The Trust Test
1665 Words
The warning echoed in Marcus’s head all night.
Someone you trust. Someone you love.
He lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Claire slept beside him, her breathing slow and peaceful. Catherine was in the guest room. Damian was in the barn. Kay was in her room.
Anyone of them could be holding the trigger.
At dawn, Marcus walked to the garden. The roses were wet with dew. He knelt, pulling weeds, trying to clear his mind.
Catherine came out with coffee. “You didn’t sleep.”
“Couldn’t.”
“The message?”
“The message.”
She handed him a cup. “You think it’s me.”
Marcus looked at her. “I don’t know what to think.”
“I’m your mother.”
“I’ve been betrayed by people I trusted more.”
Catherine sat on the porch step. “Then investigate. Search my room. Check my phone. Run a background check. Do whatever you need to do.”
“I already did.”
“And?”
“And nothing. You’re clean.”
“Then maybe the message is a lie. Meant to divide us.”
“Or maybe the traitor is someone who knows how to hide.”
---
Marcus called Kay into the barn.
She looked tired. Dark circles under her eyes. Her hands shook slightly.
“You’ve been acting strange,” Marcus said.
“I’ve been working. Trying to track the remaining code.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Kay looked at the floor. “The trigger. You think I have it.”
“Do you?”
“No. But I know who does.”
Marcus stepped closer. “Who?”
“Your mother.”
“I checked her. She’s clean.”
“You didn’t check deep enough.” Kay pulled out her phone. “I found a signal. A dormant trigger. It’s been pinging from the farmhouse for weeks. I traced it to the guest room.”
Marcus felt the cold settle in his chest. “Catherine’s room?”
“Yes.”
---
Marcus walked back to the house.
Claire was in the kitchen. Damian was at the table.
“Where’s Catherine?”
“In her room,” Claire said. “What’s wrong?”
Marcus didn’t answer. He walked to the guest room. The door was closed.
He knocked.
“Come in.”
Catherine was sitting on the bed, reading a book. She looked up as Marcus entered.
“You found something.”
“Kay traced a trigger signal to this room.”
Catherine set down the book. “I didn’t put it here.”
“Then who did?”
“Someone who wants you to doubt me.”
Marcus searched the room. Under the bed. Behind the dresser. In the closet.
A small device. Taped to the back of the headboard.
He held it up. “This.”
Catherine’s face went pale. “I didn’t know that was there.”
“Who had access to this room?”
“Everyone. You. Claire. Damian. Kay. The door doesn’t lock.”
Marcus crushed the device under his heel.
“The signal is gone,” Kay said through the earpiece.
“But the traitor is still here.”
---
Marcus gathered everyone in the kitchen.
“Someone in this room planted a trigger in Catherine’s bedroom. Someone who wants to destroy us from the inside.”
Damian crossed his arms. “You think it’s me?”
“I think it’s someone.”
Claire stepped forward. “Search us. Search our rooms. Search everything.”
Marcus looked at Kay. “Start with her.”
Kay’s eyes widened. “Me? I’m the one who found the signal.”
“That’s what a traitor would say.”
Kay raised her hands. “Search me.”
Claire patted her down. Nothing.
Damian searched the guest room again. Nothing.
Claire searched Catherine’s room again. Nothing.
Marcus stood in the center of the kitchen. “Whoever it is, they’re good.”
Catherine spoke. “Maybe it’s not one of us. Maybe it’s someone outside. Someone who planted the device remotely.”
“Kay said the signal was coming from inside the house.”
“Then we need to find the source.”
---
Kay worked through the afternoon.
She scanned every device. Every phone. Every laptop.
At 4:00 PM, she found something.
“There’s a secondary signal. Not from the guest room. From the barn.”
Damian’s face went white. “I didn’t put anything in the barn.”
“Then someone else did.”
They searched the barn. Every corner. Every stall.
Behind a stack of hay bales, a small transmitter.
Damian picked it up. “This isn’t mine.”
Marcus examined it. “Military grade. Untraceable.”
“Webb’s people?” Claire asked.
“Or Silas’s.”
Marcus crushed it.
“The signal is gone,” Kay said.
“For now.”
---
That night, Marcus sat on the porch.
Claire brought him a blanket.
