Chapter 9 - Briar House
Briar House stood on a wooded island off the coast of Maine.
Official records described it as a private neurological rehabilitation center that had closed twelve years earlier. Satellite images showed an abandoned stone building surrounded by pine trees and cliffs.
Richard knew better than to trust official records.
Forty-eight hours after the airport incident, Ethan was released under private medical supervision. Richard moved both children to a secure estate outside Boston, but the property did not feel safe.
Margaret had helped design its security system.
Richard replaced the entire team except for one person: Rosa Bennett, Ethan’s nurse since infancy.
Rosa hugged Ethan when he arrived.
Then she saw Lucy.
A tray slipped from her hands.
“You’re alive.”
Richard closed the door.
“You know her?”
Rosa began crying.
Lucy hid behind Richard.
“I worked nights in the institute recovery ward,” Rosa said. “Victoria brought Lucy to me during the fire. She told me to take the child through the service tunnel.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Owen stopped us. He took Lucy. Victoria ordered me to find Ethan instead.”
Rosa looked at Lucy.
“I thought they killed you.”
Lucy studied her face.
“You gave us orange candy after injections.”
Rosa covered her mouth.
“I am so sorry.”
“Did you know Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Was he alive after the transfer?”
Rosa hesitated.
Richard stepped closer.
“Tell her the truth.”
“Daniel’s heart stopped for almost four minutes. They revived him. But he never woke.”
Lucy gripped her backpack.
“Where did they take him?”
“Briar House.”
Ethan wheeled himself nearer.
“And Elena Marquez?”
Rosa’s expression darkened.
“She was there too.”
Richard arranged transportation by helicopter, but federal authorities refused to authorize a raid based solely on recovered institute files. Briar House was owned through a network of private companies outside the United States.
Richard decided not to wait.
He brought a small security team, Rosa, a neurologist unaffiliated with the foundation, Ethan, and Lucy.
The flight north passed over frozen coastline and dark water.
Lucy sat beside the window.
Richard gave her a new winter coat, but she still wore the denim jacket beneath it.
“You can leave the backpack at the estate,” he said.
“No.”
“What is inside that matters so much?”
Lucy opened it reluctantly.
The hospital card.
The wooden D block.
A photograph of herself and Daniel.
Three crackers wrapped in tissue.
A broken music box.
And a sealed envelope addressed to Richard.
He stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was sewn into the backpack.”
“Who wrote it?”
“Your wife.”
Richard examined the seal.
“Why didn’t you show me?”
“Because I didn’t know whether you were like her.”
“And now?”
“I still don’t know.”
That answer hurt, but he accepted it.
“May I read it?”
Lucy handed him the envelope.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
Richard,
If Lucy reaches you, I failed to give her the childhood we stole. Do not ask her to forgive us. Give her the right to refuse you.
Briar House contains the surviving subjects and the original Nightingale ledger. Margaret will destroy both before allowing the truth to emerge.
Daniel is the key to identifying the buyers.
But Daniel may no longer know he is Daniel.
Richard folded the letter.
Lucy watched him.
“What does it say?”
“That I should not expect you to trust me.”
“She was right.”
“Yes.”
The helicopter landed in a clearing half a mile from the facility.
Briar House appeared abandoned. Ivy covered its stone walls. Snow buried the entrance road.
Inside, however, the air was warm.
Generators hummed beneath the floor.
They found clean medical rooms, recently used beds, and cameras that turned to follow them.
At the end of the main corridor stood a wall filled with photographs.
Each photograph showed a Nightingale child at different ages.
Some had died.
Some had been transferred to wealthy families under new identities.
Lucy found Daniel’s picture.
Beneath his name was a recent date.
Three weeks earlier.
STATUS: CONSCIOUS.
“He’s alive,” she whispered.
A door opened behind them.
A teenage boy stood in the entrance.
He had Daniel’s eyes.
Lucy dropped her backpack.
“Daniel?”
The boy looked at her without recognition.
May you like
Then he raised a pistol and aimed it at Ethan.
“My name isn’t Daniel,” he said. “And they told me he stole my life.”
