Chapter 11 - The Fourth Floor
Maren crawled through darkness.
Cold water soaked the champagne dress and dragged against her legs. The drainage channel was so narrow she could not turn her head. Stone scraped her shoulders. Every breath carried the smell of earth, metal, and stagnant rain.
Ahead, Kline pushed against the fountain grate.
“It’s sealed,” he called.
Behind Maren, Evelyn entered the tunnel.
Russell and Elara remained in the cellar to hold back the armed men.
The timer continued somewhere behind them.
Maren imagined the numbers falling.
Forty seconds.
Thirty.
Twenty.
“Move,” Evelyn urged.
“There is nowhere to move.”
Kline struck the grate again.
Lila’s brother squeezed beside him and reached through a gap.
“There’s a latch.”
“Can you reach it?” Lila asked.
“I think so.”
The boy pushed his arm through until his shoulder pressed against the stone.
The latch lifted.
The grate opened.
Rainwater poured into the tunnel.
Kline climbed out first, then helped Lila’s brother into the courtyard fountain. Lila followed.
Maren reached the opening.
Evelyn pushed from behind while Kline pulled her upward.
She emerged into heavy rain.
They had barely cleared the fountain when the west wing exploded.
The ground rose beneath them.
Stone, glass, and flame burst from the side of the mansion. The chapel roof collapsed inward. Windows shattered across the courtyard.
Maren fell against the wet fountain basin.
Evelyn covered her with her body.
A section of burning wood struck the magnolia tree.
Smoke swallowed the upper windows.
Lila screamed for her brother.
He was alive, crouched beside Kline.
Maren looked toward the fountain opening.
Russell and Elara had not emerged.
“No,” Evelyn whispered.
She moved toward the tunnel.
A second blast forced her back.
The drainage opening collapsed beneath broken stone.
Maren grabbed her arm.
“You can’t.”
Evelyn stared at the sealed tunnel.
“Russell…”
“And Elara.”
Evelyn looked at her.
In the firelight, the scar on her throat stood out.
For a moment, she was not the commanding woman who entered the mansion with armed agents.
She was a mother who might have lost a daughter for the second time.
Sirens approached beyond the gates.
Maren turned toward the main house.
“We need the fourth floor.”
“The building is unstable.”
“The records are there.”
“So is Celeste.”
“And Reed.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“We leave. We regroup.”
“If we leave, Celeste destroys everything.”
“She already destroyed the archive.”
“Not everything.”
Maren held up the black phone.
During the crawl, it had reconnected to the mansion network.
A message waited on the screen.
NOT DEAD YET.
It came from Elara.
A second message followed.
GO TO THE OBSERVATORY.
DO NOT TRUST KLINE.
Maren looked toward the doctor.
He was helping Lila to her feet.
Blood marked his sleeve.
He noticed Maren watching and looked away.
Evelyn read the message.
“If Elara escaped, she may reach the observatory herself.”
“She told us to go.”
“Or she is leading us into another trap.”
Maren started toward the courtyard doors.
Evelyn caught the wheelchair handles.
“You cannot keep treating every warning as an invitation.”
“And you cannot keep calling secrecy protection.”
Their eyes met.
Then Kline shouted.
A figure stood in the shattered doorway of the west wing.
Reed.
His white shirt was torn and streaked with soot. Blood ran from his temple. One wrist remained attached to a broken restraint.
He stumbled into the rain.
“Maren!”
She watched him cross the courtyard.
Behind him, smoke filled the corridor.
“Where is Celeste?” Evelyn asked.
Reed looked back.
“She locked herself in the tower.”
“The observatory,” Maren said.
Reed stared at the black phone.
“You found the fourth floor.”
“What is in cabinet twenty-two?”
His expression changed.
“You know about the file.”
“What file?”
Reed looked toward Kline.
The doctor shook his head almost imperceptibly.
Maren saw it.
So did Evelyn.
Evelyn drew a weapon.
“Kline.”
He lifted both hands.
“This is not what it appears to be.”
“What did you tell Reed?”
Kline’s eyes moved toward the approaching police lights beyond the gates.
“Celeste cannot be arrested.”
Maren laughed bitterly.
“That sounds exactly like what it appears to be.”
“If she enters custody, the people behind her will activate the contingency.”
“What contingency?”
Kline looked at Reed.
Reed answered.
“Every surviving child in the Aegis ledger will be exposed.”
Lila tightened her hold on her brother.
Maren said, “The archive was destroyed.”
“Copies exist,” Reed said. “Names, addresses, biological families, payments. Thousands of people.”
Evelyn lowered the weapon slightly.
“What does Celeste want?”
“The ninth file.”
“Why?”
“Because it identifies the person who controls the copies.”
Maren looked up toward the dark tower rising above the mansion roof.
“The scratched man in the photograph.”
Reed nodded.
“Silas Voss?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
A gunshot cracked from above.
Stone exploded beside Reed’s head.
Everyone ducked.
Celeste stood at the tower window, holding a rifle.
Her cream silk robe moved in the wind like a pale flag.
She aimed again.
Reed shouted, “Mother!”
Celeste fired.
The bullet struck Kline in the chest.
He fell into the rain.
Lila screamed.
Maren turned toward him, but Evelyn pulled her behind the fountain.
Celeste’s voice came from speakers throughout the courtyard.
“Bring me the black phone, Maren.”
Maren looked at Kline.
Blood spread across his shirt.
He reached for her weakly.
She crawled toward him despite Evelyn’s grip.
Kline’s lips moved.
Maren leaned close.
“The ninth file…” he whispered. “Is not a person.”
“What is it?”
His eyes filled with terror.
May you like
“It is a child.”
Then he stopped breathing.
