Chapter 15 - The Brother Behind the Screen
Ethan stood motionless.
Daniel smiled faintly from the television.
The image behind him revealed only a dark wall and the edge of a metal instrument panel.
“You look like Father,” Daniel said.
Ethan stepped toward the screen.
“Where are you?”
“Where he left me.”
“Is Adrian alive?”
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
“That depends on how you define alive.”
Maya felt a chill.
“What do you want?” she asked.
Daniel looked at her.
“The same thing Eleanor wanted. To keep the Meridian Engine from becoming a crown.”
“We secured it.”
“You inherited the front door.”
“There are more?”
“There are nine Meridian sites.”
Marcus swore under his breath.
Daniel continued.
“The coastal engine is the oldest and least powerful.”
Ethan moved closer.
“Did you attack our wedding?”
“No.”
“Did you send the letter?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kidnap Richard?”
“No.”
“Did you order us to finish the ceremony?”
“Yes.”
Maya crossed her arms.
“You manipulated us.”
“I ensured the custodial transfer happened before Celeste seized the engine.”
“People could have died.”
“People would have died in far greater numbers if she succeeded.”
“You sound like Sebastian.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“That is the cruelest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
Ethan looked at the photograph still lying on the table.
“Why didn’t you contact me before?”
“Because I needed to know what kind of man you became.”
“And?”
“You chose a classroom over a boardroom. You chose Maya when her father humiliated you. You entered the engine chamber without knowing whether you would leave.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Yes, Ethan. You passed.”
Ethan struck the table with his palm.
“This is not a test.”
“To Concord, everything is a test.”
Maya stepped between Ethan and the screen.
“You said nine sites. Who controls the others?”
“Different branches. Different governments. Different versions of Concord.”
“What happens now?”
Daniel looked away briefly, as if listening to someone beyond the camera.
“The factions know the coastal engine has new custodians. Some will negotiate. Some will try to kill you.”
“Which will you do?” Maya asked.
“That depends on whether you open Eleanor’s final archive.”
Maya touched the pendant.
“Where is it?”
“You already found it.”
“The vault?”
“No.”
“The cottage?”
Daniel smiled.
“Eleanor never trusted underground rooms. She said men like Sebastian always looked beneath the earth because they assumed important things needed to be buried.”
Maya remembered the blue cottage.
The books.
The seashells.
The garden.
“She hid it in plain sight.”
“Yes.”
“What is inside?”
“The truth about the crash.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“Tell me.”
“I cannot.”
“Won’t.”
Daniel accepted the correction.
“Won’t.”
The screen divided into four images.
The first showed the wreckage of Adrian’s aircraft being recovered secretly from an ocean trench.
The second showed Victor Sloane standing beside an unidentified survivor.
The third showed Sebastian entering a medical facility ten years earlier.
The fourth showed Adrian Hawthorne lying inside a glass chamber connected to machines.
Ethan gripped the edge of the table.
The figure appeared older and painfully thin, but unmistakably alive.
Maya stared at Daniel.
“Where is he?”
“At the ninth site.”
“Take us there,” Ethan demanded.
Daniel shook his head.
“You aren’t ready.”
“He is my father.”
“He is the reason the sites are waking.”
The image of Adrian changed.
His eyes opened.
Alarms sounded in the room around him.
Technicians ran across the screen.
Daniel turned toward someone outside the camera’s view.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
The connection distorted.
Maya stepped closer.
“What is happening?”
Daniel looked directly at her.
Fear appeared on his face for the first time.
“He knows you activated the coastal engine.”
“Who?”
Daniel did not answer.
A second figure appeared behind Adrian’s glass chamber.
Tall.
Motionless.
Wearing a gray pinstripe suit.
Maya’s breath stopped.
The man turned slowly toward the camera.
He had Richard’s face.
But Richard was still in federal custody.
Daniel reached for the controls.
“Maya, listen carefully. The man you knew as Richard Bennett is your father, but he was not the first man to carry that name.”
The screen began to darken.
Ethan shouted.
“Daniel!”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Do not trust the prison records. Do not trust Sebastian. And whatever happens, do not let Laura return to Hawthorne House.”
The transmission cut out.
Every light in the cottage went dark.
From the porch came the sound of footsteps.
Marcus drew his weapon.
Ethan moved in front of Maya.
Someone knocked three times on the front door.
Maya looked through the narrow window.
Laura stood outside in the rain.
Her navy coat was soaked.
Blood covered one side of her face.
In her hand, she held a second silver keyhole pendant.
She looked directly at Maya and mouthed two words.
He escaped.
Behind Laura, at the edge of the garden, a tall man in a gray pinstripe suit stepped out of the darkness.
May you like
He raised one hand.
And smiled.
