Chapter 13 - The Route Keeper
Jasmine wanted to believe the man on the screen.
Every part of her that had remained nine years old wanted to run through the tunnels until she found him.
But the cassette had warned her.
Do not trust the person using my name.
Daniel replayed the video.
“His face matches.”
“Faces can be changed,” Sofia said.
“His voice?”
“Copied.”
Victoria held Evelyn’s whistle.
“My sister might be with them.”
Dr. Mercer studied the tunnel diagram.
“Junction seventeen was removed from every official Crossroad map.”
“You knew it existed?” Jasmine asked.
“I heard Celeste mention it once. She called it the origin.”
“The first route,” Victoria said.
Jasmine remembered the words on the photograph.
The first map is false.
The second map is a trap.
The third map leads to the person they took.
There had always been three routes.
Not only in the quarry map.
In everything.
The public accusation was the first route.
Victoria’s guilt was the second.
The third led deeper.
“We’re being directed again,” Jasmine said.
Daniel frowned.
“To junction seventeen?”
“To the choice between my parents.”
She examined the compass.
Its needle no longer pointed north.
It pointed toward people.
When Victoria held it, the needle turned toward the courthouse tunnel where Evelyn had been transported.
When Jasmine held it, the needle shifted toward the east wall.
Not north toward the signal.
East.
“My father said the device learns what the holder values,” she said. “It may not be locating people. It may be identifying the route connected to them.”
Sofia scanned the east wall.
“There’s no opening.”
Victoria pressed Evelyn’s whistle against the concrete.
A mechanical bell rang inside the wall.
A door opened.
Beyond it was a narrow archive room.
Photographs covered the walls.
Jasmine as a child.
Victoria at school.
Daniel leaving the hospital.
Sofia entering the media laboratory.
Elena meeting Dr. Mercer.
They had been watched for years.
On the central table lay three folders.
AARON COLE.
ELENA COLE.
EVELYN HALE.
Jasmine opened her father’s folder first.
The last confirmed photograph showed Aaron entering a tunnel on the night of his disappearance.
No image showed him leaving.
Medical records documented a male prisoner known as Subject A.
Blood type matched Aaron’s.
The file ended two years earlier.
Status: Terminated.
Jasmine’s hands trembled.
“No.”
Daniel stood beside her.
“That could be false.”
She opened Elena’s folder.
Her mother had served as a Crossroad intelligence officer before becoming an investigator.
She had helped design identity replacements.
Several witness relocations carried her authorization.
One page contained a red warning.
ELENA COLE COMPROMISED.
LOYALTY UNKNOWN.
Then Jasmine opened Evelyn’s file.
The photograph inside was recent.
Evelyn was alive.
Now twenty-four.
Her dark hair had been cut short. A scar crossed her forehead.
Current assigned identity:
SOFIA REYES.
Silence filled the archive.
Jasmine turned slowly.
Sofia stood near the doorway.
Daniel stared at his sister.
Victoria dropped the silver whistle.
“No,” Sofia said.
Her face had lost all color.
Victoria stepped toward her.
“You’re Evelyn?”
“I’m Sofia.”
“The file says—”
“I’m Sofia Reyes.”
Daniel placed himself between them.
“My sister has lived with us since she was five.”
Sofia looked at him.
“That isn’t true.”
Daniel froze.
She pressed both hands against her head.
“I remember being five, but…”
Memories shifted behind her eyes.
A hospital room.
A woman signing papers.
A new birthday.
A brother told to accept her.
Daniel whispered, “Our mother said you were adopted.”
“You never told me.”
“She made me promise.”
Victoria picked up the whistle.
She held it toward Sofia.
A small melody played when she blew into it.
Sofia collapsed to her knees.
“I know that sound.”
Victoria began crying.
For the first time, neither of them seemed concerned with cameras, reputations, or their mothers.
She knelt in front of Sofia.
“Evelyn?”
Sofia looked at her.
Then she spoke a sentence in a language Jasmine did not recognize.
Victoria answered in the same language.
A childhood code.
Sofia covered her mouth.
Victoria reached for her.
May you like
Before they touched, Dr. Mercer drew a pistol.
“Step away from Evelyn.”
