Chapter 12 - crown hill
Elias did not go alone.
He agreed to enter the observatory courtyard without visible support, but Mercer’s tactical officers moved through the surrounding trees. Major Sloan remained at the command vehicle under observation by internal affairs.
Rain continued falling as Elias crossed the rusted gate.
The observatory had once been a proud circular building crowned by a white communications dome. Now vines covered the walls, and several windows had been boarded.
The burning vehicle near the entrance was the gray sedan that had escaped from his neighborhood.
Its interior had already been destroyed.
No Claire.
No Vanessa.
No Rusk.
The repeated transmission came from beneath the main building.
“Colonel Elias Grant must come alone.”
Elias entered through the cracked front doors.
His earpiece carried Mercer’s voice.
“We have you on thermal. Two possible figures below ground.”
Elias walked through the abandoned control room.
Dusty consoles lined the walls. Broken monitors faced a central table marked with the faded outline of an old regional map.
He found the stairwell leading downward.
The steel door stood open.
“Thirty feet,” Mercer whispered. “Then the signal becomes unreliable.”
Elias descended.
The underground corridor triggered memories he had tried to bury.
Raven Six trained here before the overseas mission.
Adrian had stood at the end of this same corridor, laughing because Elias had forgotten the code to the equipment cage.
“You remember everything except the things that make you human,” Adrian had joked.
Three months later, he disappeared.
At the bottom of the stairs, a red emergency light illuminated the passage.
A speaker crackled.
“You took longer than expected.”
The voice was electronically altered.
“Where is Claire?” Elias called.
“Alive.”
“Let me see her.”
A door opened at the far end of the corridor.
Claire stepped into view.
Her hands were free, but her coat was torn at one shoulder. She held Lily’s wooden compass.
“Elias,” she said, “don’t come closer.”
He stopped.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Who is with you?”
Claire looked behind her.
“I don’t know.”
“You came here willingly?”
“At first.”
“What is in the compass?”
“Evidence.”
“Against Sloan?”
“Against everyone.”
The speaker activated again.
“Place the compass on the floor.”
Claire gripped it tighter.
“No.”
A figure moved behind the glass wall of the adjacent control room.
The person wore a military coat and cap.
Elias could not see the face.
“Claire,” he said, “walk toward me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
She looked down.
A thin red light crossed the floor in front of her.
“Pressure sensors,” she said. “If I step outside the marked area, the room locks and the evidence system wipes.”
Elias examined the walls.
This facility had not possessed such equipment during Raven Six training. Someone had renovated it.
“What do they want?”
“The letter.”
“Do you have it?”
Claire held up the compass.
“Part of it.”
“What does that mean?”
“The paper was a cover. Marcus Hale hid data inside the seal. Vanessa copied the written page, but she never found the storage layer.”
“And you did?”
“Patrick helped me.”
“Who is Rusk?”
Claire’s face tightened.
“Rusk is the identity used by the officer controlling the network. Whenever one operative disappears, another takes the name.”
“Who controls it now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said the letter names the officer.”
“It names the first one.”
Elias heard movement in his earpiece.
Mercer’s team was entering the lower level from a maintenance shaft.
The distorted voice spoke again.
“Colonel, remove your communication device.”
Elias did not move.
“If you refuse, Claire loses her opportunity to leave.”
Claire shook her head.
“Don’t listen.”
“Remove it.”
Elias took out the earpiece and dropped it onto the floor.
Mercer’s voice became faint.
The speaker continued.
“Now place your service weapon beside it.”
Elias obeyed.
He had no intention of using it while Claire stood inside a sensor field.
A hidden panel opened in the wall beside him.
Inside was a small metal tray.
“Insert the brass key.”
Elias removed the safe key from his pocket.
“What does it open here?”
“Your brother’s final message.”
Claire looked stunned.
“You said Adrian was alive.”
The distorted voice gave a soft laugh.
“I said no such thing.”
Elias placed the key on the tray.
The panel closed.
A machine activated behind the wall.
The red sensor line in front of Claire disappeared.
She ran toward Elias.
He caught her as alarms began sounding throughout the underground facility.
Mercer’s team shouted from the maintenance corridor.
The control room door opened.
The uniformed figure stepped out.
Major Sloan raised both hands.
“Do not shoot,” she called.
Elias stared at her.
“You were at the warehouse.”
“No.”
“Then how did you get here?”
“I followed a secondary access tunnel.”
Claire backed away from her.
“That’s her voice.”
Sloan looked at Claire.
“You heard an electronic distortion.”
“I saw your face.”
Before Sloan could answer, every monitor in the corridor turned on.
A man appeared on the screens.
Older than Elias remembered.
A scar ran beside his ear.
Owen Rusk.
The original one.
“Congratulations,” Rusk said. “You found the room.”
Elias stepped toward the nearest screen.
“Where are you?”
“Far enough away to survive what happens next.”
“What do you want?”
“I wanted the key.”
“You have it.”
“Yes.”
A section of the wall behind Sloan opened.
Inside stood a metal archive case bearing the Raven Six insignia.
May you like
Rusk smiled from the screens.
“Now you may finally learn why your brother never came home.”
