BLOOD RUN

Episode 11: The Last Survivor

The countdown continued to fall.

PROTOCOL BLACKOUT ACTIVATION: 00:59:42.

Jack Carter stared at Daniel Reed, waiting for an answer.

Outside the abandoned conference center, sirens echoed through the streets. Somewhere across Washington, emergency systems were preparing for an event most of the country didn't know was coming. In less than an hour, Protocol Blackout could give the Founders control over critical government communications, emergency orders, and the systems responsible for coordinating the nation's response to a crisis.

And Daniel had just admitted there was something about Operation Nightfall he had never told Jack.

"Who was the last survivor?" Jack demanded.

Daniel looked toward Maya, then back at him.

"His name was Marcus Vale."

Jack's expression changed.

"Marcus died before we reached the extraction point."

"That's what the report said."

"I saw the transport explode."

"You saw an explosion. You never saw Marcus's body."

Jack stepped closer. "You knew he was alive?"

"I found out eleven months ago."

For a moment, Jack said nothing. He remembered Marcus as the youngest member of their team, a communications specialist with a talent for finding patterns in scrambled intelligence. Marcus had been quick with jokes, impatient with authority, and fiercely loyal to the people beside him.

During Nightfall, Marcus had been assigned to monitor the team's communications and maintain contact with their extraction unit. When the operation collapsed, Jack remembered hearing Marcus's voice through the radio, followed by a burst of interference.

Then silence.

The official report said Marcus had died in the explosion that destroyed their transport.

Jack had spent three years believing it.

"How did you find him?" Jack asked.

Daniel lowered his eyes.

"Cross sent me a recording. Marcus was alive, but he was being held somewhere. Cross told me that if I continued investigating Nightfall, Marcus would disappear for good."

"And you said nothing?"

"I didn't know whether the recording was real. Cross has faked evidence before. I spent months trying to trace it without exposing Marcus."

"You could have told me."

"Would you have believed me?"

Jack didn't answer immediately.

Daniel continued. "You were trying to expose Cross. I was trying to find out whether the man in that recording was really Marcus. Every time I got close, someone erased the trail."

Maya stepped between them before the argument could grow.

"We don't have time to settle three years of anger," she said. "If Marcus is alive, he may know how Nightfall was changed. He may also know what the Founders need to activate Blackout."

Jack glanced at the countdown.

00:58:51.

"Where is he?"

Daniel pulled a folded piece of paper from his jacket. It contained a short string of numbers and a location name.

"An old communications relay station outside the city. Cross used it to send me the first recording."

Maya examined the paper.

"This isn't a location."

"It's a routing code," Daniel replied. "Marcus used to create these for our team. If he's still using the same system, this should lead us to his last known signal."

Jack took the paper.

"Then we're going."

He turned toward the conference center's exit.

Daniel remained where he was.

"Jack."

Jack stopped without turning.

"There is something else."

"Of course there is."

"The message Cross sent you wasn't just meant to frighten you. He wanted you to ask me about Marcus. He knew I'd have to tell you eventually."

Jack turned around.

"Why would Cross want me to know Marcus is alive?"

Daniel's face tightened.

"Because Marcus knows what the contingency was."

For the first time since entering the building, Maya looked genuinely unsettled.

The contingency.

The word that had appeared in Elena's recording. The unexplained condition attached to the Nightfall team selection. The missing part of the operation that every surviving record seemed determined to conceal.

Jack folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

"Then Marcus is the one person who can tell us why my mother selected us."

"And why someone wanted our team destroyed," Daniel added.

A sharp electronic tone interrupted them.

The screen behind them changed.

A live image appeared of a secure government chamber. Officials sat around a long table while uniformed security personnel stood against the walls. A digital clock hovered above the room.

EMERGENCY AUTHORITY TRANSFER: 00:57:30.

Below it, a message appeared:

PROTOCOL BLACKOUT AUTHORIZATION PENDING.

