CHAPTER 23 — THE BETRAYAL
Evelyn said nothing.
She had expected betrayal from Julian for ten years.
Why did this one hurt?
Celeste moved toward Daniel.
“You trained our daughter to believe pain makes people strong.”
Daniel replied, “You trained her to mistake emotion for judgment.”
Julian stood between them.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Why?”
He met her eyes.
“Because your mother offered to dismantle Nightingale.”
“She is Nightingale now.”
“She showed me the list of Choir targets.”
“So did Daniel.”
“No. She showed me the children.”
Images appeared around the theater.
Dozens of children lived inside institutions connected to the Choir. Some had false names. Others had been declared dead.
“They are being trained,” Julian said. “The way you were.”
Evelyn looked at Celeste.
“You knew?”
“I found them after the transfer.”
“And your solution was to use Julian?”
“My solution was to use someone the Choir believes it controls.”
Julian opened his shirt.
A tracking device had been placed beneath his ribs.
“He let them take him,” Celeste said. “They brought him here because they believed this hospital was secure.”
Evelyn turned toward Daniel.
“Did you know about the children?”
Daniel did not answer.
That was enough.
Nathan raised his weapon.
“You said Nightingale monitored the Choir.”
“It did.”
“You allowed them to create more subjects.”
“I allowed the operation to continue so we could identify every facility.”
Evelyn’s voice became cold.
“Children suffered because you wanted a complete map.”
“Partial victories create surviving enemies.”
A wall opened.
Behind it stood rows of hospital beds.
The children were gone.
Only restraints remained.
Celeste looked at Julian.
“They moved them.”
Julian checked the tracking system.
“That’s impossible. The signal was here.”
Daniel smiled.
“Unless the signal was designed for you.”
Alarms sounded.
The island shook.
Mara checked the building systems.
“Explosives in the lower levels.”
Celeste stared at Daniel.
“You brought us into a trap.”
“No,” Daniel said.
He looked toward Evelyn.
“She did.”
Everyone turned.
A screen showed Evelyn entering a command into the Nightingale archive hours earlier.
Evelyn did not remember doing it.
The command read:
ELIMINATE ALL ACTIVE NIGHTINGALE LEADERS.
The countdown began.
May you like
Julian whispered, “Evelyn, what did they put inside your head?”
Then the first explosion tore through the hospital.
