Chapter 10 - The Passage Behind the Portrait
Sebastian struck the wall with his cane.
The eye vanished.
He pulled the portrait aside and found a narrow opening behind the frame.
A hidden corridor extended into darkness.
The estate’s security alarms did not activate.
Someone had disabled them from inside.
“Come out,” Sebastian called.
No answer.
He entered the passage.
Dust covered the floor except for a fresh trail of footprints.
The corridor led toward the abandoned east wing, sealed since a fire thirty years earlier.
Sebastian remembered that fire.
It had occurred six months after his son Alexander’s death.
One servant died.
Several family records disappeared.
At the time, investigators blamed faulty wiring.
Now Sebastian wondered whether the fire had been designed to hide something else.
He reached a circular room beneath the old nursery.
Photographs covered the walls.
Children sleeping.
Children being weighed.
Children completing puzzles.
Children seated before mirrors while adults observed from behind the glass.
At the center stood a desk bearing the black Meridian crown.
Sebastian opened the first drawer.
Inside was a file labeled THOMAS HAWTHORNE.
Subject displayed exceptional memory, high emotional manipulation capacity, and strong resistance to authority.
Sebastian’s hands shook.
Thomas had been his younger brother, not Elena’s.
The portrait inscription had been altered.
Thomas had supposedly died from fever when Sebastian was twelve.
But the file continued for years after his official death.
Someone had removed Thomas from the family and raised him inside the program.
A sound came from the doorway.
Sebastian turned.
A man stood in the shadows.
He appeared to be in his late sixties, though extensive facial surgery made his exact age difficult to judge.
A scar curved from his temple to his chin.
“Hello, brother,” the man said.
Sebastian’s cane nearly slipped from his hand.
“Thomas.”
“You took your time.”
“You died.”
“So did Gabriel. So did Elena. So did Marcus. Our family has always found death useful.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“You are Meridian’s leader.”
Thomas smiled.
“Leader is a crude word.”
“You replaced the infants.”
“I corrected a succession problem.”
“Which child was brought to the clinic?”
“Vanessa.”
“Alexander’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Who was her mother?”
“A Bellamy research assistant selected for compatibility.”
Sebastian’s disgust showed.
“You speak of children like manufactured assets.”
“That is what heirs are.”
“You killed Elena.”
Thomas’s smile faded.
“Elena rejected the future.”
“She discovered your medical crimes.”
“She threatened decades of work.”
“Did you order the crash?”
“I ordered her stopped.”
“Was she alive afterward?”
“You already know the answer.”
“What did you do to her?”
Thomas walked toward the desk.
“She refused to reveal where she hid the archive key.”
Sebastian tightened his grip on the cane.
“So you tortured her.”
“I questioned her.”
“You sound exactly like Marcus.”
“Marcus lacked discipline. He wanted recognition. I wanted results.”
“Where is Elena’s body?”
Thomas looked toward the ceiling.
“Closer than you think.”
Sebastian advanced.
Thomas raised a remote control.
“If you strike me, charges beneath the foundation will destroy this wing.”
“You would die too.”
“I have already died once.”
Footsteps approached from the corridor.
Elias appeared in the doorway.
He held a gun taken from Sebastian’s security team.
Thomas looked at him with interest.
“Gabriel.”
“My name is Elias.”
“A temporary identity.”
“Where is Lydia Crane?”
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere that encourages cooperation.”
Elias aimed at his chest.
“Release her.”
Thomas smiled.
“You inherited Elena’s directness.”
“Did you kill her?”
“I preserved her longer than anyone else would have.”
Elias’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Sebastian stepped between them.
“Do not.”
Elias looked at him.
“You still protect him?”
“I am protecting you from making a decision he wants you to make.”
Thomas applauded softly.
“Very good.”
Elias shifted his aim.
“Why do you want me to kill you?”
“I do not. But anger reveals nature. Meridian studied inherited behavioral response for generations.”
“You created this moment as an experiment?”
“Every meaningful moment is an experiment.”
Sebastian moved toward the remote.
Thomas pressed one button.
A screen illuminated on the wall.
Lydia Crane appeared tied to a chair.
Beside her stood Vanessa, wearing black clothing instead of the silver gown.
Vanessa looked directly into the camera.
“Elias,” she said, “do not believe him. I am being forced.”
Thomas laughed.
“She has always been an excellent performer.”
Vanessa struggled against someone outside the frame.
“Adrian is in danger. Victor is going to Hawthorne headquarters.”
Elias looked at Thomas.
“What does Victor want?”
“The board’s biometric succession vault.”
“The archive?”
“Something more valuable.”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
“The Continuity Protocol.”
Thomas nodded.
Elias glanced at him.
“What is that?”
“A legal mechanism created during the Cold War,” Sebastian said. “If Hawthorne Global’s controlling family line is eliminated or incapacitated, operational authority transfers to a protected successor.”
“Who?”
“The identity is sealed.”
Thomas smiled.
“Victor intends to open the vault and declare the protected successor.”
“Vanessa?” Elias asked.
“No,” Thomas replied. “Vanessa was never designed to inherit.”
On the screen, she stopped struggling.
Her face revealed that she had heard him.
Thomas continued.
“She was designed to produce the next heir.”
Vanessa’s expression turned to horror.
A gunshot sounded from the video feed.
The camera fell sideways.
Lydia screamed.
The screen went black.
Elias seized Thomas by the collar.
“Where are they?”
Thomas whispered an address.
May you like
Then the entire estate shook.
An explosion erupted beneath the eastern foundation.
