Chapter 12 - Clara’s Signature
Clara did not deny the signature.
“I signed it.”
Hannah felt something break.
“Why?”
“Michael called me. He needed to leave the base without Thorne’s people following him.”
“So you authorized transport.”
“Yes.”
“Who arranged the car?”
“Nathan.”
Hannah turned.
Nathan lowered his eyes.
“I hired a contractor named Joel Sayer.”
Kane spoke from the hospital screen.
“Sayer worked for Rusk.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“I didn’t know.”
Hannah laughed bitterly.
“There are too many people in this story who didn’t know.”
Clara stepped closer.
“I signed because your father begged me.”
“And the order made the trip invisible.”
“Yes.”
“Which made him easier to kill.”
Clara began to cry.
“I have lived with that every day.”
Hannah wanted to stay angry.
She was angry.
But beneath it she saw a woman who had spent twelve years punishing herself.
That did not erase the choice.
It explained the silence.
An analyst interrupted.
“We found the first half of Thorne’s ledger.”
It was stored under a false federal case number.
The entries matched Michael’s report.
Some signatures were forged.
Some were real.
Some belonged to people who had tried to cancel orders.
One page listed Rusk as final exception authority.
“This is enough to arrest him,” Hannah said.
“Not enough to prove the deaths,” the analyst answered.
Nathan looked toward the clock.
“We still need Sophie.”
At 11:20 p.m., Rusk sent a photograph.
Sophie stood on the Resolute’s loading ramp.
Hannah stared.
“He went there first.”
Kane swore.
“He knows you.”
“No,” Hannah said.
“He thinks he does.”
She put on her coat.
Clara stopped her.
“Hannah, if this goes wrong—”
“It already went wrong twelve years ago.”
She picked up her father’s report.
May you like
“This is the part where we stop letting that night decide what happens next.”
Then she left for the ship.
