Chapter 16 - THE WOMAN INSIDE THE WALL
The woman's voice came from beneath the staircase.
"I know."
Daniel tightened his arm around Winnie.
Brooks raised his weapon.
"Show yourself."
Nothing moved.
The house remained completely dark.
Outside, officers shouted instructions.
Somewhere near the back of the property, an engine disappeared into the night.
Then the voice came again.
"Do not turn the lights back on."
Elizabeth stopped breathing.
She knew that voice.
"Mom?"
The silence changed.
Daniel looked toward her.
Elizabeth's face had gone white.
Lucy stared up at her mother.
"Mom, who is it?"
Elizabeth did not answer.
A narrow panel beneath the staircase moved inward.
Brooks pointed his flashlight.
An older woman stepped through the opening.
Gray threaded through her dark red hair.
She wore a black coat covered in dust.
Her face looked older than Eleanor's memory of the nurse in the photograph.
But the eyes were the same.
Elizabeth whispered again.
"Mom."
The woman looked at her.
Thirty years of distance passed between them in a single second.
"Hello, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth slapped her.
The sound cracked through the dark foyer.
No one moved.
Sarah Mercer did not raise a hand to defend herself.
She only nodded.
"I deserved that."
Elizabeth began crying.
"You were dead."
"No."
"You let me think you were."
"Yes."
Lucy moved closer to her mother.
Sarah looked at the child.
Her granddaughter.
Her expression broke.
But Brooks interrupted.
"You said not to restore the power. Why?"
Sarah looked toward the wall.
"Because Adrian sent someone into the house before Elizabeth arrived."
Daniel's attention snapped toward her.
"Where?"
"Inside the old service passages."
Another sound came from beneath the floor.
A scrape.
Brooks turned.
"Everyone stay here."
Sarah grabbed his arm.
"No."
Brooks looked at her hand.
She released him.
"There are three exits. If you enter from here, he will come out behind the dining room."
Daniel remembered the hidden room.
The wine cellar.
The attic.
The house had more paths inside it than he had known during forty two years of life.
"How do you know?"
Sarah looked at him.
"Because your father showed them to me."
Daniel froze.
Then glass shattered from the dining room.
Brooks ran.
Two officers followed.
Daniel told Eleanor to take Winnie and Lucy upstairs.
Winnie refused immediately.
"Dad—"
"Now."
Something in his voice ended the argument.
Elizabeth went with the children.
Daniel followed Brooks.
A shadow crossed the dining room.
Brooks shouted.
"Police. Stop."
The man ran toward the kitchen.
Daniel saw only a dark jacket and gloves.
Then the man struck an officer and disappeared through the pantry.
Brooks followed.
Seconds later came the sound of a door slamming outside.
The man was gone.
But something lay on the dining room floor.
A torn page.
Daniel picked it up.
Brooks shone his flashlight over it.
At the top was a Project Haven code.
D01.
Beneath it:
HALE, DANIEL THOMAS.
CONTROL ASSIGNMENT.
AUTHORIZED BY T. HALE.
Daniel stared.
Sarah entered behind them.
He turned toward her.
"Tell me what that means."
Sarah looked at the page.
Then at Daniel.
"You were never switched at the hospital."
Daniel's shoulders loosened slightly.
"But your file says my infant assignment changed."
"Not your family assignment."
"What, then?"
Sarah's answer came quietly.
"Your research assignment."
Daniel felt cold again.
Sarah walked to the table.
"Your father chose you for Project Haven the night you were born."
"Why?"
"Because you were his son."
Daniel shook his head.
"That makes no sense."
"It made perfect sense to Thomas."
She looked toward Winnie.
"To him, family was the safest experiment in the world."
Daniel's anger returned.
"What exactly was he experimenting on?"
Sarah looked at Lucy.
Then Winnie.
"Not children."
A pause.
May you like
"Bloodlines."
And upstairs, Lucy suddenly screamed.
