Chapter 20 - The Last ClimbPolice closed the access road.
Claire joined the search team because she knew the route better than anyone.
Ethan remained at command.
This time, he did not argue.
He watched camera feeds from inside a mobile operations vehicle.
The mountain on the screen looked exactly as it had the day his rope failed.
Brilliant sky.
Gray rock.
Snow.
Beauty without morality.
Claire reached the staging ledge shortly after noon.
The equipment rack was empty.
She moved toward the boulder where Nia had cut the rope.
Nothing.
Then she saw a mark carved into the rock.
Two short lines.
A symbol.
“Medina.”
“What?”
“Did Victor Blake ever use a double-line mark?”
Helen, listening remotely, answered.
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“Private survey points.”
Claire followed the mark along the cliff.
Forty feet away, another symbol appeared.
Then another.
The route ended at a narrow crack behind an old anchor plate.
Claire removed the plate.
Inside was a weatherproof metal tube.
Empty.
“He beat us.”
Medina swore.
“What was inside?”
Helen answered.
“I don’t know.”
Then Ethan remembered something from childhood.
Victor used to hide documents during their family climbing trips.
Not valuable ones.
Maps.
Birthday notes.
Scavenger hunts.
Nia always found them first.
“Maybe the tube wasn’t the destination.”
Claire heard him through the radio.
“What do you mean?”
“Look for another mark inside.”
She shined a light.
A tiny arrow pointed upward.
Claire followed it.
Twenty feet higher, behind a rock shelf, she found a sealed container.
Inside was a micro-SD card.
“Got something.”
Back at command, technicians opened it.
Victor had recorded a video.
He stood at the same staging ledge three months before his death.
Thin.
Sick.
Wind shaking his coat.
“I built Blake Meridian believing ownership could hold a family together.”
He looked toward the valley.
“I was wrong.”
Victor explained the Northstar records.
Yes, illegal payments had occurred.
Yes, he covered them.
Yes, Marcus organized some.
Victor authorized others.
He named officials.
Lawyers.
Consultants.
He accepted responsibility.
Then he explained why he stored the video on the mountain.
“Because this is where my children were happiest before I taught them to compete for my approval.”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
Victor continued.
“Nia climbed first. Ethan followed. She always checked his rope.”
Claire closed her eyes.
The cruelty of the coincidence was almost unbearable.
“If Marcus ever comes looking for this recording, he will believe it can destroy the company.”
Victor looked directly into the camera.
“Let it.”
Ethan raised his head.
“Companies can be rebuilt. A family cannot survive forever if truth is treated as the enemy.”
The recording ended.
Medina immediately secured copies.
Then gunfire cracked over the radio.
Not at officers.
A warning shot into rock.
Claire dropped behind cover.
Marcus’s voice echoed from above.
“BACK OFF!”
He stood on the upper ledge.
A climbing harness around his waist.
A backpack on his shoulders.
Medina spoke through a loudspeaker.
“Marcus Vale! Put down the weapon!”
Marcus laughed.
“You finally found Victor’s confession.”
Ethan heard everything through command radio.
Marcus continued.
“You know what happens when that becomes public?”
Medina answered.
“That’s not your problem anymore.”
“It’s everybody’s problem.”
Marcus stepped backward toward the cliff.
Claire saw a rope anchored behind him.
He planned to descend the opposite face.
Escape route.
“Marcus,” she called.
He looked toward her.
“You cut Ethan’s rope plan with Nia.”
“You can’t prove whose idea it was.”
“We don’t need to argue it here.”
“You think Nia will protect him now?”
“Protect who?”
“Ethan.”
Claire kept him talking.
“She already confessed.”
Marcus’s face changed.
“To cutting the rope?”
“To everything.”
A lie.
But effective.
Marcus’s hand tightened around the weapon.
“She doesn’t know everything.”
“What doesn’t she know?”
He smiled.
“Why Victor really made Ethan trustee.”
Claire waited.
Marcus shouted toward the command camera mounted on a deputy.
“He didn’t choose you because Nia was compromised, Ethan!”
Ethan leaned toward the screen.
“He chose you because he knew you weren’t his permanent plan.”
Helen went pale.
Ethan looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus laughed from the cliff.
“Ask Helen about the twenty-fifth birthday amendment.”
Helen whispered, “Oh God.”
Ethan turned.
“What?”
Before she could answer, Marcus clipped onto his rope and stepped over the edge.
Claire lunged toward the anchor.
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The chase disappeared down the far side of the mountain.
And Ethan realized his father had hidden one final decision from both children.
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