Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER ALEX NEVER KNEW HE HAD
Julian chose Saint Bartholomew’s Church in Queens.
Midnight.
No police.
No extra soldiers.
Alex brought Roman anyway.
Nora came because Nanya was there.
Thomas insisted.
Dominic came because nobody trusted Thomas alone.
The church had been abandoned for years.
Candles burned near the altar.
Nanya sat in a front pew beside Eli.
Both unharmed.
Julian stood behind them.
Alex walked slowly down the aisle.
He had imagined brothers as a child.
Someone who understood Thomas’s rules.
Someone who could split blame.
Someone older who could explain why their father was impossible.
Now the brother he never knew existed stood twenty yards away.
“You took my daughter.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“I rescued her from people tracking Roman’s sister.”
Roman frowned.
“What people?”
“Thomas’s old network.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“I have no network.”
Julian laughed.
“Still lying.”
Alex stopped ten feet away.
“Let Nanya come here.”
Julian nodded.
Nanya ran.
Alex lifted her.
She whispered:
“He gave me pizza.”
“That does not make kidnapping better.”
“I told him that.”
Julian almost smiled.
Eli remained beside him.
Nora looked at the boy.
“You wanted me?”
Eli nodded.
“My dad said you were safe.”
Julian looked at Nora.
“Your father and I worked together.”
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“For who?”
“Maria Gene.”
Alex stared.
“My mother?”
Julian nodded.
Thomas looked devastated.
“Maria found you?”
“She found me before you did.”
Silence.
Thomas’s face collapsed.
“When?”
“I was fifteen.”
“You said nothing?”
Julian laughed.
“To the man who let Samuel erase me?”
“I tried to find you.”
“You found me at seven and walked away.”
Thomas flinched.
Alex looked toward his father.
That truth still hung.
Julian continued.
“Mom found me.”
“She told me everything.”
“About Samuel.”
“The network.”
“The trust.”
“She wanted help destroying it.”
“You were fifteen.”
“She was my mother.”
The words cut Thomas.
Julian kept going.
“Maria worked with Daniel Ellis.”
“Rebecca too.”
“Nora’s mother?”
“Yes.”
Nora stopped breathing.
“They knew each other?”
“Rebecca discovered child-transfer files.”
“Daniel helped copy them.”
“Maria protected them.”
“Then Samuel found out.”
“Rebecca died.”
“Daniel vanished.”
“Maria kept working.”
Alex’s throat tightened.
“Why didn’t Mom tell me?”
Julian looked at him.
“Because she wanted one son outside the war.”
Alex laughed bitterly.
“Look how that worked.”
Julian’s expression softened slightly.
“You were twelve.”
“Then fifteen.”
“Then twenty.”
“She died when I was twenty-five.”
“She had time.”
Julian said nothing.
Thomas whispered:
“She was afraid you’d become me.”
Alex turned.
“That keeps coming up.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
Julian continued.
“Mom split the archive because she no longer trusted Thomas.”
“Or Dominic.”
“Or me.”
“She built two blood locks.”
“One through my line.”
“One through yours.”
“So no single Gene branch could control the truth.”
Roman frowned.
“Then why Eli and Nanya?”
“First verified grandchild from each branch.”
Nora looked at Nanya.
“She should not be part of this.”
Julian nodded.
“I agree.”
Alex almost laughed.
“Yet you took her.”
“To keep Mason from taking her.”
“Mason works for you.”
“No.”
Julian’s expression hardened.
“Mason killed me.”
Thomas stared.
“What?”
Julian opened his coat.
A bullet scar crossed his chest.
“Mason shot me six years ago.”
“Then staged my death.”
“Why?”
“To take Eli.”
Eli looked down.
Julian continued.
“Maria left part of the archive map with me.”
“Mason wanted it.”
“He believed my son would eventually become useful.”
“Who gave Mason orders?”
Julian looked toward Thomas.
Thomas went pale.
“No.”
Julian threw a file onto a pew.
Payment records.
Authorization code:
T.G.
Alex stared.
Thomas shook his head.
“Forged.”
Julian laughed.
“Everything inconvenient is forged.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“I did not order your death.”
