Chapter 10 - The Vault of Blood
Bennett Hall was surrounded by police when they returned.
Reporters crowded the gates. Ambulances waited beneath flashing lights. Guests stood beneath emergency blankets while officers recorded statements.
The limousine entered through a private underground garage.
Victor met them beside an elevator.
He had changed into a dry suit.
Marcus Reed stood behind him, no longer restrained.
Rachel stared at Marcus.
“You planted the brooch.”
Marcus lowered his eyes.
Victor spoke calmly.
“Marcus followed instructions necessary to preserve Emily’s life.”
“By assaulting her?”
“I did not tell him to be rough.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Victor turned toward Thomas.
“The drive.”
Thomas held it up.
“After the vault opens.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“You should have stayed out of this.”
“You should have left Daniel alone.”
“Daniel was a thief.”
“He was family.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Blood does not create family. Loyalty does.”
Rachel took Emily’s hand.
“Open the vault.”
They entered the elevator.
It descended below the garage into a circular stone chamber.
At the center stood a steel door bearing the same rose symbol as the brooch.
Victor opened a small case.
Inside lay the Bennett Rose.
“How did you recover it?” Thomas asked.
“Marcus retrieved it from the ballroom after the evacuation.”
Victor inserted the brooch into a flower-shaped recess.
A panel opened.
Inside were two glass plates and a narrow needle.
Victor looked at Emily.
Rachel moved in front of her.
“No.”
“A single drop.”
“You first.”
“The system requires a descendant from Leonard’s unrecognized line.”
“How convenient.”
Victor’s mouth tightened.
“Daniel opened it once. That is how he learned the truth.”
Emily squeezed Rachel’s hand.
“It’s okay.”
“No.”
“I get shots at the doctor.”
“This is different.”
Emily looked at Victor.
“You won’t hurt my mommy?”
Victor seemed surprised by the question.
“No.”
“You promise?”
Rachel interrupted.
“His promises mean nothing.”
Emily whispered, “We need to know what Daddy left.”
Rachel hated that Emily sounded older than seven.
She lifted her daughter and held her hand over the panel.
The needle pricked one finger.
A drop of blood fell between the plates.
Blue light moved beneath the glass.
For five seconds, nothing happened.
Then the steel door unlocked.
Victor closed his eyes.
The test had confirmed something.
Emily was Leonard Bennett’s granddaughter.
The vault opened.
Cold air flowed from inside.
Lights activated one by one, revealing shelves of files, boxes of photographs, and metal cases.
At the far end stood a glass chamber.
Inside was a hospital bed.
A man lay beneath a white sheet.
Rachel could see only his feet.
She could not move.
Victor entered first.
“Before you look,” he said, “understand that I did not put him here.”
Rachel walked past him.
Her heart struck painfully against her ribs.
She reached the glass chamber.
A control panel opened the door with a hiss.
The air smelled of antiseptic.
The man’s face was thinner than Daniel’s had been. A scar crossed his forehead. His hair had grown gray at the temples.
But Rachel knew the shape of his hands.
She knew the small bend in his left little finger.
She knew the faded mark beneath his chin.
“Daniel.”
Emily slipped from her grasp.
“Daddy?”
The man did not move.
Machines displayed a slow heartbeat.
Rachel touched his face.
Warm.
Alive.
She turned toward Victor with tears and fury blurring her vision.
“You kept him here.”
“I kept him alive.”
“For six years?”
“He was recovered from the coast three days after the crash. Severe head trauma. Memory loss. When he began to recover, the Circle ordered his execution.”
“So you hid him.”
Victor nodded.
Thomas entered the chamber.
His face had become unreadable.
“You knew,” Rachel said.
“No.”
Daniel’s eyelids moved.
Emily climbed onto the bed.
“Daddy?”
His eyes opened.
They were unfocused at first.
Then they found Emily.
A tear moved down his cheek.
“Little star,” he whispered.
It was the name he had called her as a baby.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Emily began to cry.
Daniel lifted a weak hand and touched her hair.
“You got so big.”
Rachel leaned over him.
“Daniel, look at me.”
His eyes found hers.
“Rachel.”
Six years of grief collapsed at once.
She pressed her forehead against his.
“You were alive.”
“I tried to come home.”
Victor spoke from the doorway.
“He remembered only fragments. Enough to be dangerous, not enough to survive outside this vault.”
Rachel turned.
“You could have told me.”
“The Circle watched you. If they knew Daniel lived, you and Emily would have died.”
“Then why bring us here now?”
“Because tonight they discovered the truth.”
A red light began flashing above the vault door.
Victor looked at the security panel.
Marcus checked his radio.
“No signal.”
The steel door slammed shut.
Thomas rushed to the controls.
The screen displayed a countdown.
Ten minutes.
“What is that?” Rachel asked.
Victor’s face went pale.
“An incineration protocol.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You built a furnace into the vault?”
“My father did. To destroy documents during an attack.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Only from the ballroom control system.”
Thomas held up the flash drive.
“Someone used my access key.”
The countdown reached nine minutes.
Daniel struggled to sit.
“They know I’m awake.”
“Who?” Rachel asked.
Daniel looked directly at Victor.
“The woman who runs the Circle.”
Victor shook his head.
“She is dead.”
Daniel’s voice strengthened.
“No.”
May you like
He looked at Emily.
“She was in the ballroom tonight.”
