Chapter 10 - A Name Worth Keeping

Ada's fingers loosened on the gutter. Ethan flattened himself at the edge and grabbed her wrist before the last one slipped.

“No,” he said through clenched teeth. “Your name is Ada.”

She stared up at him, blank and terrified.

“Mia picked that name,” he said. “And I'm not losing you because someone trained you to think you don't matter.”

Nora caught Ethan's belt. Together they hauled Ada onto the roof. At the stairwell, June had managed to sit upright. Her breathing was shallow.

“Police are coming,” Jasmine warned over the radio. “And they're not all on our side.”

Ethan looked down at June. “Can you walk?”

“Not far.”

“We're going together.”

June pressed a small data card into Nora's palm. “The index needs this to unlock the real files. He'll offer you anything for it. Don't take the deal.”

They used a window-washing platform to reach the next building and escaped in a maintenance truck Jasmine sent. By the time they reached a clinic in a neighboring county, June had lost too much blood. She survived surgery, but slipped into an induced sleep. The data card was all they had.

Jasmine met them at a diner at sunrise, her hair twisted into a messy knot, three phones buzzing beside her coffee. “The index points to forty-two original recordings,” she said. “Judges taking bribes, witnesses threatened, people forced into hiding. But every file is locked until we get the final key from the Archive.”

“Which means the pier,” Ethan said.

Jasmine nodded. “Also, Victor is telling the world Nora died last night. He released a death certificate.”

Nora let out a hollow laugh. “It's weird being a ghost twice.”

Ada watched a truck roll past the window. “I know a way into the Archive. Mia showed me the old flood tunnel.”

Ethan sat forward. “Why didn't you say that before?”

“Because she told me not to go back. She said Victor would expect it.”

Nora's phone vibrated. A photo appeared: Eli seated in a concrete room, bruised but alive. A message followed.

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COME ALONE, NORA. BRING THE CARD. OR YOUR BROTHER WILL BE REPLACED BEFORE MORNING.

Ada read it and whispered, “He already has a replacement.”