00:00Marcus said, already moving toward the door, Maya was on her feet instantly, grabbing her coat as Marcus radioed his
00:08remaining contacts, redirecting them toward the Eastern Market District in real time.
00:13Whoever that is, he's not here to rescue anyone.
00:17How far out are we?
00:19Twelve minutes if traffic holds.
00:21The market's crowded this time of evening.
00:23If shots are fired in a space that dense, we're not just risking Tommy and Edmund, we're risking dozens of
00:30bystanders, Marcus said, already pulling up the live feed on his phone, as they ran.
00:37Then we need to get there before it comes to that.
00:40In the market itself, Edmund Hale moved quickly through the crowd, one hand resting protectively on Tommy's shoulder, his usual
00:49composure visibly fraying at the edges.
00:52Asked, glancing up at him nervously.
00:55Are we in trouble?
00:57We might be.
00:58There are people who don't want the truth to come out the way I've planned it.
01:02I need you to stay close and do exactly what I say.
01:06Edmund admitted, surprising Tommy with the honesty.
01:10Why should I trust you?
01:11You basically kidnapped me.
01:13I didn't kidnap you.
01:15I told you the truth about your sister's situation, and you chose to come with me because you wanted to
01:21protect her.
01:22That was your choice, Tommy, whatever anyone else calls it, Edmund said quietly, and right now, I need you to
01:29trust me one more time, because the alternative might genuinely be dangerous.
01:34The stranger trailing them moved with practice patience, closing the distance steadily without drawing attention, weaving through market stalls and
01:44evening shoppers with the calm efficiency of someone who had done this many times before.
01:49He raised a small earpiece to his mouth, speaking low, target acquired, moving to intercept in approximately 90 seconds.
01:58A voice crackled back through the earpiece, distorted by distance, but clearly female.
02:05Confirm before you engage, we need him alive long enough to answer questions.
02:10The boy is not the priority.
02:13Do not let him become a complication.
02:15Understood.
02:17Marcus' car screeched to a stop at the market's edge.
02:20Maya out the door before it fully stopped, scanning the crowd frantically for any sign of Tommy.
02:28If Tommy sees a friendly face, he'll come to us faster than we can reach him through this crowd.
02:34Marcus instructed, gesturing his two contacts toward opposite ends of the market.
02:40They pushed through the evening market, vendors calling out prices, the smell of street food thick in the air,
02:47none of it registering to Maya, beyond the desperate need to spot her brother's face among hundreds of strangers.
02:54Then she saw him, Tommy, gripping Edmund's sleeve tightly, weaving between stalls, roughly 40 yards ahead.
03:02Tommy's head snapped up at the sound of his name, relief and confusion crossing his face simultaneously.
03:09Tommy!
03:11Maya!
03:12Edmund turned sharply, spotting Maya and Marcus closing in from one direction,
03:18and, a moment later, the armed stranger closing in from the other,
03:23now moving with far less subtlety than before, pulling him toward a narrow side alley.
03:28Tommy, we need to move now, Edmund said urgently.
03:32The stranger called out, abandoning his cover approach entirely, and breaking into a jog.
03:39That's not your sister's people.
03:41Mr. Hale, I have a message from my employer.
03:45She'd like a conversation, immediately.
03:48Edmund's face went pale.
03:50She found me faster than I expected.
03:52Marcus caught up, just as the stranger reached striking distance, stepping between him and Edmund, with practiced ease,
04:01hand already on his own concealed weapon.
04:03That's far enough.
04:05This isn't your fight.
04:07Step aside, and no one gets hurt.
04:09My employer only wants Mr. Hale.
04:12Who's your employer?
04:13Marcus demanded.
04:15The stranger's expression flickered with something like grim amusement.
04:18Someone who's been watching this entire situation unfold, with far more patience than Lawrence Ashworth ever had.
04:26Someone who understood, long before any of you, exactly what Edmund Hale was planning,
04:31because she helped him plan the earliest parts of it herself, twenty years ago.
04:36Twenty years ago.
04:38My father's shipping fraud.
04:40The stranger's eyes flick toward her with sudden interest.
04:43You must be Miss Reyes.
04:45My employer has been very curious about you.
04:48While Marcus kept the stranger's attention, Tommy, trembling but determined, slipped free of Edmund's grip,
04:56and darted toward Maya, closing the last twenty yards at a full run.
05:01Tommy!
05:01Maya caught him in a fearsome grace, relief overwhelming every other emotion for one brief, precious moment.
05:09I'm sorry.
05:10I thought I was helping you.
05:12He said you were in danger, and I believed him.
05:15You're safe now.
05:17That's all that matters.
05:19Behind them, the standoff between Marcus and the stranger held in fragile tension.
05:24The crowded market oblivious to the danger unfolding in its midst.
05:28Tell your employer that if she wants a conversation with Edmund Hale, she goes through official channels from now on.
05:36The Crown Council is already aware of everything he's done.
05:39Whatever leverage she thinks she still has just became significantly less valuable.
05:45The stranger studied Marcus for a long moment before lowering his hand slightly from his concealed weapon.
05:52He reached slowly into his jacket, producing not a weapon this time, but a small sealed envelope, which he held
06:00out toward Edmund.
06:01My employer anticipated you might say something like that.
06:05She said to give you this.
06:07Regardless of how tonight ended, she said you'd understand exactly what it means.
06:13The stranger told Edmund.
06:15Edmund took the envelope with visibly shaking hands, opening it slowly as Marcus, Maya, and Tommy all watched.
06:23Inside was a single photograph.
06:25Edmund, unmistakably younger, standing beside a woman none of them recognized, in what appeared to be a small, unremarkable office
06:35decades in the past.
06:37Edmund stared at the image, his composed exterior finally, completely shattering.
06:43That's not possible.
06:45That's not possible, he whispered.
06:48She's been dead for twenty years.
06:50I watched them bury her myself.
06:52Who?
06:54Maya asked carefully.
06:56Edmund looked up, tears in his eyes for the first time since any of them had encountered him, the full
07:02weight of whatever this revelation meant crashing over him all at once.
07:07My mother, Marguerite.
07:09The woman in this photograph is my mother, and according to the date stamped on the back of this photo,
07:15it was taken three years ago.
07:17He said, his voice cracked completely.
07:20The stranger, already retreating quietly into the market crowd, called back one final sentence, before disappearing entirely.
07:30My employer thought you deserved to know the truth before this goes any further, Mr. Hale.
07:35Your mother isn't dead, and she's the one who's been running this entire operation from the very beginning.
07:40Coming up in episode 18, Marguerite's return.
07:45Edmund is forced to confront the truth about his mother's staged death as Maya and the palace race,
07:51to understand what role Marguerite Hale has truly played in the crisis engulfing the crown of Belmore.
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