Chapter 11 - the false heartbeat
Gabriela forced herself not to react.
Simon was watching her face, searching for panic. Celia watched too, her fingers steady around the syringe connected to Adrian’s IV.
Hayden’s image remained on the phone screen.
The masked figure pulled him through the safe-house hallway. Naomi did not move.
Gabriela studied the feed.
Something was wrong.
The clock on the wall displayed 8:14, but Gabriela had spoken to Naomi at 8:26. The image was prerecorded.
Simon had found the safe house, but he might not currently possess Hayden.
“You are bluffing,” Gabriela said.
Simon’s smile faded.
“The feed is old.”
“Does that make you less concerned?”
“It means Hayden escaped.”
Finnley glanced toward her, but Gabriela continued.
“Naomi would never remain unconscious beside an open door. She trained for hostage scenarios. She wanted the camera to see her.”
Simon checked the feed again.
At that moment, every light in the boardroom shut off.
Adrian’s heart monitor began sounding an alarm.
Celia screamed.
Simon ordered emergency power restored, but the system did not respond.
Gabriela moved through the darkness.
She struck Celia’s wrist, knocking the syringe away. Finnley tackled Simon into the table. Malcolm dragged Adrian’s wheelchair from the pressure switch without disconnecting the monitor cable.
The floor shook.
A mechanical voice began counting down from thirty.
Simon laughed from beneath Finnley.
“You moved him.”
“Adrian told me to.”
“He lied.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Adrian’s heart monitor displayed a flat line, though his eyes remained open.
A false heartbeat.
The monitor had been transmitting a fabricated signal for years.
Adrian had designed the bomb trigger to respond not to his actual body, but to a remote program.
Simon’s control was an illusion.
The countdown reached twenty.
Gabriela found a tablet beneath Adrian’s wheelchair. A single command flashed on the screen.
TRANSFER DETONATION CONTROL?
She pressed YES.
The countdown stopped at fourteen.
Simon stared at Adrian.
“You planned this.”
Adrian’s lips formed a weak smile.
Celia reached for the fallen syringe, but Kendall kicked it beneath the table.
“Enough,” Kendall said.
Celia turned on her.
“You chose this.”
“I chose money. I did not choose to kill everyone.”
“You helped kidnap a child.”
Kendall flinched.
Before Celia could respond, the boardroom shutters opened. Naomi entered with armed Meridian officers.
Hayden ran behind her.
Gabriela crossed the room and pulled him into her arms.
“You were supposed to stay hidden.”
“I followed the music,” he said.
Naomi explained that Hayden recognized the masked intruder’s ringtone. It played the same lullaby used in Adrian’s codes. He deliberately activated a silent alarm inside the safe house and escaped through a reinforced bathroom passage.
The intruder was captured.
He carried a Meridian access card registered to Simon.
Simon was restrained beside Celia.
For the first time, victory seemed possible.
Then Adrian began convulsing.
The medication line had continued delivering a drug even after the syringe was removed. Medical officers rushed him toward the private clinic on Meridian’s fifty-second floor.
Gabriela followed.
Doctors stabilized him but warned that years of experimental treatments had damaged his nervous system. His speech and movement might recover, but only if they identified the compounds used.
Celia knew the formula.
She refused to speak.
In an interrogation room, Gabriela placed the Halcyon files before her.
“You can cooperate or disappear into the same prison system your friends corrupted.”
Celia remained calm.
“You still think Simon leads Halcyon.”
“He controls its money.”
“He controls what he was permitted to control.”
“Who is above him?”
Celia leaned closer.
“Ask Adrian why he chose March fourteenth.”
“It is Hayden’s conception date.”
“No.”
Gabriela’s skin turned cold.
“What is it?”
“The date Adrian joined Halcyon.”
Gabriela stared at her.
Celia smiled.
“Your husband did not infiltrate the organization. He helped build it.”
Gabriela returned to Adrian’s clinic room.
He was awake.
She sat beside him and placed her hand over his.
“Were you part of Halcyon?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
After a long struggle, he whispered, “Yes.”
The admission struck harder than any lie Finnley had told.
“How many people were hurt because of you?”
His eyes filled with shame.
“Too many.”
“Did you create Meridian through Simon?”
Adrian’s fingers tightened weakly around hers.
“I created Simon.”
Gabriela did not understand.
Before she could ask, alarms sounded across the clinic.
The arrested Simon Cross had vanished from the boardroom holding area.
Security footage showed an officer releasing him.
The officer then removed a realistic face mask.
Beneath it was the face of the mechanic who had sabotaged Adrian’s plane.
Simon had escaped into Meridian Tower.
He still knew about the explosives.
May you like
And he had taken the control tablet from Gabriela’s bag.
👉 Adrian had confessed that he helped build Halcyon, but Simon now controlled the hidden explosives—and his first target was still somewhere inside Meridian Tower.
