Chapter 12 - The Room Behind the Second Door
Agent Ruiz ordered his team to secure the cabin.
One agent tried the main door. The electronic lock refused to respond. Another attempted the private staircase leading outside, but a steel panel had sealed it from above.
Patricia had not simply followed us.
She had trapped us.
“Is she inside the mountain?” I asked.
Anthony listened to the speaker.
“No. The voice is being transmitted.”
“You sound uncertain.”
“I have been wrong about Patricia before.”
“That almost destroyed two families.”
His expression tightened.
“Yes.”
Claire remained focused on the crushed transmitter.
“If Patricia tracked the compass, she knows where we are. Why lock us inside?”
Anthony looked toward the steel barrier.
“Because she wants us to open the vault before she arrives.”
Agent Ruiz examined the locks.
“We wait for another team.”
“You cannot,” Anthony said.
“Why?”
“The cabin’s security system was built to destroy the underground records if an unauthorized entry is detected.”
Agent Ruiz turned sharply.
“What kind of destruction?”
“Flooding. The river was redirected through emergency channels beneath the foundation.”
Cold air moved up the passage.
Somewhere below us, water began rushing through pipes.
Anthony picked up the damaged compass and handed it to Claire.
“The transmitter is broken. The key is not.”
I removed the silver key from my pocket.
Agent Ruiz looked at both of us.
“You open the door, take nothing, and allow my agents to enter first.”
Anthony almost laughed.
“The door will not respond to them.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Nathaniel and I built it.”
The four of us descended.
At the end of the corridor, Claire inserted the compass into the right lock. I placed the silver key into the left.
Neither turned.
Anthony pointed toward a small glass panel between them.
“Both of you.”
Claire and I pressed our hands against the glass.
A green light moved beneath our palms.
MERCER LINE CONFIRMED.
The words appeared on the screen.
Not Harcourt.
Mercer.
Claire looked at me.
The two keys turned by themselves.
The steel door opened.
Beyond it was not a mine or a drilling chamber.
It was an archive.
Metal shelves stretched across a room larger than the Harcourt boardroom. Old film reels, document boxes and sealed containers stood beneath protective lights. A long table occupied the center.
Only one object rested on it.
A black ledger.
Anthony stopped at the doorway.
“It was supposed to be gone.”
“What is it?” Agent Ruiz asked.
“The reason Patricia framed me.”
A projector activated on the far wall.
Nathaniel Harcourt appeared on the screen.
He looked younger than I remembered, but fear had already settled into his face.
“If Evelyn is watching this,” he said, “then we failed to keep the Continuity Ledger hidden.”
Pages appeared behind him.
Names.
Banks.
Judges.
Private companies.
Properties transferred through false court orders and fabricated debt.
“The mineral discovery was a cover,” Nathaniel continued. “The real value beneath Black Ridge is evidence. Evidence that powerful families used Harcourt Development to seize land for almost fifty years.”
The screen changed.
A live image appeared.
My mother sat inside her house.
Samuel Reed stood behind her.
Neither seemed aware of the camera.
Then Samuel looked directly toward it.
As though he could see us.
He stepped closer to my mother and placed one hand on her shoulder.
“Evelyn,” he said through the speaker, “whatever Anthony tells you, do not open the black ledger.”
The image shook.
May you like
My mother turned toward Samuel.
Before she could speak, the lights inside her house went out.
