Chapter 15 - The Woman Behind the Glass
At eleven thirty the next morning, Elias stood outside the old Bellamy research center.
The building had been abandoned for fifteen years.
Its concrete walls rose beyond a field of dead grass. Most windows were covered with steel panels. A faded company emblem remained above the entrance.
Sebastian waited beside a black vehicle.
Adrian had left the hospital against medical advice. He wore a dark coat over his bandages and moved carefully.
Detective Ortiz remained three streets away with an unmarked tactical team.
Vanessa arrived in a prison transport vehicle.
Her wrists were cuffed.
Ortiz stepped out with her.
“She agreed to help under one condition,” Ortiz said.
Vanessa looked at Sebastian.
“I want proof of who my mother is.”
“You will receive whatever truth remains,” Sebastian answered.
“That sounds like a promise designed by a lawyer.”
“It is the only promise I can make.”
Ortiz removed Vanessa’s cuffs.
“You will wear a transmitter.”
Victor’s instructions had prohibited police, but entering without support would have been suicide.
The transmitter was hidden inside the clasp of Vanessa’s coat.
Elias carried the Continuity case.
The strip of film remained inside his silver watch.
Adrian looked toward the building.
“If Elena is alive, why reveal it now?”
“To force us inside,” Elias said.
“Do you believe him?”
“I believe he has someone.”
Sebastian’s voice became quiet.
“So do I.”
They entered at exactly noon.
The lobby smelled of dust and chemicals.
Emergency lights led them through a corridor toward an old elevator.
A speaker activated.
“Place all weapons inside the container.”
A steel drawer opened in the wall.
Elias, Adrian, Sebastian, and Vanessa surrendered their weapons.
The elevator descended.
Vanessa looked at Adrian.
“You should be in the hospital.”
“You should be in prison.”
“I probably will be.”
He looked at her.
“Did you ever intend to marry me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“At first, because Victor ordered me to.”
“And later?”
Vanessa looked away.
The elevator stopped before she answered.
The doors opened onto a vast underground laboratory.
Rows of glass rooms stretched into the darkness.
Some contained empty beds.
Others contained files, medical equipment, and children’s toys preserved beneath plastic sheets.
Victor stood on a raised platform.
Margaret knelt beside him.
Her hands were tied.
Behind them was a large glass chamber concealed by a white curtain.
Thomas sat in a wheelchair near the platform, his wounded shoulder bandaged.
Sebastian stared.
“You escaped custody.”
Thomas smiled.
“Custody requires loyal guards.”
Ortiz’s transmitter crackled faintly beneath Vanessa’s collar.
Victor noticed nothing.
He pointed toward the Continuity case.
“Place it on the table.”
Elias obeyed.
“And the archive key.”
“No.”
Victor pressed the gun against Margaret’s head.
Adrian stepped forward.
“Do not.”
Victor smiled.
“Lucian still loves the woman who raised him.”
“You do not know which child I am.”
“I know.”
The room became still.
Adrian’s face tightened.
“Which?”
Victor looked at Elias.
“Open the case first.”
Three biometric panels rose from the table.
Labels appeared.
GABRIEL.
LUCIAN.
ALEXANDER LINE.
Elias placed his hand on the first panel.
Adrian placed his on the second.
Vanessa approached the third.
Nothing happened.
“Blood verification required,” the computer announced.
Small needles emerged.
Each pressed into their fingertips.
The machine processed the samples.
“Gabriel identity verified.”
Elias exhaled.
“Alexander-line identity verified.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
The third panel flashed.
“Lucian identity rejected.”
Adrian stared at it.
Victor smiled.
“You were Baby C.”
Margaret began sobbing.
Adrian looked toward Elias.
The machine continued processing.
A second message appeared.
“Secondary Meridian subject verified.”
Adrian’s face went blank.
“Then Lucian died?”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Elias looked at him.
“Where is he?”
Victor pointed toward the white curtain behind the platform.
“Your brother has been here all along.”
Sebastian stepped forward.
“What is behind that glass?”
Thomas lifted a remote control.
The curtain opened.
A hospital room appeared inside the chamber.
A woman sat beside a bed with her back toward them.
Her hair, once dark, was now almost completely silver.
On the bed lay a man connected to several machines.
He appeared to be the same age as Elias and Adrian.
His face resembled them both.
The woman slowly stood.
Sebastian’s cane fell from his hand.
“Elena.”
She turned.
Her face was older, marked by years of confinement, but unmistakably the face from the photograph Elias had carried since childhood.
Elias could not move.
Every breath disappeared from his body.
His mother looked through the glass at him.
Her lips parted.
“Gabriel?”
Elias approached the chamber.
“Mother?”
She pressed both hands against the glass.
Tears filled her eyes.
Then she looked past him.
At Adrian.
Her expression changed.
Not recognition.
Fear.
“Do not let him open the case,” she shouted.
The glass blocked most of her voice, but the words were clear enough.
Adrian looked down.
The Continuity case had already opened.
Inside was a black folder and a small digital screen.
The screen displayed a live map of hundreds of locations across the world.
Red points began flashing one after another.
Thomas smiled.
“Continuity has been activated.”
Elias turned on him.
“What did we activate?”
“The return protocol.”
Vanessa opened the black folder.
The first page contained photographs of children placed inside powerful families.
The second contained instructions for removing them.
The third showed a succession chart.
At the top was the black Meridian crown.
Beneath it were three names.
GABRIEL HAWTHORNE.
LUCIAN HAWTHORNE.
SUBJECT M-01.
Adrian stared at his designation.
“I am M-01.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Adrian looked up.
Thomas smiled toward Vanessa.
“M-01 was never one of the boys.”
Vanessa slowly touched the black pearl clasp that had been returned to her as evidence.
Elena struck the glass with both hands.
“Vanessa, take off the necklace!”
Vanessa reached for it.
A red light activated inside the pearl.
The laboratory doors locked.
The man lying on the bed opened his eyes.
The true Lucian Hawthorne turned his head toward Elias.
Then he spoke through a microphone inside the chamber.
“Do not believe the woman beside me.”
Elias stared at him.
Lucian continued.
“She is not Elena.”
Sebastian looked from the woman to the son he had never known.
The woman behind the glass began screaming.
“She is lying!” Victor shouted.
“No,” Lucian replied. “Victor is lying.”
The red dots on the world map multiplied.
Vanessa’s necklace began counting down from sixty seconds.
Margaret cried out.
May you like
Thomas laughed.
And somewhere deep beneath the laboratory, hundreds of sealed doors began to open.