Maya moved toward the screen.

"That's the emergency committee."

Jack studied the image. He recognized several officials from the Black File, including two people who had publicly denied knowing anything about the Founders.

One of them leaned toward a microphone.

"We have received confirmation that the required authorization profile is available. The transfer will proceed according to emergency procedure."

Jack felt cold anger settle inside him.

"They're using my identity."

"They're using a version of your identity," Maya corrected. "The original profile was never supposed to have the permissions they're claiming it has."

"Can you stop it?"

"Not from here. I need access to the network that is hosting the authorization request."

Daniel pointed toward the screen.

"Look at the lower corner."

A small symbol blinked beside the countdown. It resembled three intersecting circles surrounding a single black square.

Maya's face went pale.

"That's not a government seal."

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"The Founders' internal authentication mark. If it's appearing on an official committee feed, they've already penetrated the authorization process."

Jack checked the countdown again.

Fifty-seven minutes.

"Then we find Marcus, get the contingency, and stop the activation."

"And your mother?" Daniel asked quietly.

Jack looked at the image of the government chamber.

Cross was holding Elena. He had promised to consider releasing her in exchange for the original agreement, but Jack knew better than to trust a promise from a man who had built his power on lies.

"We save her," Jack said. "But we don't hand Cross the agreement."

The relay station stood beyond a stretch of abandoned industrial buildings, its tall antenna rising above a fence covered in rust.

Rain swept across the road as Jack parked the stolen vehicle behind a derelict warehouse.

Maya checked her tablet.

"The signal came from inside this property. It stopped transmitting six minutes ago."

"Could Marcus have left?" Daniel asked.

"Possibly."

Jack opened the vehicle door.

"Or someone found him."

They approached the station from the side, keeping away from the main entrance. The building looked deserted, but a faint light shone through a narrow window near the rear.

Jack raised a hand, signaling the others to stop.

The door wasn't locked.

Inside, old equipment covered the walls. Dusty monitors sat beside newer communication devices, and a portable generator hummed in the corner. Someone had been using the place recently.

Maya moved toward the central desk.

"These logs are encrypted."

Daniel examined a chair pushed away from the table.

"Someone left in a hurry."

Jack noticed a photograph lying beside a keyboard. He picked it up.

It showed five members of the Nightfall team standing outside a transport aircraft before their final mission.

Jack. Daniel. Marcus. Two others.

One was a field medic named Lena Ortiz.

The other was their team leader, Captain Samuel Price.

Jack's fingers tightened around the photograph.

Price had been the first person officially declared dead after Nightfall. Lena's death had been confirmed in the same report.

But the photograph had something unusual about it.

A sixth person stood in the background, partially obscured by the aircraft's open door.

Jack turned it toward Daniel.

"Who is that?"

Daniel examined the image closely.

"I don't know."

"You were there."

"Not for this photograph. It was taken before I joined the final deployment group."

Maya came over and enlarged the image using her tablet.

"The face has been deliberately blurred."

"Can you recover it?" Jack asked.

"Not from this copy."

A metallic sound came from the corridor.

All three turned.

A man stood in the doorway, holding a small flashlight. His clothes were soaked, and a deep cut marked his eyebrow, but he was unmistakably alive.

Marcus Vale.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then Daniel whispered, "Marcus?"

The man stared at him with an expression that shifted from disbelief to anger.

"You shouldn't have come here."

Jack stepped forward.

"We thought you were dead."

"You were supposed to."

Marcus looked beyond them toward the entrance.

"Did anyone follow you?"

"No," Jack answered.

Marcus gave a humorless laugh.

"That's what everyone says before the people following them arrive."

He crossed the room and pulled a small storage drive from beneath the desk.

"Take this. It contains everything I managed to recover."

Jack didn't reach for it.

"First, tell us what happened at Nightfall."

Marcus looked at him for a long moment.

"Your mother happened."

