Chapter 12 - Cabinet Twenty-Two
Police surrounded the estate, but they could not enter the central tower.
Celeste had activated the mansion lockdown, sealing the armored internal doors. She controlled the cameras, communications, and remaining security barriers from the observatory.
The officers believed they were responding to a domestic poisoning and explosion.
They did not know about Aegis Crown.
They did not know about the archive.
And they did not know that someone inside the mansion had already rerouted their radio frequencies.
Evelyn spoke to the commanding officer through the courtyard gate while Maren sat beneath a temporary medical shelter.
Reed remained under guard twenty feet away.
Kline’s body had been covered.
Maren kept looking toward it.
The man had helped poison her.
He had suppressed her recovery.
He had lied for decades.
Yet in his final moment, he had tried to warn her.
The ninth file was a child.
Not had been.
Was.
Someone still young.
Someone Celeste feared enough to destroy a mansion.
Maren opened the black phone and searched the old archives for 0417.
Hundreds of results appeared.
She narrowed the search to Aegis Crown records.
One entry remained.
PROJECT 0417.
Status restricted.
Related classifications: 22, 9, Continuity.
The file required biometric access.
Maren pressed her thumb.
Denied.
Elara’s fingerprint would open it.
The identity recognized as Maren Vale controlled the system.
Reed watched her.
“You won’t access it.”
Maren looked up.
“How do you know?”
“Your father designed it for the real heir.”
“You mean the child with the correct fingerprint.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew mine was wrong?”
“Not until tonight.”
“Celeste knew.”
“Celeste suspected.”
Maren wheeled closer.
“What is Project 0417?”
Reed looked toward the police.
“If I tell you, she will know.”
“She shot Kline from four stories above us. I think she knows we are speaking.”
Reed lowered his voice.
“Your father did not create Vale Meridian alone.”
“I know.”
“Silas Voss funded the early security division. Conrad Halston built the political connections. Celeste handled the private clients.”
“And the children?”
“At first, they moved children out of war zones and illegal institutions.”
“Then they started selling them.”
“Celeste says it was more complicated.”
“Celeste calls murder a transfer of control.”
Reed flinched.
Maren continued.
“What is the ninth file?”
Reed looked toward the tower.
“A child born with no legal identity.”
“That describes many children in the archive.”
“This one is different.”
“How?”
“He was engineered from stored embryos.”
Maren stared at him.
“Engineered?”
“A matching heir.”
“To whom?”
Reed did not answer.
The black phone vibrated.
A message from Elara.
SERVICE ELEVATOR. EAST WALL. THREE MINUTES.
Maren hid the screen.
Reed noticed.
“She’s alive.”
“Who?”
“You know who.”
Maren leaned closer.
“What is inside cabinet twenty-two?”
Reed’s face tightened.
“The proof that one of you was not born at Saint Orison.”
Maren went still.
“The photograph…”
“Was staged.”
“Dr. Kline said Evelyn gave birth to twins.”
“She did.”
“But?”
“One infant died before the fire.”
Maren looked toward Evelyn, still speaking with police at the gate.
“Which one?”
“No one knows.”
“Then how are there two of us?”
Reed’s voice fell almost to a whisper.
“Because Silas replaced the dead infant.”
“With whom?”
“The first child in Project 0417.”
Maren felt suddenly cold.
Elara and Maren might not be twins.
One of them might not be Evelyn’s biological daughter at all.
One could have been inserted into the hospital as part of an experiment.
“Why make us look identical?”
“Ask the people who designed the project.”
“Celeste?”
“No. She inherited it.”
“From the man in the photograph.”
Reed nodded.
The service elevator bell sounded inside the damaged east corridor.
Maren looked at the black phone.
Three minutes had passed.
Evelyn returned from the gate.
“The police are preparing to breach the tower.”
“They cannot,” Reed said.
She ignored him.
Maren said, “Elara is at the service elevator.”
Evelyn turned.
“How do you know?”
“She messaged me.”
“We go together.”
Maren looked toward Reed.
“He comes too.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“He knows the tower.”
“He tried to kill you.”
“And Celeste may kill thousands of people by releasing the archive.”
Reed said, “I can open the emergency staircase.”
Evelyn stepped close to him.
“If you move toward Maren without permission, I will put you through a wall.”
Reed almost smiled.
“You really are her mother.”
Maren watched Evelyn’s reaction.
Not pride.
Fear.
They entered through the east corridor.
Smoke hung beneath the ceiling. Water from the sprinkler system covered the marble floors. Broken family photographs lay scattered along the hallway.
At the end stood a narrow service elevator with brass doors.
The doors opened.
Elara stood inside.
Her coat was torn. Blood marked her cheek. Russell leaned against the wall behind her, wounded but conscious.
Evelyn exhaled.
Elara looked at Maren.
“Did Kline tell you?”
“That the ninth file is a child.”
Elara’s face changed.
“He knew?”
“Before Celeste killed him.”
Elara looked past them toward the courtyard.
For a moment, something like grief crossed her face.
Then it disappeared.
“We have less than twelve minutes before Celeste uploads the ledger.”
Maren entered the elevator.
“What is the child’s name?”
Elara pressed the hidden fourth-floor button.
The doors began to close.
“He does not have one.”
“Where is he?”
May you like
Elara looked up as the elevator rose.
“Inside this mansion.”
