Single Mom Warned Him Three Times to Stop — 5 Seconds Later, She Shocked Everyone Watching
Chapter 8
They escaped through a service tunnel beneath the research facility.
Emily knew every corridor.
She had spent years investigating Thomas’s operation.
The tunnel led to an abandoned railway line.
They emerged nearly a mile away.
Daniel looked at Emily.
“You knew this was here.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I helped build it.”
Olivia stopped.
“Then you were part of Horizon.”
Emily nodded.
“I was.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas recruited me when I was nineteen.”
“You knew who you were?”
“No.”
“My father hid my identity.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
“I thought I was just a researcher.”
“Until?”
“Until I found the files.”
She discovered the truth about her father.
The trust.
The experiments.
And the cover-up.
Thomas had manipulated her.
He told her Daniel was responsible.
That Daniel had taken everything.
That Robert Reed had abandoned her.
Emily believed him.
For years.
Then she found evidence.
Thomas had been stealing from Reed Industrial.
He had used Horizon to create a private weapons technology.
And he intended to sell it.
“To whom?” Daniel asked.
Emily looked at him.
“Foreign governments.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“How much?”
“Billions.”
Olivia stared.
“Then why are you still alive?”
Emily laughed.
“Because Thomas needs me.”
“Why?”
“I’m the only person who understands the neural system.”
Olivia thought.
“So he can’t kill you.”
“Not yet.”
They returned to Chicago.
Federal agents took Emily into protective custody.
Daniel turned over the flash drive.
The information was explosive.
But there was one problem.
Thomas had disappeared.
His private jet was gone.
His passport had been flagged.
His accounts were empty.
He had prepared for this.
Daniel stood in the federal operations room.
“How do we find him?”
An agent answered:
“We don’t.”
Olivia studied the map.
Then she noticed something.
“Wait.”
She pointed.
“His plane didn’t go west.”
Everyone looked.
“What?”
“The fuel records.”
She enlarged the screen.
“His jet refueled in Indiana.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then where?”
Olivia pointed to a small airfield.
“Here.”
The agent shook his head.
“That’s abandoned.”
“Exactly.”
They arrived twenty minutes later.
Thomas’s plane was gone.
But the hangar wasn’t empty.
Inside was a large server system.
Olivia examined it.
“He copied the Horizon data.”
Daniel’s face fell.
“How much?”
“Everything.”
Then the monitors turned on.
Thomas appeared.
He was sitting in a dark room.
“Daniel.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You’re finished.”
Thomas smiled.
“No.”
He looked at Olivia.
“You should have stayed a maintenance technician.”
Olivia crossed her arms.
“You should have listened when I warned Daniel.”
Thomas laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
He activated another screen.
A live video appeared.
Noah.
Olivia froze.
Her son was sitting in a chair.
His hands were tied.
“NOAH!”
Daniel grabbed her.
“Where is he?”
Thomas smiled.
“You have one hour.”
“To do what?”
“Bring Emily.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“And if we don’t?”
Thomas looked at Olivia.
“Then you lose your son.”
The screen went black.
Olivia couldn’t breathe.
Daniel held her shoulders.
“We’re getting him back.”
“You don’t know where he is.”
“We will.”
Emily entered.
She had heard everything.
“Thomas will take him to the original Horizon facility.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Where?”
“Wisconsin.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s where the neural core was built.”
Olivia wiped her tears.
“Then let’s go.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You’re staying here.”
“No.”
“Olivia.”
“My son is there.”
“I know.”
“I am going.”
Daniel looked at her.
He wanted to argue.
But he remembered the convention center.
The machine.
The emergency lever.
The woman who had jumped into danger without hesitation.
Finally, he nodded.
“Then we bring him home.”
Emily looked at both of them.
“There’s one thing you need to know.”
“What?”
Thomas doesn’t want to kill Noah.
Olivia stared.
“Then what does he want?”
Emily’s answer was quiet.
“He wants to use Noah to force you to activate Horizon.”
