Chapter 8 - The House With No Safe Room)
The Moretti mansion had forty-two rooms.
Seven exterior entrances.
Three underground passages.
A private elevator.
Two panic rooms.
A security system worth more than most houses.
And someone had designed a plan to make all of it useless.
Marcus watched doors unlock one by one on the monitor.
“They have administrative access.”
Caesar turned toward Vanessa.
“Who has security credentials?”
“Why are you looking at me?”
“Because I am tired of discovering you know things after they almost kill someone.”
“I do not have security access.”
Marcus interrupted.
“She is telling the truth.”
Caesar looked at him.
“The breach is using your biometric profile.”
Caesar stared.
“My profile?”
“Yes.”
The system believed Caesar himself was opening the doors.
Amelia whispered, “They cloned you.”
Marcus nodded.
“Voice, fingerprint, maybe retinal data.”
Caesar looked toward Evelyn.
“Then the safe room is compromised.”
A click confirmed it.
The interior door lock changed from red to green.
Marcus raised his weapon.
“Move.”
They exited through a concealed rear panel leading into an older part of the mansion.
Clara carried Samuel.
Amelia held Evelyn’s hand.
Vanessa followed.
Caesar and Marcus took the rear.
They moved through narrow service corridors designed a century earlier for servants.
Footsteps echoed somewhere nearby.
Marcus whispered, “Three, maybe four.”
Caesar pointed toward a laundry alcove.
Everyone entered.
The footsteps passed.
Evelyn covered her own mouth to keep from crying.
Caesar looked at her.
For the first time he wondered how many terrifying things his daughter had already learned to endure silently.
He hated himself for not noticing sooner.
The group reached an old staircase.
Clara stopped.
“Below this is the original wine cellar.”
Marcus nodded.
“It connects to the north garage.”
Amelia looked at Vanessa.
“You know another way.”
Vanessa stared.
“What?”
“You keep looking behind us. Not ahead.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“You have been inside these tunnels before.”
Caesar stepped toward her.
“Have you?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night Amelia disappeared.”
Caesar went still.
Amelia’s expression emptied.
“You were here?”
Vanessa nodded.
“I was ordered to retrieve something.”
“What?”
“A blue medical file.”
Amelia stared.
“My pregnancy records.”
“Yes.”
“You helped them.”
“I did not know they were going to take you.”
“You watched them.”
“I arrived after.”
Amelia grabbed Vanessa by the throat.
Caesar separated them.
“Enough.”
Amelia screamed, “She left me there.”
Vanessa screamed back.
“I was terrified.”
“So was I.”
“I had no power.”
“You had a car.”
“I had a dying father and a contract that said they owned every dollar I had ever been given.”
Amelia laughed bitterly.
“So you chose yourself.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
The honesty silenced everyone.
“Yes, Amelia. I chose myself. I was twenty-three. I was stupid. I was afraid. And every day since then I have lived inside the consequences.”
A gunshot cracked overhead.
Marcus pulled them down the stairs.
At the wine cellar entrance, they found one of Caesar’s security officers unconscious.
Alive.
His weapon missing.
Marcus checked his pulse.
“They are taking uniforms.”
Caesar heard movement among the wine racks.
“Down.”
A man in a Moretti security jacket emerged.
Marcus fired once.
The man collapsed.
Another appeared.
Caesar tackled him before he could raise his weapon.
They crashed into a wooden wine rack.
Bottles shattered.
Caesar hit him twice.
The attacker smiled through blood at his lip.
“You really do fight like Vittorio.”
Caesar grabbed his collar.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who knows what you are.”
“What am I?”
The man laughed.
“You still think Caesar Moretti is your birth name?”
Caesar froze.
Marcus struck the attacker unconscious.
“Do not listen.”
Caesar turned.
“You heard what the sign said outside. Ask your mother who you are.”
“Psychological warfare.”
“Maybe.”
Caesar searched the attacker and found a small encrypted radio.
Amelia found something else.
A photograph.
It showed a hospital nursery dated April 1987.
Rows of newborns.
A nurse held two baby boys.
On the back were two handwritten labels.
MOR-1.
MOR-2.
Caesar stared.
“Twins?”
Amelia looked closer.
“The babies do not look identical.”
“Then why the same family code?”
Vanessa leaned against the wall.
She looked sick.
Caesar saw it.
“You know.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Tell me.”
“I cannot.”
“Tell me.”
She whispered, “Because one of those babies became Caesar Moretti.”
“And the other?”
Vanessa looked toward the unconscious attacker.
“The other became the man leading the Directorate.”
A burst of gunfire sounded upstairs.
Then Daniel’s voice came through Marcus’s radio.
“I found Rose.”
Caesar grabbed it.
“The real Rose?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Sir, she was already inside the mansion.”
Caesar felt dread settle in his stomach.
“Where inside?”
“In your private bedroom.”
“Why?”
May you like
Daniel answered.
“Because she says she has been living inside the walls for three weeks.”