Jack's jaw tightened.

"Explain."

"Elena Carter selected our team because she believed we could recover the original Blackout safeguards. She told us the mission was a retrieval operation. She said the evidence would expose a group of officials who had been using emergency powers to control intelligence operations."

"That part is true," Jack said.

"Some of it. What she didn't tell us was that the Founders already knew we were coming."

Daniel stepped closer.

"Who betrayed us?"

"I don't know who changed the orders. But I know the mission was compromised before we left."

Marcus placed the drive on the desk.

"Three hours before deployment, our extraction instructions were changed. Captain Price noticed the discrepancy and requested confirmation. The reply came back with the correct authentication credentials."

"Hayes's credentials?" Maya asked.

Marcus nodded.

"That's what the records showed. Price accepted the confirmation. We continued."

Jack remembered the report stating that he had abandoned Daniel during the collapse.

"What happened after we found the files?"

"We discovered a second archive beneath the facility. It contained records linking the Founders to the unauthorized expansion of Blackout. Captain Price ordered us to copy everything. Then our communications failed."

Marcus paused, struggling with the memory.

"When the first explosion happened, Lena was with Price. I was trying to restore the signal. Daniel was separated from you. And you—"

"I was taken away from the others," Jack said.

Marcus nodded.

"You were the target. Not the evidence. You."

The words settled over the room.

"Why?" Maya asked.

"Because the system had already recognized Jack's authorization profile. The Founders wanted him alive, and they needed everyone who understood the original safeguards either captured or discredited."

Jack thought of the childhood testing records.

His identity had been used without his knowledge. His mother and father had built the original system, but someone had transformed their work into a weapon.

"What about the contingency?" Daniel asked.

Marcus looked toward him.

"That was supposed to protect the team if the mission was compromised."

"What was it?"

"A second record. A list of instructions that Elena created after discovering that someone had altered the operation. She arranged for the record to be released automatically if the team failed to return."

"Where is it?" Jack asked.

Marcus pointed to the drive.

"On there. But there's a problem."

Maya connected the drive to her tablet.

A list of encrypted files appeared. One was marked NIGHTFALL CONTINGENCY.

She opened it.

The screen displayed a single sentence:

THE CONTINGENCY WAS EXECUTED. THE ORIGINAL WITNESS WAS TRANSFERRED INTO PROTECTIVE CUSTODY.

Below it was a name.

CAPTAIN SAMUEL PRICE.

Jack stared at the screen.

"Price survived?"

Marcus nodded slowly.

"I saw him after the operation. He was alive, but he wasn't free. Someone moved him before I could reach him."

"Where is he now?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know. The last record placed him inside a federal protective facility. After that, every trace disappeared."

Maya continued scrolling.

"There are more entries. This says the witness holds the original authorization record and can verify who changed the Nightfall orders."

"Then Price can prove who betrayed us," Jack said.

"Maybe," Marcus replied. "But the Founders won't let him speak. And if they're preparing Blackout, they'll have a reason to move him."

Jack checked his watch.

Forty minutes remained.

They had found the missing piece of Nightfall, but the truth was still beyond their reach. Captain Price could expose the betrayal, while Elena held the original safeguard authority required to disable Blackout.

Cross had both problems contained—or so he believed.

Jack looked at Marcus.

"Why didn't you come forward?"

Marcus's expression hardened.

"Because the first time I tried, the person who promised to protect me handed my location to the people hunting us."

"Who?"

Marcus hesitated.

Then he looked directly at Daniel.

"Your sister."

Daniel went still.

"Emily?"

"I don't know whether she did it knowingly. I only know that the message that exposed my hiding place came through a channel connected to her."

Daniel shook his head.

"Emily has been helping Jack."

"Maybe she has. Maybe someone used her access. I'm telling you what I found, not what I believe."

Jack stepped between them.

"Until we have proof, we don't accuse anyone else."

A loud impact sounded outside.

