Chapter 6 - The Dead Man at the Airport
Ethan Walsh was arrested at Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
He did not resist.
He carried no weapon.
Inside his bag were three passports, a satellite phone, and a photograph of Amelia taken eleven months after her reported death.
She stood beside a window overlooking a snowy mountain.
Alive.
Gideon stared at the photograph until Detective Ortiz removed it from his hand.
“Where is she?”
Ethan sat across the interview table.
“I do not know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I have not seen her in eight months.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“We were trying to keep her alive.”
“You let her children believe their mother was dead.”
Ethan’s expression tightened.
“That decision destroyed her.”
“Then why did she make it?”
“She did not have a choice after Daniel found the archive.”
Ethan explained that Amelia discovered several Seattle officials were compromised by Northstar recordings.
Police commanders.
Judges.
A federal prosecutor.
Reporting the network through normal channels would expose her location.
She and Ethan staged their deaths after the boat explosion failed to kill them.
The blast had been real.
Daniel arranged it.
Ethan pulled Amelia from the water.
A former intelligence officer helped them disappear.
They left Gideon and the children behind because surveillance inside the Mercer home made contact impossible.
“Why not warn me?” Gideon asked.
“Amelia was not sure whether you were involved.”
“She believed the fake recording.”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“She found proof you were being framed.”
“Then why stay away?”
“Because she learned something worse.”
Ethan looked toward Detective Ortiz.
“Northstar did not want only Gideon’s company files. They wanted Toby.”
Gideon became still.
“Toby was not born when Amelia disappeared.”
“The embryo already existed.”
Amelia and Gideon had created embryos during fertility treatment before Maya’s birth. Years later, after Amelia’s health declined, they arranged for a surrogate to carry their second child.
Toby was born six months after Amelia’s reported death.
“What does my son have to do with Daniel?”
Ethan opened one of the passports.
A medical document was hidden inside the cover.
The fertility clinic that stored Gideon and Amelia’s embryos was owned through a Northstar subsidiary.
Daniel accessed genetic records belonging to wealthy and influential families.
Toby’s embryo had been selected because he carried a rare immune marker.
Northstar’s investors funded experimental pediatric treatments requiring compatible biological material.
“What are you saying?” Gideon asked.
“They did not simply steal company secrets. They controlled which embryo was transferred.”
“Why?”
“I do not know.”
“Is Toby biologically mine?”
“Yes.”
“And Amelia’s?”
Ethan hesitated.
“That is what the clinic records say.”
Gideon heard the uncertainty.
“Where is Amelia?”
“She was investigating the clinic in Vancouver. Then she disappeared.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
Around the same time Gideon began traveling more often under contracts arranged through Marcus.
Someone may have separated him from the house deliberately while Isla increased control over the children.
Ethan claimed he returned after receiving a message from Amelia’s old encrypted account.
The message contained three words.
PROTECT MAYA NOW.
Sent two days earlier.
If Amelia was alive, she knew the children were in danger.
Or someone had access to her account.
Detective Ortiz compared Ethan’s story with evidence from the Mercer home.
His fingerprints appeared inside the oldest surveillance control box.
He admitted installing cameras at Amelia’s request.
She wanted proof Northstar had entered their house.
Those cameras were supposed to record locally.
Daniel later hijacked the system.
“Did Maya know her mother was alive?” Gideon asked.
“No.”
“Did Amelia ever see the children?”
“From a distance.”
Gideon stood so quickly that the chair fell backward.
“She watched them?”
“She came to Seattle twice.”
“And did not speak to them?”
“She believed contact would expose them.”
“She left them with Isla.”
“She did not know who Isla was until later.”
Gideon wanted to hate Amelia.
Part of him did.
Another part imagined her watching Maya from across a street, unable to approach.
Fear had made cowards and conspirators of everyone connected to this case.
Detective Ortiz received a call from the protected residence where Maya, Toby, and Emma were staying.
A woman had appeared outside.
Barefoot.
Injured.
She claimed to be Amelia Mercer.
Gideon reached the house twenty minutes later.
A woman sat beneath a blanket in the kitchen.
Her hair was shorter.
A scar crossed her temple.
But when she looked up, Gideon knew her.
Amelia.
Alive.
Before he could speak, she looked toward the staircase.
“Where is Toby?”
“With Maya.”
Amelia began shaking.
“No. Check.”
Gideon ran upstairs.
Maya sat inside the bedroom holding an empty baby blanket.
The window stood open.
Toby was gone.
May you like
On the sill rested the missing archive drive.
Continue to the next part: Amelia returns as Toby is abducted, and the recovered archive reveals Isla was never the true leader of the operation.
