CHAPTER 13 — THE ROAD TO FORT STERLING
The screen went black.
No countdown.
No further message.
Only my reflection stared back at me from the dark monitor.
Eleanor Whitmore had looked directly into the camera as though she had been standing in the room with us.
She knew my name.
She knew I would come.
And somehow...
She knew exactly when I had found Emily's files.
Colonel Sullivan quietly closed the laptop.
"That wasn't a prerecorded video."
"I know."
"She wanted us to see Richard alive."
Thomas frowned.
"Why keep him alive?"
The Colonel answered immediately.
"Because she still needs something from him."
Outside, dawn painted the smoke above the Ashford estate in shades of gray.
Federal agents continued collecting evidence.
Paramedics treated the wounded.
Blackstone operatives were loaded into armored transport vehicles.
But inside the mansion...
No one felt victorious.
Emily had uncovered only the first layer of a conspiracy.
The real enemy had finally revealed herself.
Grace carried the sleeping Noah upstairs.
She stopped beside me before entering his bedroom.
"When this is over..."
"I want him to remember who protected him."
Not who betrayed him.
Not who manipulated him.
Protected him.
I nodded.
"I promise."
She smiled sadly.
"You've made promises before."
The words stung because they were true.
Three years earlier...
I had promised Emily I would always keep Noah safe.
I had failed both of them.
Never again.
Downstairs, Thomas spread the blueprint of Fort Sterling across the dining table.
Colored markers covered every corridor.
Every tunnel.
Every emergency exit.
"There are four possible entrances."
He pointed to the western side.
"The main gate."
"The vehicle tunnel."
"The abandoned emergency ward."
"And this."
His finger stopped at a faded maintenance shaft leading toward the ocean.
"The old submarine escape tunnel."
Colonel Sullivan nodded.
"If the blueprint is accurate..."
"It leads directly beneath Sublevel Omega."
Victoria quietly walked into the room.
Her shoulder remained bandaged, but her eyes looked clearer than they had since the mansion attack.
"I've been there."
Everyone turned.
"The submarine tunnel."
Thomas raised an eyebrow.
"You survived?"
"I wasn't a prisoner."
She lowered her head.
"I was a recruit."
Silence filled the room.
Victoria continued.
"Every new Guardian passed through Omega."
Grace frowned.
"What happened there?"
Victoria hesitated.
"They erased us."
The room grew cold.
"What do you mean?"
"They took our names."
"Our families."
"Our memories."
"They built entirely new identities."
She looked directly at me.
"Victoria Cross never existed."
"My real name..."
Her voice broke.
"...was Claire Donovan."
Grace slowly reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
"You still remember."
Victoria nodded through tears.
"Only because Emily made me remember."
I looked up sharply.
"What?"
Victoria smiled weakly.
"The day Emily discovered who I was..."
"She didn't expose me."
"She showed me photographs of my parents."
"My little brother."
"My old home."
"I thought she was trying to manipulate me."
She wiped away a tear.
"Now I know..."
"...she was trying to save me."
Thomas looked at the blueprint again.
"So Emily had already started breaking Blackstone from the inside."
Victoria nodded.
"She rescued three Guardians."
"Before they disappeared."
The Colonel looked surprised.
"Three?"
Victoria whispered,
"They escaped."
"No one has ever escaped Omega."
Suddenly, one of the FBI technicians hurried into the room.
"Colonel."
"We found something."
He placed a sealed evidence bag on the table.
Inside...
A satellite phone recovered from Victor Hale's abandoned helicopter.
The technician connected it to a forensic tablet.
One unread message immediately appeared.
Priority Alpha
Operation Ashford compromised.
Activate Phoenix Protocol.
Signed only:
E.W.
Thomas frowned.
"Phoenix Protocol?"
Victoria's face turned ghostly pale.
"No..."
The Colonel looked at her.
"What is it?"
She slowly backed away from the table.
"It means they're destroying everything."
She grabbed the blueprint.
Her finger landed on Sublevel B4.
"The archive."
"They'll burn it."
She pointed lower.
"Omega."
"They'll flood it."
She looked directly at me.
"And everyone still alive inside..."
"...will die with it."
The room erupted into motion.
Colonel Sullivan immediately issued orders.
"Mobilize every tactical unit."
Thomas interrupted.
"No."
The Colonel turned.
"If you send an army..."
"Eleanor disappears."
Thomas looked at me.
"This is exactly what she wants."
I remained silent.
Every instinct told me to storm Fort Sterling with every resource available.
Every lesson Emily had left behind told me not to.
She had always been three steps ahead.
If she wanted me to reach Omega...
There had to be another way.
I unfolded Emily's handwritten note once more.
For the first time...
I noticed something strange.
Tiny dots surrounded the word Butterflies.
Not random.
Morse code.
Thomas immediately grabbed a notebook.
After several minutes...
He translated it.
One sentence appeared.
TRUST THE LIGHTHOUSE.
Grace frowned.
"What lighthouse?"
Victoria's eyes widened.
"The old harbor lighthouse."
She pointed to the edge of the blueprint.
"It connects to the submarine tunnel."
The Colonel smiled.
"Eleanor expects us to enter through the main facility."
Thomas nodded.
"We'll enter from the sea."
That evening...
A violent storm rolled across the coast.
Waves slammed against the black cliffs surrounding Fort Sterling.
Lightning illuminated the abandoned naval hospital standing above the ocean like a forgotten fortress.
Its broken windows stared toward the sea like empty eyes.
Beneath it...
Hidden beneath seventy years of concrete...
Waited Sublevel Omega.
A small fishing boat drifted silently through the rain.
No navigation lights.
No engine noise.
Only the sound of waves.
Thomas steered.
The Colonel checked his suppressed rifle.
Grace secured medical supplies.
Victoria silently studied the blueprint one final time.
I looked toward the distant lighthouse.
Its old beacon suddenly came alive.
One flash.
Pause.
Two flashes.
Pause.
Three flashes.
Thomas froze.
"That's not automatic."
Someone...
Was signaling us.
Not from Fort Sterling.
From inside the lighthouse.
As we approached, a lone figure stepped into the beam of light.
A woman.
Wearing an old Navy raincoat.
She slowly raised a lantern.
Then removed the hood from her head.
May you like
My heart nearly stopped.
She looked exactly like Emily.
