Chapter 10 - The Road to Mercer
Marcus pushed Noah to the floor.
Daniel overturned the table while I shielded Grace with my body.
A second bullet struck the wall.
We crawled toward the hallway.
Marcus pulled a compact pistol from beneath his coat and fired through the broken window. Tires screeched outside.
Within seconds, the attackers were gone.
“We leave now,” Marcus said.
We abandoned the apartment through the underground garage. Marcus drove an old utility vehicle with unregistered plates. Daniel sat beside him. I remained in the back with Noah and Grace.
The road to Lake Mercer wound through dense forest.
Marcus explained that Lantern had maintained several safe sites, but most had been compromised. The cabin was the last location Evelyn did not fully control.
“Why would Lena contact us there?” I asked.
“Because she knows tunnels beneath the property.”
“Tunnels?”
“The cabin was built over an abandoned research station.”
Daniel turned toward his father.
“You never told me that.”
“I wanted you to believe it was only a cabin.”
“Another protective lie,” I said.
Marcus accepted the criticism without responding.
At sunset, we stopped at a rural gas station.
Noah refused to leave the vehicle.
“The bad man is here,” he whispered.
I followed his gaze.
A television above the cashier displayed a news report.
Police were searching for Daniel and me in connection with a hospital kidnapping. Our photographs filled the screen.
The report claimed we had abducted Grace from St. Catherine’s after assaulting a security officer.
The hospital stated that I was experiencing a severe postpartum psychiatric episode.
Daniel had predicted exactly what they would do.
My phone began vibrating with messages from friends and relatives. Some asked whether we were safe. Others begged me to surrender.
A final message came from Sergeant Cole.
Do not trust the official alert. Call me from a clean phone.
I showed Marcus.
“He may be useful,” he said.
“Or compromised,” Daniel replied.
“We can’t assume everyone is Arden.”
“We can’t assume anyone isn’t.”
I purchased a prepaid phone and called Cole.
He answered immediately.
“Mrs. Carter, where are you?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“Good. Don’t.”
“Why did the police issue an alert?”
“The hospital provided video showing you entering a restricted ward and leaving with an infant.”
“That infant had been kidnapped from her mother.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“The mother woke up. She confirmed hospital staff told her the baby had died.”
“Then cancel the alert.”
“I tried. The order came from the state bureau.”
“Arden?”
“I can’t prove it.”
“What do you know about Lena Vale?”
Cole went silent.
“She was my sister.”
The revelation left me speechless.
“Twelve years ago, I was a patrol officer,” he said. “Lena told me St. Catherine’s was moving newborns. I thought she was having a breakdown.”
“She tried to save Isabelle Grant.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the child?”
“I never found her.”
“Lena is alive.”
Cole inhaled sharply.
“Are you certain?”
“She has my daughter.”
“I need to meet you.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I spent twelve years trying to prove my sister was not a kidnapper.”
I looked at Marcus.
He shook his head.
I asked Cole for a detail only Lena’s brother might know.
He said, “The scar on her face came from a car accident when she was sixteen. She hated anyone standing on her left side because she thought they were staring at it.”
Noah had described the same scar.
I gave Cole the name of a roadside church thirty miles from Mercer.
“Tomorrow morning,” I said.
After ending the call, Marcus looked angry.
“You may have exposed us.”
“Or gained an ally.”
“We already have Lantern.”
“Where are they?”
He did not answer.
By nightfall, we reached the cabin.
It stood beside the black water of the lake, surrounded by pine trees. The structure looked abandoned, but electricity flowed when Marcus activated a hidden generator.
Noah walked directly to a wall in the main room.
“There’s someone behind there.”
Daniel examined the wooden panels.
A narrow seam ran from floor to ceiling.
Marcus entered a code on an old thermostat.
The wall slid open.
Beyond it, a concrete staircase descended underground.
At the bottom was a laboratory.
Computer stations lined one wall. Medical cabinets lined another. In the center stood a glass enclosure containing photographs of newborns.
I found Sophie’s picture among them.
It had been taken that morning.
She wore the yellow blanket.
Someone had written beneath it:
May you like
TRANSFER AT MIDNIGHT. SUBJECT HEALTHY.
Midnight was twenty minutes away.
