THE LULLABY KEY : THE FALL
CHAPTER 14: The Assassin’s Confession
They arrived in Washington, D.C., at 11:00 AM, sixty-four hours before the kill switch would activate.
The city was buzzing with news of the Vice President’s disappearance. His press secretary had announced that he was taking “personal leave” for unspecified health reasons. But the rumor mill was already churning. Some said he had fled the country. Some said he was dead. Some said he had been arrested.
Lena knew the truth.
He was in hiding. Or he was dead. Or he was being tortured in a black site just like the one she had escaped.
They parked the Subaru in a garage near Dupont Circle and walked to the dead drop.
The bench was exactly where her father had described it: the third bench from the fountain, facing north, with a bronze plaque dedicated to a forgotten war hero.
Lena sat down. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket—the letter from her mother—and placed it under the bench, tucked into a crack in the stone.
Then she waited.
Twenty minutes passed. Thirty. Forty.
A woman sat down on the bench next to her. Late forties. Gray hair. Expensive coat. She looked like a Georgetown professor or a think tank consultant.
She didn’t look at Lena.
“The lullaby,” the woman said quietly. “Sing it.”
Lena sang the first four bars.
The woman nodded. “You’re Julian’s daughter. We thought you were dead.”
“I was. I’m not anymore.”
The woman finally turned to look at her. Her eyes were cold but not unkind. “My name is Zero. That’s what your father called me. I was the deputy director of the NSA until I refused to sign a warrantless surveillance order. They fired me. I started the Swarm.”
“Zero,” Lena repeated. “My father mentioned you. He said you were the only person he trusted.”
“Your father was a brilliant man and a terrible judge of character. But he was right about me.” Zero stood up. “Walk with me. Don’t look back.”
They walked through Dupont Circle, past the fountain, past the protesters with their signs, past the tourists taking photographs.
Zero spoke without moving her lips. “The Vice President’s video was real. He recorded it four hours before he was taken. We know where they’re holding him. But we can’t get him out without help.”
“What kind of help?”
“The kind that comes with guns and a death wish. Your father had both. Do you?”
Lena stopped walking. “My father was a coward. He ran. He hid. He let my mother die. I am not my father.”
Zero turned to face her. For the first time, she smiled.
“Good. Because we have a plan. But it requires you to do something that will probably get you killed.”
“I’m listening.”
Zero led her to a parked van. Inside, three people were huddled around a bank of computers. Maps. Satellite images. Audio feeds.
“We’ve located the Vice President,” Zero said. “He’s being held in a black site in Virginia. Same company that grabbed you. Aegis Solutions. But this site is different. It’s underground. Fortified. It would take a platoon to breach it.”
“So how do we get in?”
Zero pulled up a photograph. A man in his sixties. Gray beard. Kind eyes.
“This is Dr. Samuel Okonkwo. He’s the chief medical examiner for the District of Columbia. He’s also a member of the Swarm. Three days ago, he was called to perform an autopsy on a ‘John Doe’ who turned out to be Julian Crane. He saw the bullet wounds. He knows it wasn’t a heart attack. And he’s agreed to help us.”
“Help us how?”
“By faking your death.”
Lena stared at her. “Come again?”
“If Pike thinks you’re dead, he’ll stop hunting you. He’ll focus on the Vice President. That gives us time to extract the VP and get his confession on the record. But to make it believable, we need a body. A body that looks like yours. A body with your DNA.”
Lena’s stomach turned. “You want me to let someone else die in my place.”
“Not someone. A cadaver. A Jane Doe from the morgue. Dr. Okonkwo will swap the dental records, the DNA samples, everything. When Pike’s people come looking, they’ll find a dead woman who matches your description. And they’ll stop looking.”
Marcus stepped forward. “That’s insane. If they test the DNA—”
“They won’t. Because Dr. Okonkwo will be the one running the tests. He’ll give them the results they expect. And Lena will disappear.”
Lena looked at Marcus. Then at Zero. Then at the photograph of the Vice President.
“Let’s do it.”