My chest tightened.

“You’re lying,” I said. “He’s dead. He died in the crash.”

“The empty coffin in New Jersey was for show, Natalie,” she said. “You know that now.”

“Your father has been hiding, waiting for a chance to run.”

“But he ran out of time.”

She reached out her hand, palm up.

“Give me the black drive,” she said.

“I can use it to negotiate his release.”

“Voss will trade him for the data. It’s the only thing he cares about.”

I looked at her open hand, then back to her cold eyes.

“If Voss gets this drive, the program continues,” I said. “More children will end up like me.”

“More children will die.”

“And if he doesn’t get it, your father dies tonight,” Caroline said.

Her voice didn’t waver.

She spoke of her husband’s life as if it were a simple business transaction.

“You have to choose, Natalie,” she whispered.

“The data, or your father’s life.”

I clutched the binder tighter, my mind racing as the hum of the terminal filled the silence between us.

“How did you find me?” I asked.