Chapter 16 - Livestream JusticeThe video spread before anyone could stop it.
Agent Cole aiming at a blind child.
Cyrus knocking him down.
Julian Hart calling Maisie family.
Mrs. Greer weaponizing church coffee.
By noon, every major news outlet had the clip.
By two, St. Mercy Hospital released a statement denying all wrongdoing.
By three, three former nurses contacted reporters.
By four, Dr. Keller disappeared.
By sunset, the city had chosen a side.
Not because Julian Hart was innocent.
He wasn’t.
The public knew his name. They knew the rumors. They knew the whispered stories of backroom deals and vanished enemies.
But they also saw Maisie Doyle standing in a church basement with a silver bird pendant around her neck, holding the leash of a scarred German Shepherd who had protected her from a federal agent.
America loved a child brave enough to expose monsters.
And America loved a dog who bit the right man.
Victor Sable’s lawyers tried to bury the story under legal threats.
It did not work.
The internet named Cyrus “The Million-Dollar Dog.”
Maisie hated that.
“He’s not a headline,” she said from Julian’s safe house that evening.
Finn sat across from her at the kitchen table, scrolling through comments on Mrs. Greer’s phone. “Someone made a shirt.”
Maisie frowned. “Already?”
“Three shirts.”
Mrs. Greer took the phone away. “No more internet. It rots the nerves.”
Julian entered with Elena and Mace.
Elena looked exhausted but steady. She had spent six hours giving statements to investigators who were not connected to Cole. Real investigators this time, handpicked after the livestream made corruption too visible to ignore.
Julian placed a folder on the table.
“Dr. Keller is on the run.”
Maisie went still.
Finn’s face hardened. “Where?”
“Unknown.”
Elena sat beside Maisie. “We’ll find him.”
Maisie touched the pendant.
“He’ll smell like mint.”
No one laughed.
Julian opened the folder. “The microdrive included locations for the fourteen children.”
Mace added, “Some are in private clinics. Some in foster placements arranged through shell charities. Two overseas transfers scheduled this week.”
Finn looked sick. “Kids. They’re moving kids like shipments.”
Julian’s voice was flat. “Not anymore.”
Maisie lifted her head. “When do we go?”
Elena said, “You don’t.”
Maisie turned toward her mother.
Elena’s voice softened but stayed firm. “I know you want to help. I know you can hear things we miss. But you are eleven. You have already done more than any child should ever have to do.”
Maisie’s mouth tightened. “So I sit here?”
“You heal.”
“I don’t know how.”
The room fell quiet.
Elena reached for her hand. “Neither do I.”
That honesty mattered.
Maisie let her mother hold her fingers.
Julian looked at Finn. “You’ll stay here too.”
Finn snorted. “Good luck.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
Finn leaned forward. “You think because you paid one debt, you get to give orders?”
“I think because assassins tried to smoke you out of my library, you might consider basic survival.”
“I’ll consider it after Dr. Keller is found.”
Maisie turned sharply. “Finn.”
He looked at her.
She heard the thing beneath his anger.
Guilt.
He blamed himself for bringing her to the arena. For the debt. For every door that had opened after.
Maisie reached across the table until he took her hand.
“You didn’t cause this.”
Finn’s jaw worked.
“You brought me to Cyrus,” she said. “That saved him. That found Mom. That found the kids.”
Finn looked down.
“You’re not the reason bad people hurt us,” she whispered. “You’re the reason I wasn’t alone.”
Elena’s eyes filled again.
Julian looked away, uncomfortable with tenderness that direct.
Then Mace’s phone buzzed.
He checked it and cursed softly.
Julian turned. “What?”
“Dr. Keller surfaced.”
Finn stood so fast his chair fell.
Mace continued, “He walked into Channel 8 News.”
Everyone stared.
“He’s giving an interview,” Mace said. “Live.”
Mrs. Greer turned on the kitchen television.
The screen showed Dr. Keller seated beneath studio lights, handsome in the polished way of men who had learned to weaponize trust. He wore a gray suit and a wounded expression.
Maisie froze at the sound of his voice.
“I deeply sympathize with this child,” Keller said. “But the claims being made are medically impossible. Her blindness resulted from untreated infection and neglect.”
Elena made a sound of rage.
Keller looked into the camera.
“I tried to save Maisie Doyle. Unfortunately, her mother failed her.”
Maisie stopped breathing.
Finn lunged for the television.
Julian caught his arm.
Keller continued, voice smooth.
“And now dangerous criminals are using a disabled child to distract from their own crimes.”
Cyrus growled at the screen.
Maisie stood slowly.
Her face was pale, but her voice was clear.
“He’s lying.”
Julian looked at her.
“How do you know?”
Maisie touched her throat.
“Because he still clicks his tongue before saying my name.”
Elena stared.
Maisie whispered, “He did it before the needle too.”
May you like
Julian turned to Mace.
“Get me that studio address.”
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