Darkness swallowed the corridor.
I heard Viktor move toward me.
“Stay behind me.”
A metallic sound came from somewhere to our left.
Then another.
Doors locking.
One after another.
Clara whispered, “They're here.”
“Who?”
“Security.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red illumination washed over the corridor.
Clara grabbed my arm.
“This way.”
We ran.
Viktor followed.
We passed the observation room and entered a stairwell.
Footsteps echoed above us.
Clara moved quickly despite the years she had spent hidden.
“Where did you hide?”
I asked.
“Several places.”
“Who helped you?”
“Your father.”
“How?”
“He found the records.”
“Then why didn't he tell me?”
“Because you were the reason they couldn't kill him.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Clara looked back.
“You didn't understand your role.”
“What role?”
“The translations.”
Viktor caught up.
“Clara, explain.”
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
We descended another flight.
A door opened below.
Clara pulled us into a storage room.
We waited.
Two men passed outside.
Their voices were muffled.
One spoke German.
The other answered in English.
I recognized the German accent.
Viktor heard it too.
“Markus.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
“Who then?”
“People using his identity.”
The realization made my stomach turn.
“They've been using dead people's names.”
“Yes.”
“The aliases.”
“Yes.”
“Michael Rainer.”
Clara nodded.
“Markus.”
“Yes.”
“Your sister.”
“Not an alias.”
Clara looked at Viktor.
“Not anymore.”
The words confused me.
She opened a hidden panel behind a shelf.
Inside was a narrow passage.
We entered.
The passage led beneath the facility.
There were pipes overhead and old electrical cables along the walls.
After several minutes, Clara stopped.
She turned toward me.
“Your father left instructions.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That if you came here with Viktor, I should tell you the truth.”
I looked at Viktor.
He seemed as surprised as I was.
“What truth?”
Clara reached into her coat.
She removed a small envelope.
My name was written across it in my father's handwriting.
I took it.
My hands shook.
Inside was a single page.
Anna,
If you're reading this, I failed to keep you outside the story.
I closed my eyes.
Clara looked away.
I continued.
You were never chosen because you were useful.
You were chosen because you were the only person who could hear the difference.
I frowned.
The next sentence explained it.
The altered translations contained a pattern.
Every seventh sentence carried a second meaning.
Only someone translating naturally between languages could recognize it.
I read the page twice.
My father had been using my work as a detection system.
I had unknowingly identified the altered records.
But there was more.
He wrote that the people behind the program had realized what was happening.
They had begun searching for the translator.
Me.
I lowered the paper.
“That is why they used my photograph.”
Clara nodded.
“They needed to identify you.”
“And Viktor?”
“He was searching for the same people.”
I looked at Viktor.
“You didn't find me by accident.”
“No.”
“You found my photograph first.”
“Yes.”
“Then you brought me into this.”
“I didn't know how deep it went.”
Clara interrupted.
“Neither did he.”
I looked at her.
“Who is running it?”
She hesitated.
Then said:
“Michael Rainer.”
I stared at her.
“He's dead.”
“No.”
“He was listed as dead.”
“He was listed that way because he needed to disappear.”
Viktor's face hardened.
“Where is he?”
Clara looked at him.
“He is the man who has been directing everything.”
“The accidents?”
“Yes.”
“My father's kidnapping?”
“Yes.”
“The messages?”
“Yes.”
“Markus?”
“Controlled.”
“Your disappearance?”
“His decision.”
Viktor stepped closer.
“Why did he keep you alive?”
Clara's eyes became distant.
“Because I knew the system.”
“And my father?”
“He knew the records.”
“And Anna?”
Clara looked at me.
“She knows the languages.”
I felt the pieces lock together.
Three people.
Three forms of knowledge.
Clara understood the science.
My father understood the records.
I understood the translations.
Together, we could expose the entire network.
Separately, we were vulnerable.
A noise echoed from the tunnel.
Clara's expression changed.
“We have to move.”
We hurried toward the end of the passage.
A ladder led to an old maintenance room.
Clara opened the hatch.
We emerged behind the abandoned warehouse.
Rain had begun falling.
Viktor looked toward the road.
A black SUV was parked nearby.
“They found us.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
She pointed toward the warehouse.
“They were waiting.”
We entered through a side door.
Inside was dark.
But there were fresh footprints.
They led toward the center.
A single light was on.
Under it stood a chair.
Someone was sitting in it.
My father.
I ran forward.
“Dad!”
He lifted his head.
His wrists were tied.
His face was bruised.
But he was alive.
I reached him.
He pulled me close.
For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he whispered into my ear.
“You shouldn't have come.”
I held him tighter.
“I had to.”
He looked over my shoulder.
His eyes landed on Clara.
Then Viktor.
His expression changed.
“You found her.”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
“Then there isn't much time.”
Viktor cut the restraints.
My father struggled to stand.
“Who brought you here?”
He looked at me.
“Michael.”
I felt cold.
“Where is he?”
My father looked toward the far end of the warehouse.
A man stepped from the shadows.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Calm.
I recognized him from the photograph.
Michael Rainer.
He smiled.
“Good.”
His gaze moved from my father to Clara.
Then Viktor.
Then me.
“All four pieces are finally in the same room.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: Michael Rainer Finally Revealed Why He Needed All Four of Us Together, and My Father Made One Choice That Changed the Ending
The Hundred-Dollar Bill That Was Meant to Humiliate Me Revealed Something Far More Dangerous Than Arrogance
Part 10 of 12
