Chapter 10 - The Fifth Seat
Creed ordered Daniel to place the metal disk on the floor.
Daniel complied.
The banker looked different without cameras and champagne. His smile had vanished, revealing the impatient man beneath the polished surface.
“You sent the attackers?” Daniel asked.
“I sent people to retrieve stolen property.”
“Elena is not property.”
“I meant the archive.”
Daniel watched Creed’s grip on the gun. Steady. Experienced.
“Did you kill Mira?”
Creed’s eyes narrowed. “The defective infant?”
Rage moved through Daniel so quickly that it almost overcame reason. He forced himself to remain still.
“That answer is enough.”
“Do not perform morality for me. Your entire life exists because men like me managed inconvenient facts.”
“Men like you stole children.”
“We prevented dynasties from collapsing into chaos.”
Creed stepped closer to the disk.
Outside, rain tapped against the nursery windows. Daniel knew two officers waited on the lower floor, but the mansion’s walls were thick. If he shouted, Creed would fire before they arrived.
“You need both sons,” Daniel said. “Where is Adrian?”
Creed smiled. “Already at Marlowe.”
Daniel’s fear sharpened.
Creed forced him through the service corridor to a waiting car. The driver wore the uniform of Daniel’s security company. Another betrayal.
They traveled beneath a blanket thrown over Daniel’s head. He counted turns and estimated distance. Forty minutes later, the car descended a ramp. The air smelled of antiseptic and damp concrete.
When the blanket came off, Daniel was inside an underground medical facility.
Room 18.
The chamber was circular, lined with locked cabinets and old computer terminals. At its center stood a glass table containing slots for two metal disks. Adrian sat chained to a chair, bruised but conscious.
“You took your time,” Adrian said.
Creed struck him across the face.
Dr. Malcolm Wren stood beside a genetic scanner. Judge Celia Harrow reviewed documents at a desk. All three Custodians were present.
A fourth person remained behind frosted glass.
The Keeper.
Wren took Daniel’s blood. Harrow verified his identity. Creed inserted the disk from the cradle into the first slot. Adrian wore an identical disk around his neck, apparently taken from Elena years ago.
When both disks were inserted, the table illuminated.
A recorded voice filled the chamber.
Elias Vale.
“The Halcyon estate shall pass not to the strongest claimant, but to the line capable of exposing those who corrupted it.”
Creed looked startled.
The message continued. “This chamber is not a vault. It is evidence.”
Cabinets unlocked around the room.
Inside were original birth logs, payment records, photographs, and recordings documenting decades of crimes.
Jonathan had altered the activation sequence.
Daniel laughed softly. “He trapped you.”
Creed raised the gun.
The frosted glass door opened.
The Keeper stepped into the chamber.
Frank Alvarez.
Daniel stared at him.
Frank’s trembling posture was gone. He stood upright, wearing a dark coat. In his hand was a small remote.
Adrian cursed.
“Dad?” Daniel said before he could stop himself. Frank had never been his father, yet the word emerged from some confused place shaped by years of family dinners and quiet kindness.
Frank looked ashamed. “I wanted to tell you.”
“You were attacked at the apartment.”
“I staged it.”
“Why?” Hannah’s father had lied about everything, including weakness.
Frank approached the table. “The Keeper is not a member of the Custodians. The Keeper is the witness assigned to preserve the archive until the heirs arrive.”
Creed aimed at him. “Open the control ledger.”
Frank pressed the remote.
Steel doors sealed the chamber.
“No one leaves until the record is copied,” he said.
Wren rushed toward a terminal. Adrian kicked the chair into his legs. Daniel lunged at Creed. The gun fired, shattering glass. Harrow screamed.
Daniel and Creed crashed onto the floor. Adrian pulled one hand free from a damaged cuff and grabbed the gun when it slid beneath the table.
He pointed it at Creed.
“For Mira.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Adrian’s face twisted. “Move.”
“If you kill him, he becomes the only story. Let the evidence speak.”
“He murdered my child.”
Creed laughed from the floor. “I did not touch her.”
Wren stopped struggling.
Every eye turned toward him.
The doctor’s face had gone gray.
“It was a medical necessity,” Wren whispered.
Adrian aimed at him instead.
Before he could fire, the chamber lights died.
Emergency red lamps flashed.
A countdown appeared on the central screen.
ARCHIVE PURGE IN 180 SECONDS.
Frank stared at his remote. “Someone activated the external protocol.”
Daniel looked through the glass toward the corridor.
May you like
Victoria stood outside Room 18.
She held Lily in her arms.