“You’re thinking about the traitor.”
“I’m thinking about how easy it is to plant doubt. To make us suspect each other.”
“That’s what the enemy wants.”
“I know.”
She sat beside him. “Then don’t give it to them.”
Marcus looked at the stars. “How do I trust anyone after everything?”
“You trust because you have to. Because without trust, we’re just individuals. With trust, we’re a team.”
He took her hand. “When did you get so wise?”
“I’ve always been wise. You just never listened.”
He almost smiled.
---
The next morning, Marcus received a message.
From Silas’s number—but Silas was in custody.
“You crushed the devices. Congratulations. But there are more. Everywhere. In your house. In your car. In your garden. You’ll never find them all.”
Marcus typed back: “Who is this?”
“Someone who knows you better than you know yourself. Someone who’s been watching. Someone who’s been waiting.”
“Show yourself.”
“I will. When the time is right.”
Marcus threw his phone on the table.
Claire looked at him. “What now?”
“Now we search the entire property. Every inch.”
---
They searched all day.
The house. The barn. The garden. The woods.
They found four more devices. Hidden in the rose bushes. Under the porch. In the attic. In the basement.
Marcus crushed each one.
Kay scanned for signals. Nothing.
“They’re gone,” she said.
“For now.”
---
That evening, Catherine called Marcus to her room.
She was sitting on the bed, a photograph in her hand.
“This was your father. Before everything.”
Marcus took the photograph. A young man with grey eyes and a kind smile.
“He looks like me.”
“He was you. Brave. Stubborn. Afraid to show it.”
“What happened to him?”
“He tried to stop Silas. He paid the price.”
Marcus set the photograph down. “I won’t let the same thing happen to me.”
“You won’t. Because you have something he didn’t.”
“What?”
“Me.”
---
The next morning, Marcus woke to a sound.
Footsteps. On the porch.
He reached for his Sig. Claire was already awake.
They moved to the window.
A figure stood in the garden. Tall. Grey hair. Military bearing.
General Thomas Kirk.
Marcus opened the door. “You’re supposed to be in prison.”
“I was. I escaped.”
“Why?”
“Because I know who the traitor is. And I know where the trigger is.”
Marcus raised his Sig. “Talk.”
Kirk walked to the porch. “The traitor is Agent Reyes. She’s been working for Silas the whole time. She helped him escape. She planted the devices. She has the trigger.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I have proof.”
Kirk pulled a folder from his jacket. Photographs. Emails. Recordings.
Marcus looked at them. Reyes. Meeting with Silas. Transferring money. Planning the escape.
“She’s been playing both sides.”
“She’s been playing everyone.”
Marcus called Kay. “Track Reyes. Now.”
---
Kay’s voice came back. “She’s at the FBI field office. But she’s packing. She’s running.”
“Stop her.”
“I can’t. She’s FBI. I don’t have that kind of access.”
Marcus looked at Kirk. “You do.”
“I’ll make some calls.”
---
An hour later, Reyes was in custody.
Not for treason. For conspiracy. For aiding Silas.
Marcus watched through the window as they led her away.
Claire was beside him.
“It’s over.”
“Kirk said she had the trigger.”
“They found it. In her desk. Deactivated.”
Marcus let out a breath. “Then it’s really over.”
“For now.”
---
Marcus turned to Kirk. “You’re still a fugitive.”
“I know. I’ll turn myself in. After I do one more thing.”
“What?”
“Help you find the remaining code. The fragments that are still out there. The ones Reyes hid.”
“Why?”
“Because I started this. I want to finish it.”
Marcus looked at Claire. She nodded.
“You have twenty-four hours.”
---
They worked through the night.
Kirk provided locations. Kay tracked signals. Damian and Claire prepared for extraction.
Marcus stood on the porch, watching the sunrise.
Catherine came out with coffee.
“You’re leaving again.”
“I have to.”
“I know.” She handed him the cup. “Come back.”
“I will.”
---
The helicopter landed at dawn.
Kirk was in the pilot seat. Damian climbed in. Claire followed. Marcus was last.
He looked back at the farmhouse. At his mother. At the garden.
Then he climbed aboard.
The helicopter lifted off.
Catherine watched until it disappeared.
- Writer
