Chapter 10 - The Woman Behind the Door)
The address led to a private estate outside Richmond.
Federal vehicles surrounded it within twenty minutes.
Daniel was ordered to remain behind.
He ignored the order until Marcus physically blocked him.
"You're not entering first."
"Move."
"No."
"Marcus."
"If Architect wants you alive, that house may be designed around that fact."
Daniel hated the logic.
Agents entered.
No gunfire.
No resistance.
No Architect.
The estate was empty.
But the basement contained a communications center.
Multiple servers.
Voice-modulation equipment.
Surveillance feeds.
And one freshly abandoned cup of coffee.
Architect had been there minutes earlier.
Daniel entered after the building was cleared.
A wall displayed photographs.
His family occupied the center.
Samuel.
Victoria.
Daniel.
Julian.
Maya.
Lines connected them.
Daniel stared.
One photograph showed Samuel standing beside the blonde woman Caldwell had described.
Her face was finally visible.
Daniel didn't recognize her.
Marcus did.
"Eleanor Voss."
"Who?"
"Former intelligence contractor."
Daniel looked at him.
"Former?"
"Officially disappeared fourteen years ago."
Daniel examined the photograph.
On the back:
E. VOSS / ARCHITECT CANDIDATE.
Candidate.
Not Architect.
Another wall held operational charts.
Architect wasn't one person.
It was a title.
Daniel understood.
Eleanor Voss may have held it once.
Someone else held it now.
Then agents found a hidden room.
Inside was a single chair.
A camera.
And a live video screen.
The screen activated when Daniel entered.
Victoria appeared.
Daniel spun around.
His mother had been detained at Sloan's office.
Yet here she was on video.
Recorded earlier.
Victoria looked exhausted.
"Daniel."
He stepped closer.
"If you're watching this, I failed."
Daniel said nothing.
"I need you to understand your father."
She began crying.
"He was going to let Julian die."
Daniel's face hardened.
"Julian owed people who weren't going to forgive debt."
She looked down.
"I begged Samuel to help."
Daniel remembered the recordings.
"He refused."
Victoria nodded on-screen as if answering him.
"So I found another way."
She admitted meeting Sloan.
Signing documents.
Providing company information.
She believed she was exchanging harmless business access for Julian's safety.
Then Samuel discovered the arrangement.
"He called me a traitor."
Victoria wiped her eyes.
"Maybe I was."
The video continued.
"The night he died, I followed him."
Daniel stopped breathing.
"He was meeting someone at Miller's Ridge."
She had arrived moments after the crash.
She saw Caldwell.
She saw the black SUV.
And she saw a woman standing beside Samuel's wrecked vehicle.
Eleanor Voss.
Victoria approached.
Voss told her Samuel was alive.
Barely.
Victoria ran toward the wreck.
Samuel was breathing.
Daniel's hands shook.
His father hadn't died instantly.
Victoria continued.
"He looked at me."
Tears rolled down her face.
"He said your name."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Then Victoria revealed the part she had hidden for eleven years.
Voss offered a choice.
Call an ambulance immediately and Julian would die before sunrise.
Or wait.
Victoria waited.
Thirty-six minutes.
Daniel staggered backward.
His mother hadn't pushed Samuel's car off the road.
But she had allowed him to die.
Thirty-six minutes.
The same thirty-six minutes before Caldwell's emergency call.
Victoria sobbed on-screen.
"I thought they were bluffing about Julian."
Daniel whispered:
"So you chose him."
Victoria continued.
"I have hated myself every day."
Daniel stared at her.
No amount of regret could erase the choice.
Then the recording changed.
Victoria's expression became frightened.
"Daniel, there's something you need to know."
She leaned toward the camera.
"Eleanor Voss isn't Architect anymore."
Daniel looked at Marcus.
Victoria said:
"She disappeared because someone replaced her."
A sound occurred off-camera.
Victoria turned.
Fear crossed her face.
Then she spoke quickly.
"Your father knew who."
The recording cut.
Daniel slammed his hand against the desk.
"Where's the rest?"
Marcus checked.
Deleted.
Then an agent called from the adjoining room.
"Reed!"
Marcus went.
Daniel followed.
One server remained active.
A transfer was underway.
Files were being erased remotely.
Marcus disconnected the network.
Too late for most.
But one directory survived.
SUCCESSION.
Inside were photographs of every known Architect candidate.
Eleanor Voss.
Eric Sloan.
Several unfamiliar people.
Then Daniel saw a photograph that made him stop.
Colonel Briggs.
Daniel stared.
"No."
Marcus said nothing.
Briggs had disappeared.
Had Architect taken him?
Or had Briggs never been taken at all?
Daniel opened Briggs's file.
STATUS:
SUCCESSOR APPROVED.
Daniel stepped backward.
Then the lights flickered.
A speaker activated.
No distortion this time.
A man's voice.
Familiar.
"Daniel."
Daniel knew the voice.
Colonel Briggs.
His mentor.
His commanding officer.
The man he had trusted with his life.
"Sir?"
Briggs laughed softly.
"You found the box."
Daniel felt betrayed all over again.
"Where are you?"
"Close."
"Are you Architect?"
Silence.
Then Briggs said:
"Ask the better question."
"What?"
May you like
"Why did your father trust me?"
The connection ended.