“Then who had your code?”
Dominic spoke.
“Me.”
Silence.
Everyone turned.
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I had Thomas’s authorization token.”
Alex stared.
“Why?”
“When Thomas disappeared, I took operational control.”
Julian’s expression darkened.
“So you ordered Mason.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at Roman.
“Samuel did.”
Roman frowned.
“Samuel was dead.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
Of course.
Nora almost laughed from disbelief.
Alex stared at his uncle.
“My grandfather is alive too?”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice became grim.
“He died later.”
“When?”
“Three years after Thomas.”
Alex looked sick.
“Another fake funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep the network believing control remained stable.”
Julian folded his arms.
“Samuel used Dominic’s access.”
“Ordered Mason to remove me.”
“So Dominic covered it up.”
Dominic nodded.
“Because exposing Samuel would have started a civil war.”
Alex’s voice became cold.
“And Julian was acceptable collateral.”
Dominic said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Nanya whispered:
“Grown-ups are terrible.”
Eli nodded.
“Mostly.”
Alex looked at both children.
Two kids sitting in a ruined church while adults discussed decades of murder.
He was done.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
Alex continued:
“The archive does not open.”
Julian stared.
“What?”
“We destroy it.”
Thomas went still.
Mason had wanted it.
Samuel wanted it.
Maria split it.
Every generation built plans around controlling information.
Alex suddenly saw the same sickness.
“People are not ledgers.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“The archive can expose killers.”
“And expose children.”
“Witnesses.”
“People who built new lives.”
“So we sanitize it.”
“Thomas tried.”
“And you trusted him?”
“No.”
“Do you trust yourself?”
Julian stopped.
Alex continued.
“I don’t.”
Silence.
That answer surprised everyone.
Alex looked at Roman.
“We build an independent team.”
“Judges?”
“Federal?”
“Victim advocates?”
“No Gene-controlled people.”
“We separate crimes from protected identities.”
“We release what can be released.”
“We lock what would destroy innocent lives.”
Julian stared.
“You think the government is clean?”
“No.”
“I think nobody should own this alone.”
Thomas looked at his son.
Something like pride crossed his face.
Alex noticed.
“Don’t.”
Thomas looked away.
Nora almost smiled.
Eli stood.
“Dad.”
Julian looked down.
“I want out.”
Julian’s face changed.
“Eli.”
“I don’t want a trust.”
“I don’t want Gene security.”
“I don’t want people following me.”
“I want to go back to school.”
Nanya raised her hand.
“Same.”
Alex looked at her.
“You’re eight.”
“I still have opinions.”
Nora smiled.
Julian looked at Eli.
Years of war seemed to fall off his shoulders.
“Okay.”
Thomas whispered:
“Then we do it Alex’s way.”
Julian glared.
“You don’t get a vote.”
“Fair.”
For one moment, hope entered the church.
Then the old organ speakers crackled.
Everyone froze.
Mason’s voice.
“Beautiful.”
Roman drew his weapon.
Mason laughed through the speakers.
“Family healing.”
“Very moving.”
Alex looked around.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
A red laser appeared.
Not on Nanya.
Not Eli.
On Thomas.
Alex moved.
The shot fired.
Thomas fell.
Julian screamed.
Another shot hit Dominic.
Chaos exploded.
Roman returned fire toward the balcony.
Nora dragged the children behind a stone column.
Alex dropped beside Thomas.
Blood spread across his chest.
“Dad.”
Thomas looked up.
“Wrong son.”
Alex froze.
“What?”
Thomas coughed.
“Mason…”
His breathing failed.
“He was never hunting Julian.”
Alex leaned closer.
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward the balcony.
Then whispered:
“He’s hunting you.”
A second shot shattered the stone beside Alex’s head.
Julian pulled him down.
Roman shouted:
“Shooter moving!”
Mason’s voice came through the speakers one last time.
“You still don’t know why Maria split the archive.”
Alex looked upward.
Mason laughed.
“She wasn’t trying to protect the grandchildren from the Genes.”
May you like
Pause.
“She was protecting the Genes from Alex.”
