Chapter 5 - BENEATH THE OLD GYM
The staircase descended farther than Nell expected.
Concrete walls closed around them. Moisture glistened beneath the red emergency lights. Old electrical cables ran along the ceiling, disappearing into the darkness ahead.
Nell moved quickly.
Mr. Hale kept one hand on her shoulder.
“Do not run blindly.”
“That was Evan.”
“It sounded like him.”
“It was him.”
Piper followed several steps behind, holding a cloth against the cut on her forehead.
Adrian Cross came last.
The blue box remained in Mr. Hale’s arms. Its timer continued counting down.
22:41:08.
At the bottom of the staircase, they reached a steel door.
The same three-lined circle marked its center.
Adrian removed his silver ring and pressed it into a matching indentation.
The door unlocked.
Nell stared at him.
“You had the key the whole time.”
“To this door, yes.”
“What else does it open?”
“Rooms I hoped never to see again.”
Beyond the door lay a narrow service tunnel.
Faded arrows on the wall pointed toward the gym, boiler room and data archive.
They followed the arrow toward the archive.
As they walked, Piper broke the silence.
“Why did Celia raise me as Elena?”
Adrian did not answer.
“Tell me.”
“Your father needed the public to believe Elena had never disappeared.”
“Why?”
“Elena was the legal owner of half his company.”
Piper stopped.
“My mother signed her shares over to him.”
“Celia signed them.”
“How could she do that?”
“Because Marcus controlled the lawyers, the doctors and the records. Celia had enough resemblance to Elena to deceive people who only saw her occasionally. Cosmetic procedures did the rest.”
Piper looked sick.
Nell wanted to feel satisfaction.
Piper had tormented her. She had helped prepare the false video. She had slapped her and thrown the chair.
Yet watching Piper discover that her entire childhood might have been constructed produced no pleasure.
Only dread.
“What happened to Elena?” Piper asked.
Adrian looked ahead.
“She and Daniel reached this tunnel seventeen years ago. They intended to copy the archive and give it to federal investigators.”
“Did they?”
“They never left.”
The tunnel ended at another door.
This one stood open.
Inside was an observation room filled with outdated monitors.
Rows of labeled videotapes covered the shelves.
WESTBRIDGE STUDENT RESPONSE STUDY.
COHORT 6.
COHORT 9.
COHORT 12.
Mr. Hale examined one of the tapes.
“These dates go back more than thirty years.”
Adrian nodded.
“The founders began with academic pressure studies. Over time, donors discovered the information could be useful. A child’s fears, family problems and private mistakes became leverage.”
“Blackmail,” Nell said.
“Control.”
Piper moved toward a monitor.
The screen flickered on without being touched.
A video showed a little girl sitting in a brightly colored room.
She wore a yellow dress.
Piper gasped.
“That’s me.”
The child on the screen could not have been older than five.
An unseen woman asked her questions.
“What happens when someone ignores you?”
Young Piper answered, “I make them look at me.”
“How?”
“I take something.”
“What do you take?”
“Their friends.”
The woman laughed softly.
“Very good.”
Adult Piper covered her mouth.
“I don’t remember this.”
Adrian turned off the monitor.
“They used memory conditioning.”
“That isn’t real.”
“It is when the child is drugged, isolated and repeatedly exposed to the same triggers.”
Piper struck the monitor with both hands.
“Stop lying.”
Nell heard something behind the shelves.
A scrape.
She moved closer.
“Evan?”
No answer.
She pulled several tapes aside and discovered a narrow gap in the wall.
A camera lens watched from inside.
Nell covered it with her palm.
A speaker crackled overhead.
Marcus Vale’s voice filled the room.
“Adrian, you always were sentimental.”
Piper stared upward.
“Dad?”
“Step away from Nell, Piper.”
“Where is my mother?”
“Celia is upstairs.”
“My real mother.”
Silence followed.
“Your real mother died when you were a child.”
“Adrian says she disappeared here.”
“Adrian is the reason she died.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
Marcus continued.
“He convinced Elena to steal confidential files. When she was caught, he abandoned her.”
“That is not what happened,” Adrian said.
“Then tell Piper why you have been using Daniel’s name.”
“I used his position to investigate you.”
“You used his position because you were ashamed to admit you survived while your brother did not.”
Piper looked between them.
“Where is Evan Carter?”
Marcus ignored her.
Nell stepped toward the speaker.
“You threatened my mother.”
“Your mother is unharmed.”
“Show me.”
A monitor activated.
Nell’s mother sat alone in their living room.
The masked figure was gone.
She appeared frightened but uninjured.
“Mom!”
The image had no sound.
Marcus spoke again.
“Bring the blue box into the archive chamber. In return, your brother goes home.”
“How do I know he’s alive?”
A second monitor turned on.
Evan sat tied to a chair in a concrete room.
His hair was longer. His face was bruised. He looked thin but unmistakably alive.
Nell pressed both hands against the screen.
“Evan.”
His eyes lifted as though he could hear her.
A fresh wound marked his lower lip.
Piper stared at her father’s image on the third monitor.
“You held him here for eight months?”
“He stole from us.”
“You made me think he ran away.”
“I protected you.”
“You used me to frame his sister.”
“I gave you an opportunity to correct a dangerous problem.”
Piper stepped backward.
For the first time, she seemed to hear her own father clearly.
Marcus’s voice softened.
“Piper, bring me the box.”
She looked at Mr. Hale.
The timer read 21:58:44.
“What is inside it?” she asked.
“The only copy of a program capable of destroying thousands of lives.”
Adrian shook his head.
“That is not why you want it.”
“No?”
“The box contains the master index.”
Nell turned toward him.
“An index of what?”
“Every student, parent, judge, executive and politician the program has monitored.”
The lights flickered.
A panel opened on the far wall, revealing another passage.
At the end stood a glass chamber.
Evan was inside.
Nell ran toward him.
Before she reached the chamber, a steel partition dropped between them.
Evan looked directly at her through the glass.
His lips formed two silent words.
May you like
NOT ME.
Then the man wearing Evan’s face smiled.
