Chapter 26 - THE HOUSE THAT MOVEDVictor sealed the false library.
Armed guards surrounded the group.
Daniel aimed at Victor, but red targeting lights appeared across his chest.
Victor smiled.
“You still mistake resemblance for power.”
He revealed that three versions of Hale House existed.
The public mansion.
The underground training house.
A mobile reconstruction built inside a converted industrial structure.
Harper had spent portions of childhood in all three without knowing.
The rooms were kept visually identical.
Memories could be manipulated through environment even when drugs failed.
Bennett looked toward Margaret.
“Did you know?”
She shook her head.
Victor laughed.
“Margaret knew the first house. Evelyn knew the second. Laura built the third.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
A memory surfaced.
Laura standing inside a warehouse, instructing workers where to place Harper’s piano.
Why would Laura build another false home?
Victor answered.
“To test whether Harper could identify belonging without location.”
Harper stepped toward him.
“What did she conclude?”
“That home was not architecture.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“She concluded it was people.”
Harper looked at Bennett, Adrian, Samuel, Margaret, Daniel, Evelyn and Rebecca.
Every person represented love mixed with betrayal.
Perhaps Laura’s conclusion had been wrong.
Victor ordered Harper to give him the original recording.
She held up the copy.
“The original is still inside the cake room.”
Daniel looked at her but said nothing.
Harper was lying.
He had hidden the original beneath his coat.
Victor approached.
Rebecca moved between them.
“You created me.”
“I repaired you.”
“You stole Laura’s life and put it inside my emptiness.”
“I gave you a better identity.”
Rebecca struck him.
The guards raised their weapons.
Daniel threw the original drive toward the ceiling sprinkler.
A shot shattered the pipe.
Water poured over the room.
The electrical locks failed.
Nolan attacked the nearest guard.
The others scattered.
Harper ran toward the false window.
Beneath its frame, she found a butterfly-shaped release.
The entire wall opened.
Beyond it lay a vast warehouse.
The false Hale House stood on a rotating platform.
Two other house interiors surrounded it.
In the distance, Bennett saw a woman being escorted across a metal bridge.
She looked exactly like Rebecca.
Then another Laura appeared behind her.
And another.
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Victor had not created one continuity vessel.
He had created nine.
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