Marcus immediately switched off the room's lights.

Through the window, headlights swept across the fence.

Two vehicles had entered the property.

Maya checked her tablet and whispered, "Someone just accessed the relay station's network. They know we're here."

Marcus grabbed the drive.

"There's a service tunnel beneath the building. It leads to the drainage channel."

Jack looked toward the entrance.

"Can we get out?"

"Yes. But if they take the drive, everything we found dies with it."

"Then they won't take it."

They moved through the rear corridor as voices echoed from the main entrance.

Marcus opened a metal hatch concealed beneath a storage cabinet. Cold air rose from the darkness below.

Daniel descended first, followed by Maya. Marcus handed the drive to Jack and started down after them.

Before Jack could follow, a voice called from the corridor.

"Jack Carter."

He turned.

A man stood at the far end of the hallway, wearing a dark coat and carrying no visible weapon. Jack recognized him from the security footage at the Carter Research Foundation.

One of Cross's operatives.

The man held up a phone.

"Senator Cross wants to speak with you."

Jack didn't move.

"Tell him to call someone who cares."

The operative glanced at the open hatch.

"Captain Price is alive, isn't he?"

Jack felt the trap closing.

Cross had known about the drive. Perhaps he had known about Marcus all along.

The operative continued.

"You can run to the witness, but you'll be too late. The emergency committee has already approved the transfer. The activation process is moving ahead."

Jack checked the countdown displayed on Maya's tablet.

00:31:08.

"What's Cross offering?" Jack asked.

"Your mother. Captain Price. And the truth about Nightfall."

"All in exchange for the agreement."

"And your cooperation."

Jack almost laughed.

Cross had spent three years manufacturing lies, and now he wanted Jack to believe that the truth had suddenly become negotiable.

"Tell Cross we're done negotiating."

The operative lowered the phone.

"Then you'll lose everyone you have left."

Jack backed toward the hatch.

"No. That's what he wants me to believe."

He dropped through the opening as the operative rushed forward. Marcus pulled the hatch closed from below, and they continued through the narrow tunnel while the sounds of pursuit grew louder above them.

They emerged beside a drainage channel several streets away.

For the moment, they were safe.

Maya checked the drive again.

"We have enough to prove Nightfall was compromised, but we still need Price's original authorization record. Without it, Cross can claim the files are fabricated."

Daniel looked at Marcus.

"Where would they take him?"

Marcus considered the question.

"There's one facility that fits the transfer record. A federal medical center outside Washington. It was used for classified personnel who couldn't safely appear in public."

Jack recognized the name when Marcus gave it.

The same facility appeared in the Black File beside a list of witnesses who had disappeared after questioning the Founders.

"Then that's our next stop," Jack said.

Maya shook her head.

"We can't do everything at once. The committee is preparing to activate Blackout. We need access to the network, or Cross could take control before we reach Price."

"Then we split up," Daniel said. "Maya goes after the network. Marcus and I find Price. Jack gets his mother."

"No," Jack replied. "Cross expects me to come for Elena. That's why he showed me the footage. If I move toward her, he'll use me to draw the original agreement out of hiding."

"He's holding your mother," Daniel said. "You can't ignore that."

"I'm not ignoring it. I'm refusing to let him decide what I do."

Jack looked at Maya.

"Can you get into the authorization system?"

"Possibly. But I'll need the original safeguard record and access to a government terminal. Even then, I can't promise I can stop the activation."

"Do it."

"And you?"

Jack looked toward the city.

"I'm going to find out where Cross is keeping Elena."

Marcus caught his arm.

"Jack, listen to me. The contingency record contains one more thing I haven't shown you."

He took the drive back and opened a final file.

A short video appeared.

Elena Carter sat in a plain room, looking directly at the camera. She seemed exhausted, but her voice was steady.

"If you're watching this, Nightfall has failed, and the Founders have begun the process of activating Blackout. Jack, if you survived, there is something you must understand. I did not select your team because I believed you were expendable. I selected you because I believed you were the only people who could expose the truth."

