Chapter 10 - The Glass Room Below the Ocean)
Amelia did not go alone, but she let Richard believe she did.
Gabriel placed a transmitter beneath the bandage on her calf. Detective Cross hid officers along the only road to Calder Cove. Tomas waited offshore with the Coast Guard, ready to enter through the old supply tunnel.
Grace remained in custody. Whether she had betrayed them or been framed, Cross would not risk giving her another chance.
Amelia entered Site 4 at 3:20 in the morning.
The facility lay inside the cliff behind a rusted tidal station. Its lowest corridor had a glass wall looking directly into the Pacific. Storm waves struck the other side with enough force to make the steel tremble.
Richard waited beside the vault door. His white shirt was stained with rain and blood from the memorial. Without the dark suit and practiced smile, he looked younger and more dangerous.
“You always did prefer dramatic entrances,” he said.
“Where is Lena?”
He pointed through the glass. She sat bound inside a control room with Jace guarding her.
Evelyn stood at the vault panel holding the stolen yellow key. “Voice and pulse,” she said. “Then everyone goes home.”
“No one has gone home since you entered my family.”
Evelyn smiled. “Your family invited me.”
Amelia placed her palm on the reader. A blue line measured her pulse. She spoke the phrase engraved above the panel: “The coast belongs to those who protect it.”
The lock released.
Before Evelyn could open the door, Amelia pulled her hand away. A second panel demanded a living-descendant confirmation. Samuel had added protection after learning she was pregnant. Rose’s heartbeat had to be detected beside Amelia’s.
Richard laughed softly. “Even unborn, our daughter is useful.”
“She is not yours to use.”
“Everything became mine the day you believed I loved you.”
He moved close enough for Amelia to see the exhaustion beneath his eyes.
“Did you ever?” she asked.
His gaze dropped to her belly. For a fraction of a second, pain appeared.
Evelyn answered for him. “Love was the flaw that made him hesitate.”
Richard turned on her. “I did what was required.”
“You left the parachute in place.”
“You told me it would not open.”
Amelia understood then. Richard had known about the rig, but he had trusted Evelyn to disable it. Evelyn had expected both Amelia and the baby to die. Richard’s shock in the helicopter had not been only fear of discovery. Some part of him had expected a different plan.
“What did she promise you?” Amelia asked. “Control of Wren? Your father’s name restored?”
Richard’s face hardened. “Open the vault.”
Another contraction seized Amelia. This one did not fade quickly. Warm fluid ran down her legs.
Lena saw it through the glass and began fighting her restraints.
“Her labor has started,” Jace shouted.
Evelyn pressed a gun against Amelia’s side. “Then the child’s heartbeat will be easy to detect.”
The descendant scanner lit green. Locks moved deep inside the cliff.
At that moment, Gabriel’s transmitter signal vanished. The walls were too thick. The officers outside would not know whether Amelia had reached the vault.
Richard opened the door.
Beyond it stood no ledger, only a circular chamber and a black console. Its screen came alive with Samuel Hartwell’s face.
“If Adrian Wren is present,” the recording said, using Richard’s real name, “Bluebird has already identified him.”
Steel shutters dropped over both exits.
Red lights began to pulse. Seawater roared into the corridor between the glass walls.
Richard grabbed Amelia by the throat.
“What did your father build?”
May you like
She looked past him at the rising water.
“A room for the truth,” she said. “And this time, you are trapped inside it with me.”
