CHAPTER 13 — RACHEL’S FOURTEEN MISSING MONTHS
“I WASN’T HIDING IN SWITZERLAND, MICHAEL. I WAS WORKING FOR ORION.”
Michael stared at Rachel as if the room had tilted beneath him.
Emily stopped moving.
Thomas whispered, “Rachel…”
She raised a hand.
“No. He deserves everything now.”
Michael said nothing.
Rachel’s eyes filled, but she forced herself to continue.
“When I found Marianne Vale, she told me Orion had been watching Sophie since birth. I thought the only way to protect her was to get inside.”
“You joined them?”
“I pretended to.”
“For fourteen months?”
“Yes.”
Michael walked away, fighting the anger rising through him.
“You came home promising no more secrets.”
“I know.”
“And you still kept this.”
“Because Orion told me if I exposed them, they would activate Candidate Seventeen.”
Michael pointed upstairs.
“My daughter is Candidate Seventeen!”
Rachel flinched.
“Yes.”
Thomas asked quietly, “What does Candidate mean?”
Rachel opened the old envelope.
“It isn’t a successor.”
Everyone stared.
“Then what is it?”
“A test.”
Rachel explained that Orion selected children from powerful families, not to recruit them, but to measure their parents. Some parents surrendered their children for power. Others trained them. Others abandoned them.
Michael understood.
“And Sophie?”
“They were testing us.”
The silver pin.
Geneva.
The watcher outside.
Every threat had been designed to provoke a choice.
Rachel nodded.
“When you refused to bring Sophie, she passed.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
“She didn’t pass anything. She’s six.”
“I know.”
“Then why am I the target?”
Rachel hesitated.
“Because Orion’s Final Protocol doesn’t eliminate the parent.”
Michael stared.
“It recruits him.”
Silence.
Then Thomas’s phone beeped.
A bank notification appeared.
Ten million dollars had just been transferred into Michael’s personal account.
The sender:
ORION FOUNDATION.
May you like
Underneath was one message.
FIRST OFFER.