The recording flickered.

"But I made one mistake. I believed the contingency would protect the last witness. I was wrong."

Elena leaned closer to the camera.

"Captain Price is not the only person who knows what happened at Nightfall. The person who changed the orders was never supposed to have access to Blackout."

A pause.

Then she spoke the name.

"Robert Mitchell."

The recording ended.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

President Mitchell had helped Jack escape the White House. He had claimed that someone forged his digital signature and stolen his authority. He had risked his position to expose the Founders.

But if Elena's recording was genuine, the president might have been connected to the original betrayal.

Daniel broke the silence.

"Cross could have edited that recording."

"He could have," Maya replied. "Or Elena could have been wrong. We need the original authorization record before we decide anything."

Jack looked at the drive in his hand.

Everything he had learned seemed to lead back to another secret, another lie, another person who might be working against him.

The countdown was still falling.

00:26:41.

His phone vibrated.

A message had arrived from an unknown number.

It contained a photograph of Elena sitting behind a glass wall. She was alive, but two armed guards stood behind her.

Below the photograph was a message:

YOU HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO BRING ME THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT.

A second message appeared before Jack could respond.

OR YOUR MOTHER DIES.

Jack stared at the screen.

Then the phone rang.

He answered.

Cross's voice came through, calm and almost friendly.

"Now you understand the situation."

Jack looked at the others and moved away from them.

"You don't have the agreement."

"I don't need it anymore. The committee has approved the transfer. The final authorization is already in motion."

"Then why call me?"

"Because there is one last safeguard you haven't discovered."

Jack said nothing.

Cross continued.

"Your father built the system. Your mother protected it. And you were the identity they used to unlock it. But the three of you were never the complete design."

"What does that mean?"

"It means Thomas Carter left something behind. Something that can still stop Blackout. And I know where it is."

"Then why haven't you taken it?"

For the first time, Cross sounded irritated.

"Because it isn't a machine, Jack. It isn't a file. It's a decision that can only be made by someone who understands what Blackout was supposed to become."

Jack thought of his father disappearing after their meeting. He thought of Elena's confession, Marcus's survival, and the mysterious sixth person in the photograph.

"Where is my father?" Jack asked.

Cross didn't answer directly.

"Find Captain Price. He'll tell you the truth about Nightfall. But when you do, remember this: the man you're trying to save may be the reason your team died."

The call ended.

A final alert appeared on Maya's tablet.

PROTOCOL BLACKOUT ACTIVATION: 00:24:00.

Then a second notification arrived from the emergency committee.

PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY VERIFIED.

Maya looked up sharply.

"That's impossible. Mitchell's credentials were supposed to be revoked after the signature forgery."

Jack stared at the screen.

The Founders had just verified the president's authority to activate Blackout.

Either they had found a way to imitate his credentials again—or Elena's recording had revealed a truth Jack wasn't ready to face.

Daniel stepped beside him.

"What do we do?"

Jack slipped the phone into his pocket and looked toward the road leading back to Washington.

"We find Price. We get the original authorization record. And then we find out whether the president has been helping us stop Blackout..."

He paused.

"...or helping Cross activate it."

Far away, inside the emergency committee chamber, President Robert Mitchell stood before the assembled officials.

The countdown reached twenty-three minutes.

An official approached him with a document.

"Mr. President, the final authorization is ready."

Mitchell studied the page.

For a moment, he appeared to hesitate.

Then he took the pen and signed.

The system accepted the signature immediately.

PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY CONFIRMED.

Mitchell looked toward the chamber's observation window, where Senator William Cross watched from behind the glass.

Cross smiled.

The president had just signed the order that would give the Founders control of Protocol Blackout.

And nobody in the chamber knew whether Robert Mitchell had been forced to sign itor had been waiting three years for the opportunity.