Chapter 13 - The Fire Above Noah’s Room
The drive home took nine minutes.
It felt like nine years.
A column of smoke rose above the neighborhood before we reached the street. Fire engines blocked the intersection. Neighbors stood outside in coats and pajamas.
I left Ruiz’s vehicle while it was still moving.
Flames had not consumed the entire house. Smoke poured from Noah’s bedroom and the upper hallway.
“Where is he?” I shouted.
A firefighter caught my arm.
“You can’t go inside.”
“My son is in there.”
“The occupants were evacuated.”
“Where?”
He pointed toward an ambulance.
Rosa sat inside with an oxygen mask over her face.
Noah was not beside her.
I ran to her.
“Where is he?”
“They took him.”
“Who?”
“A police officer.”
Ruiz arrived behind me.
“What officer?”
Rosa coughed.
“He came through the kitchen. He said Detective Ruiz sent him.”
“I sent no one.”
“He knew the safe-room code.”
My body turned cold.
“Which direction?”
“Garage.”
The garage door stood open.
My black SUV was gone.
The fire had been a distraction.
A security camera across the street captured the vehicle leaving six minutes earlier.
Ruiz issued an alert.
I called the SUV’s tracking service.
The signal had been disabled.
Martin arrived in an ambulance from the factory despite medical orders. His face was bandaged.
“Cross is going to St. Orison,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“The transfer note.”
“We don’t know what transfer means.”
“Yes, we do. He has Noah. He needs Rosa. He will trade the boy for the second heir.”
Rosa removed the oxygen mask.
“Then I will go.”
“No,” I said.
“He took Noah because of me.”
“He took Noah because monsters use children to control adults.”
“And how do you plan to get him back?”
I had no answer.
Vanessa did.
She stood beside a police vehicle with handcuffs around her wrists.
“Cross will not trade,” she said. “He will take both.”
Ruiz approached her.
“Where is St. Orison?”
Vanessa gave coordinates in the northern hills.
The location corresponded to a private estate listed under a shell company.
“It has an underground medical wing,” she said. “The visible house is mostly empty.”
“Entrances?”
“Main drive, service road, and an old water tunnel.”
“You know many tunnels,” Ruiz said.
“Cross does not like doors he cannot secretly leave.”
Ruiz organized the response.
This time, I did not ask permission to join.
I simply followed.
The estate stood behind iron gates at the end of a forest road. Officers approached without sirens.
At 6:38 a.m., my phone rang.
Noah’s name appeared.
I answered.
“Dad?”
His voice was small.
“I’m here, buddy.”
“I’m in a white room.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
A man spoke behind him.
“Tell your father to bring Rosa.”
Noah began crying.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Listen to me. You did nothing wrong.”
The phone changed hands.
Adrian Cross spoke.
His voice was smooth and almost friendly.
“Daniel Mercer. We should have met years ago.”
“Let my son go.”
“Bring your sister to the front gate.”
“You already have access to the company through Vanessa.”
“Vanessa failed.”
“She says you’re finished with her.”
“She was finished the moment she developed a conscience.”
Vanessa looked at me from across the command van.
She heard him through the speaker.
“Where is Emily?” I asked.
Silence followed.
Then Cross laughed softly.
“Martin finally told you.”
“No. Vanessa did.”
“Poor Vanessa. Always believing confession can wash blood from her hands.”
“Is Emily alive?”
Cross did not answer directly.
“Bring Rosa, and I will show you what happened to your wife.”
The call ended.
Ruiz began explaining why we could not comply.
Rosa interrupted.
“We are not complying. We are entering through the water tunnel.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“That tunnel is flooded.”
“Not all the way.”
“How do you know?”
Rosa removed the pendant from her neck.
A tiny key was concealed inside.
“My father gave me instructions for St. Orison.”
“You knew this place existed?” I asked.
“I knew there might be a place. I did not know it was still active.”
“What does the key open?”
“I was told it would open the room where Northstar kept the truth.”
We entered the forest while the tactical team prepared a visible approach at the front gate.
The water tunnel lay beneath fallen branches near a dry stream.
The key opened a rusted steel grate.
Inside, darkness waited.
At the far end, somewhere beneath the estate, a child screamed.
My child.
And then another voice called his name.
A woman’s voice.
May you like
A voice I had heard only in recordings for twelve years.
“NOAH!”
