Chapter 31 - The Road Without Records
The north road disappeared beneath heavy rain.
Victor drove the service truck while Daniel sat beside him, studying the birth record under the weak dashboard light.
Julian Ashcroft.
The name felt foreign.
Yet the document contained his date of birth, fingerprints taken as an infant, and the signature of Eliana Ashcroft.
Eleanor sat behind him.
“You were always Daniel to me.”
Daniel did not look back.
“Was anything in my life real?”
“Your life was real. The name was protection.”
“Protection from whom?”
Clara answered from the rear seat.
“From everyone.”
She had joined them after her agents separated to pursue Harold through the railway tunnels.
Clara explained that three factions now competed for control of the Circle.
Harold led the traditionalists, who believed in silent influence.
Adrian had led the expansionists, who wanted direct control over governments and corporations.
Clara commanded a third group known as the Witnesses.
They claimed to protect victims and preserve evidence.
Victor glanced at her through the mirror.
“You invaded Ashcroft with tranquilizer rifles and explosives.”
“We intended to retrieve the archive without mass casualties.”
Thomas laughed bitterly.
“Every faction believes it is the moral one.”
Clara ignored him.
Daniel examined the coastal map on her tablet.
Harold’s convoy was moving toward an abandoned military airfield.
From there, a private aircraft could reach the island before dawn.
“What is the island called?”
“It has no official name.”
“Everything has a name.”
“Not on public maps.”
Clara enlarged the satellite image.
A dark island appeared hundreds of miles from the mainland.
At its center stood a hospital complex surrounded by forest.
Eleanor recognized the design.
“The Sanctuary.”
Thomas looked sharply at her.
“You remember it?”
“Pieces.”
Decades earlier, the Circle had sent people there when memory alteration, interrogation, or long-term confinement was required.
Some residents were prisoners.
Others were volunteers.
No one officially left.
Daniel stared at Eliana’s photograph.
“She has been there all this time?”
Clara nodded.
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“The woman in the photograph may be Eliana. Or someone created to look like her.”
Daniel looked at her with disgust.
“You came to Ashcroft claiming you wanted to save me, but you don’t even know whether she is alive.”
“We know Harold believes she is.”
Victor suddenly slowed the truck.
Ahead, the north road was blocked by three police vehicles.
Officers stood beneath flashing lights.
Melissa checked her phone.
“There’s no emergency report.”
Clara reached for her weapon.
“They are Circle personnel.”
Daniel looked toward the forest.
“We leave the road.”
Victor turned sharply onto a narrow logging trail.
Police vehicles followed.
Branches struck the sides of the truck.
The road became mud.
One pursuing vehicle pulled beside them.
An officer leaned from the window and aimed at the front tire.
Clara fired first, shattering the police vehicle’s spotlight.
Victor accelerated.
The truck burst through a wooden barrier and reached an abandoned railway crossing.
Ahead, Harold’s convoy passed on the lower road.
Daniel saw the black archive container inside the rear vehicle.
“We found him.”
Then Harold’s car turned toward the old airfield.
A private jet waited with engines running.
Victor pushed the truck harder.
They reached the runway fence seconds after Harold’s convoy entered.
Daniel searched for an opening.
There was none.
Clara pointed toward a maintenance gate.
Victor crashed through it.
The truck spun onto the runway.
Harold’s aircraft began moving.
Daniel opened the passenger door.
“What are you doing?” Eleanor shouted.
“Getting on that plane.”
Victor drove beside the accelerating jet.
A lower cargo hatch remained partially open.
Daniel climbed onto the truck’s side rail.
The distance narrowed.
Thomas grabbed his coat.
“You will not survive that jump.”
Daniel looked at the aircraft carrying the archive and possibly the only route to his mother.
“I’ve survived an entire life built on lies.”
He pulled free.
May you like
Then he jumped.
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