Chapter 19 - Grant Mercer Finally Told the Truth
Grant Mercer looked exactly as he did on television.
Perfect suit.
Perfect posture.
Perfect confidence.
The only difference was that there were no cameras he knew about.
He walked toward me slowly.
“You’ve been difficult, Marcus.”
“I get that a lot.”
Mercer smiled.
“You think this is personal.”
“You murdered my father.”
“That was business.”
The words hit harder than any confession shouted in anger.
Mercer said them casually.
As if Dad had been an invoice.
I forced myself to stay calm.
Every word was being transmitted through the device hidden inside my jacket.
At least I hoped it was.
Mercer gestured toward the case.
“Lazarus.”
“Let Evan go.”
“After verification.”
“You don’t get both.”
Mercer’s smile faded.
“You’re negotiating from a weak position.”
“No. You are.”
Nolan laughed.
Mercer didn’t.
I continued.
“You’ve spent thirteen years trying to recover something my father built in a garage. You hired Nolan. You manipulated Preston. You planted evidence in my company. You fabricated records in my house.”
Mercer stepped closer.
“And yet here you are.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you still don’t understand what Dad built.”
I placed the case on a steel table.
“He never created Lazarus as software.”
Nolan frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
“Exactly what my father counted on you thinking.”
I opened the case.
Inside was a compact control module.
Mercer reached toward it.
I closed the lid.
“Evan first.”
Mercer stared at me.
Then nodded.
Nolan cut Evan’s restraints.
Evan stumbled toward me.
I grabbed his arm.
“You okay?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Later.”
We walked backward.
Mercer pointed.
“The case.”
I slid it across the floor.
Nolan picked it up.
He opened the housing.
His expression changed.
“This isn’t complete.”
“It is.”
“Where’s the sequence?”
“In the mechanism.”
Nolan examined it.
“You’re lying.”
Mercer lost patience.
“Enough.”
He pulled a handgun from inside his jacket.
Evan froze.
I raised my hands.
Mercer pointed the weapon toward him.
“Tell me the sequence.”
“I don’t know it.”
“Then your engineer dies.”
“You need him.”
“For what?”
“To explain why your stolen version of Lazarus will destroy every digital controller you connect it to.”
Nolan’s face went pale.
“What?”
I smiled.
“My father designed a tamper loop.”
Nolan stared at the hardware.
“If the sequence is wrong…”
“The device burns its own control bridge.”
Mercer turned toward Nolan.
“You said you could decode it.”
“I can.”
“You’ve had thirteen years.”
Their partnership cracked in front of me.
Exactly what I needed.
Mercer shouted, “Do it!”
Nolan snapped back, “Pointing a gun doesn’t make me smarter!”
Mercer shoved him.
Nolan dropped the case.
The module hit the floor.
A tiny light began blinking.
Red.
Mercer stared.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Nolan whispered.
The building’s lights suddenly turned off.
Darkness.
Then Lawrence’s voice thundered through the depot.
“FEDERAL SECURITY TEAM! DROP THE WEAPON!”
Chaos exploded.
Mercer fired once.
The shot struck steel.
I pulled Evan behind a support column.
Agents entered from three directions.
Nolan ran.
Mercer tried to follow.
He made it twenty feet.
Agent Sloan tackled him against a stack of shipping pallets.
Nolan reached a side door.
Lawrence was waiting.
One punch put Nolan on the concrete.
Within seconds, both men were in restraints.
I walked toward Mercer.
Agent Sloan held him against the floor.
He looked up at me.
“You think this ends anything?”
“I think your confession ends quite a lot.”
His face changed.
“What confession?”
I touched my jacket.
Lawrence smiled.
“Three separate recording devices.”
Mercer went white.
Agent Sloan leaned closer.
“You admitted involvement in Elias Reed’s death, evidence fabrication, corporate sabotage, and kidnapping conspiracy.”
Mercer looked toward Nolan.
Nolan looked away.
For the first time, Grant Mercer seemed afraid.
Evan stood beside me.
“What happens now?”
I watched federal agents pull Mercer to his feet.
“Now?”
I looked at the man who had spent thirteen years believing money made him untouchable.
“Now he learns the difference between influence and evidence.”
Then Sloan’s phone rang.
Her expression changed as she listened.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Marcus, we have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“The classified code inside Meridian?”
My stomach tightened.
“It wasn’t planted by Mercer.”
The entire room went silent.
May you like
Sloan continued.
“Someone else uploaded it.”
