THE LULLABY KEY : THE FALL
CHAPTER 15: The FBI’s Leak
The plan went wrong in the first five minutes.
Dr. Okonkwo was supposed to meet them at a warehouse in Anacostia at 2:00 PM. He never showed.
At 2:17, Zero received a text message.
“Okonkwo arrested. FBI. Someone leaked. Get out.”
Zero didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Lena’s arm and pulled her toward the van. “Go. Now. Don’t stop until you’re out of the city.”
Marcus was already behind the wheel. The engine roared to life.
They sped out of the warehouse district just as three black SUVs with government plates turned onto the street.
“FBI,” Marcus said. “They knew exactly where we were.”
“Someone in the Swarm is a mole,” Zero said from the back seat. “Someone who’s been feeding information to Aegis.”
Lena turned to look at her. “Can you find out who?”
“I can try. But not from here. We need to go dark. No phones. No internet. No contact with anyone outside the inner circle.”
Marcus swerved onto a side street. The SUVs followed.
“We need to lose them,” he said. “Any ideas?”
Zero pulled out a device the size of a deck of cards. “Signal jammer. It’ll block their GPS for thirty seconds. That’s all I’ve got.”
“Do it.”
Zero pressed the button. The SUVs swerved, then stopped, then started again—but now they were disoriented, turning the wrong way.
Marcus turned left, then right, then left again, through alleys and parking lots and a construction site.
Three minutes later, they were on the highway, heading north, away from Washington.
Lena’s heart pounded.
“Okonkwo,” she said. “He knew about the body swap. He knew about the plan. If he talks—”
“He won’t,” Zero said. “Okonkwo is a former Green Beret. He’s been tortured before. He knows how to hold out.”
“For how long?”
Zero didn’t answer.
They drove in silence.
At 5:00 PM, they stopped at a motel outside Baltimore. Paid cash. Two rooms. No names.
Lena sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the wall.
The kill switch was still counting down. 58:22:09.
Fifty-eight hours until fourteen states went dark.
Fifty-eight hours until millions of people lost power, lost water, lost hope.
And she was no closer to stopping it than she had been twenty-four hours ago.
Marcus knocked on her door.
“You okay?”
“No. But I’m not going to stop.”
He sat down next to her. “I know. That’s what scares me.”
She looked at him. For the first time, she noticed the lines around his eyes, the gray in his beard, the way his hands trembled when he thought no one was watching.
“You should go,” she said. “You’ve done enough. You’ve risked enough.”
“I’ll go when you go. Not before.”
“Marcus—”
“I told you. I couldn’t save my sister. I couldn’t save that nineteen-year-old girl. I’m not going to let you be the third.”
Lena wanted to argue. But she was too tired. Too scared. Too alone.
She leaned her head on his shoulder.
They sat like that for a long time, saying nothing.
And then her phone—a new burner, provided by Zero—buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
“Okonkwo died in custody. Heart attack. Same as your father. The mole is still inside. Trust no one. Not even Zero. —A Friend.”
Lena showed Marcus.
His face went pale.
“Trust no one,” he read aloud. “Not even Zero.”
“Who sent this?”
“I don’t know. But they knew about Okonkwo before we did. Which means they’re inside the Swarm. Or they’re inside Aegis. Or they’re someone else entirely.”
Lena deleted the message.
“Then we’re on our own.”
Marcus nodded. “We were always on our own.”
He stood up. “Get some sleep. We leave at 4:00 AM.”
“Where are we going?”
“To find the only person who might know how to stop the kill switch. The person who built it.”
“Julian’s dead.”
“Not Julian.” Marcus opened the door. “The person who helped him build it. His partner. A woman named Dr. Aris Thorne.”
Lena’s eyes widened. “Thorne. Your last name.”
“My sister,” Marcus said quietly. “The one who killed herself. She didn’t die. She faked her death and disappeared. Because Julian Crane told her that if she stayed, they would kill her too.”
He walked out, closing the door behind him.
Lena sat in the darkness, alone with the countdown and the ghost of a woman she had never met.
57:44:01.
The hunt had just begun.