Chapter 25 - The Road to the AirfieldGrant Mercer drove the armored vehicle away from the federal convoy route.
Emma struck the door controls.
Locked.
Grace tried the window.
Reinforced.
Noah examined the separation panel between them and Grant.
“Where are you taking us?”
“Private airfield.”
“To Edward?” Emma asked.
Grant’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“To people who can keep you alive.”
“You work for them,” Grace said.
“I work for your father.”
“No,” Emma answered. “You work for whoever gives the last order.”
Grant looked at her through the mirror.
Shame crossed his face.
He had served Alexander for twelve years. He taught Emma emergency procedures and supervised mansion security. Edward contacted him two years earlier with proof Alexander’s authority derived from a fraudulent placement.
Edward threatened to expose the empire and destroy every employee’s pension.
Grant agreed to provide schedules and system access.
“I told myself I was preserving the company,” he said.
“You helped Vivian get into the house,” Emma replied.
“I did not know she planned violence.”
“You knew they wanted me.”
“I believed it was a family extraction.”
Noah laughed bitterly.
“Adults have many names for kidnapping.”
The vehicle approached a rural airfield.
A small jet waited with engines running.
Two armed contractors stood beside it.
Emma remembered the red panic switch Grant taught her to use in vehicles.
It was beneath the center seat.
She reached slowly.
Grant saw her.
“That circuit has been disabled.”
“Because you taught me too well?”
“Because Edward knows every Ashford safeguard.”
Grace whispered, “What about non-Ashford safeguards?”
Emma looked at her.
Grace pointed toward the medical emergency kit.
Rebecca had placed a Sanctuary transmitter inside before the convoy departed. The device did not depend on Ashford systems.
Noah crawled toward it while Emma kept Grant talking.
“Did you know my grandma was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know my grandpa was alive?”
“No.”
“Do you know where my mom is?”
“Which one?”
The question hurt, but Emma kept her voice steady.
“Catherine.”
“Leaving the hospital with your father.”
“Rebecca?”
“With Nora.”
Grant did not know the adults had separated the children from their exact protectors before the convoy left. Edward’s agents selected the route.
Noah activated the transmitter.
A small green light flashed.
Grant noticed.
He braked sharply.
The children struck their restraints.
He opened the partition.
“Give it to me.”
Noah held the device behind his back.
Grant reached inside.
Grace kicked the emergency kit toward the door release housing. The metal case jammed the mechanism.
Emma pulled Grant’s sleeve.
The vehicle drifted toward the runway fence.
Grant returned to the wheel and corrected.
The children used the seconds to cut one restraint strap with medical scissors.
Noah freed himself.
He crawled beneath the seat and found the manual wheel-lock cable.
Daniel Cole had taught him basic mechanics.
He pulled it.
The rear wheels partially locked.
The armored vehicle spun off the access road and stopped in wet grass.
Airfield contractors ran toward them.
Grant looked at the children.
“If they take you onto that plane, Edward controls everything.”
“You were bringing us,” Noah said.
“I thought I could negotiate after delivery.”
Emma stared.
“Everyone thinks they can fix it after giving us away.”
Grant opened his door.
“Stay inside.”
He stepped out and raised his hands toward the contractors.
“The transfer is canceled.”
One man drew a weapon.
Grant tackled him.
The second moved toward the rear door.
Grace and Emma braced it while Noah worked the jammed lock.
A gunshot cracked outside.
Grant fell against the hood.
The contractor reached the door.
Before he opened it, headlights flooded the runway.
Thomas Reed’s rescue vehicles entered from both gates.
Leona had traced the Sanctuary transmitter.
The contractor ran toward the jet.
The aircraft began moving without him.
Its cabin windows were dark.
Emma watched it accelerate.
Someone important was already aboard.
Grant lay wounded but conscious.
Thomas reached the children and opened the vehicle.
Emma looked toward the departing aircraft.
“Who was on it?”
Grant coughed.
“Edward.”
The jet lifted into the storm.
Leona checked aviation records.
Its filed destination was Bermuda.
The Covenant operated east of the island under a private maritime flag.
Edward had expected the children to join him but departed when the rescue arrived.
Grant gripped Thomas’s sleeve.
“He has the missing council member.”
“Who?”
“The seventh foundling.”
Grant looked at Emma.
“Catherine’s father.”
Catherine had spent her life believing a Halcyon judge raised her. Her biological father was recorded as unknown.
Edward had found him.
The man was alive aboard The Covenant and possessed authority equal to Lena, Helena, and the Foundling Council.
His name was David Vale.
Nora’s father.
Lena and Helena’s father.
Catherine was not merely descended from the twins.
She was the product of abuse inside the Vale family, a secret Lena and Helena had hidden for decades.
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Edward intended to use that secret to control Catherine and the council.
👉 The children escaped Edward’s convoy, but he reached The Covenant with Catherine’s biological father and the darkest secret in the Vale family.
