Chapter 1 - The Camera That Should Have Been Empty)
Marcus carried Lily through the private service corridor behind the ballroom while Nathan Briggs led the way.
Nobody followed.
Marcus had ordered two trusted guards to seal the ballroom doors and prevent anyone from leaving until he returned.
His mother protested.
Adrian threatened lawsuits.
Marcus ignored them both.
Lily kept her arms around his neck.
She had stopped crying, but that frightened him more.
Lily was normally fearless.
She climbed trees higher than her teachers approved of. She challenged adults when she thought they were being unfair. She once told Marcus's board chairman that his tie looked like "a sad curtain."
Seeing her silent and trembling made Marcus feel something he rarely experienced.
Helplessness.
The security room was located one level beneath the ballroom.
Nathan locked the door after them.
Six monitors covered one wall.
"Show me," Marcus said.
Nathan hesitated.
"Sir, there is something you should know first."
Marcus's eyes hardened.
"Show me."
Nathan opened the footage.
The recording showed the east residential corridor approximately forty minutes before the gala began.
Marcus watched his mother's bedroom door.
At first nothing happened.
Then Lily appeared.
She was carrying her stuffed rabbit and wandering slowly down the hall.
Marcus remembered telling her to stay with the nanny.
"Where was Melissa?" he asked.
"Someone sent her downstairs," Nathan said.
"Who?"
"We're checking."
On-screen, Lily stopped beside Victoria's door.
It was open slightly.
She looked inside.
Then she entered.
Marcus felt Lily tighten in his arms.
"What did you see?"
Lily shook her head.
"Watch."
The camera showed the hallway, not the bedroom interior.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then someone approached.
Adrian Cole.
Marcus leaned closer.
Adrian looked left and right before entering Victoria's room.
Another person appeared less than a minute later.
A woman in a black catering uniform.
Her face was turned from the camera.
She entered too.
Marcus looked at Nathan.
"Who is she?"
"We don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"She isn't on tonight's staff list."
Marcus stared at the screen.
Five minutes passed.
The unknown woman left first.
She carried a silver case.
Adrian followed.
Victoria came last.
But Lily did not leave.
Marcus's voice dropped.
"Where's my daughter?"
Nathan switched cameras.
The next angle showed the rear staircase.
Three minutes after Victoria left the bedroom, Lily appeared at the top of the stairs.
She was crying.
She held the crystal pendant.
Then Adrian stepped into view behind her.
Marcus stopped breathing.
Adrian grabbed Lily's arm.
The camera had no audio, but Lily's terrified expression told Marcus enough.
She struggled.
Adrian bent toward her face.
Then Victoria appeared.
Instead of helping Lily, Victoria took the pendant and tried to pull it from Lily's hand.
The chain snapped.
Half remained with Victoria.
The broken crystal remained with Lily.
Adrian looked furious.
Lily twisted free and ran.
Marcus stared at the monitor.
The room became deathly quiet.
"What happened after that?"
Nathan switched again.
Lily ran through the service corridor.
Adrian followed.
Victoria followed more slowly.
Then the recording suddenly froze.
Black screen.
Marcus looked at Nathan.
"Why did it stop?"
"Someone accessed the security server remotely."
"When?"
"Thirty-two minutes ago."
"From where?"
Nathan swallowed.
"Inside the house."
Marcus looked down at Lily.
"Did Adrian hurt you?"
Lily touched her forehead.
"He grabbed me."
Marcus's jaw tightened.
"Did Grandma?"
Lily hesitated.
"No."
Marcus felt unexpected relief.
Then Lily continued.
"She told him not to leave marks."
The relief disappeared.
Marcus slowly lifted his eyes toward the monitor.
Nathan looked sick.
"What was in the room?" Marcus asked.
Lily whispered, "Pictures."
"What kind of pictures?"
"Of Mommy."
Marcus froze.
Lily's mother had been dead for four years.
Elena Thorne had supposedly died in a car accident on a rainy November night.
Marcus had spent four years trying to accept that fact.
"What pictures?"
"Mommy sleeping. Mommy crying. Mommy at our old house."
Marcus could hear his own heartbeat.
"And there was a man."
"In the pictures?"
Lily nodded.
"Grandma called him Doctor Vale."
Nathan's chair creaked as he turned.
Marcus looked at him.
"You know that name."
Nathan did not answer immediately.
"Marcus..."
"Who is Doctor Vale?"
Nathan's face changed.
"He used to work for your father."
Marcus stared at him.
"My father died twelve years ago."
Nathan looked toward the locked door.
"I know."
Marcus opened his fist.
The broken pendant glittered beneath the fluorescent lights.
On its back was the symbol he had noticed upstairs.
Three interlocking circles surrounding a narrow vertical line.
Nathan stared at it.
Then he whispered something Marcus never expected.
"I've seen that symbol before."
"Where?"
Nathan opened a locked drawer beneath the console.
He removed an old envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Marcus took it.
His father stood in front of a lakeside medical facility with four other men.
One of them was Adrian Cole's father.
Another was a younger man Marcus did not recognize.
Around his neck hung an identical crystal pendant.
Nathan pointed to him.
"Dr. Elias Vale."
Marcus looked at the date printed on the photograph.
Twenty-one years earlier.
Then he saw the handwritten words on the back.
THORNE PROJECT
SUBJECT 07 APPROVED
Marcus looked up.
"What the hell was the Thorne Project?"
Nathan opened his mouth.
Before he could answer, the security-room telephone rang.
Nobody moved.
It rang again.
Nathan activated the speaker.
A distorted voice filled the room.
"Mr. Thorne."
Marcus pulled Lily closer.
"Who is this?"
"You have something that does not belong to you."
Marcus looked at the pendant.
"What do you want?"
"The crystal."
"And if I don't give it to you?"
The voice paused.
Then it said five words that turned Marcus's blood cold.
May you like
"Ask where your wife is."
The line disconnected.
