crackled.
A voice came through.
Weak but clear.
“Agent Ortiz, this is Cole.”
Claire grabbed the radio.
“Martin?”
“I’m in the service tunnel beneath the tower.”
He had survived.
Ortiz looked stunned.
“How did you get there?”
“Following Bennett’s accounts led me to an underground transfer station.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Cole continued.
“I found the counterweight controls.”
Edward shouted into the radio.
“There’s a manual lever.”
“I see it.”
Daniel moved forward despite the cuffs.
“Don’t touch it.”
Ortiz restrained him.
Cole’s voice crackled.
“Why?”
Daniel looked toward the floor.
“If the damaged support is too weak, the shift could split the building.”
Claire stared at him.
“Will it work?”
“Maybe.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one.”
Cole spoke over the radio.
“Tell me when.”
The technician watched the structural display.
“East support at fourteen percent.”
Edward looked at Claire.
She looked at Sophie.
At James.
At hundreds of people still trying to escape.
“Do it.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“You could kill everyone.”
Claire met his eyes.
“Doing nothing will kill them.”
Into the radio, she said, “Pull the lever.”
A deep mechanical roar rose through the tower.
The floor shifted violently.
The building leaned farther.
Board members screamed.
Glass exploded from the eastern wall.
Claire covered Sophie.
James slid across the floor.
Then the tower stopped.
The structural monitor flashed red.
Then yellow.
Then green.
COUNTERWEIGHT ENGAGED
The technician exhaled.
“It’s holding.”
Cheers and sobs broke through the room.
Claire closed her eyes.
For one moment, relief washed over her.
Then Sophie cried out.
“James!”
Claire turned.
May you like
James was no longer breathing.
---
