Chapter 12 - The Steel Door
Adrian did not run.
He moved toward the steel door.
Mara grabbed his shoulder.
“That is exactly what Rook wants.”
“My wife is alive.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian turned on her.
“You think that was fake?”
“I think Rook has had four years to prepare something that would control you.”
Emily wiped tears from her face.
“It was Mom.”
Adrian looked at her.
“She knew the way Mom says ‘run.’ She always clips the R.”
Mara said nothing.
Claire pushed herself upright.
“There may be another way out.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You know this tunnel?”
“I know Victor kept old architectural plans.”
“Where?”
“In his office.”
“Which is above a locked door.”
Claire pointed toward Sheriff Pike.
“His ring.”
Mara understood first.
“The ring opens something.”
Claire nodded.
“All senior North Star members carried physical tokens. They weren’t jewelry.”
Adrian searched Pike’s pockets and found a small metal strip hidden behind the ring face.
Emily examined it.
“NFC key.”
She tapped it against a black panel beside the tunnel wall.
Nothing.
Then against the steel door.
A green light blinked.
The lock opened wider.
Rook’s voice returned.
“Clever.”
Adrian motioned Emily behind him.
The steel door led into a stairwell.
Up.
Not down.
They climbed.
At the top was another door.
It opened into Victor’s private office behind a bookshelf.
The room had been destroyed.
Desk drawers emptied.
Computer missing.
Safe open.
But one framed photograph remained on the wall.
Thomas Vale with his two sons.
Adrian and Victor.
Emily moved toward the desk.
“Here.”
Blueprints.
Claire spread them across the floor.
“There.”
A utility tunnel ran from the wine cellar under the north lawn to an old service building beyond the property line.
Mara pointed.
“That could be where Sarah is.”
“No,” Emily said.
They looked at her.
She was staring at a handwritten mark on the blueprint.
A circle around a different location.
Guesthouse B.
Beside it were the initials S.V.
Sarah Vale.
Adrian ran for the door.
Emily followed.
Mara shouted into her radio for the exterior teams.
Still static.
The jamming had spread.
They crossed the lawn on foot.
Guesthouse B looked abandoned.
Windows dark.
Door unlocked.
Adrian entered first.
Empty living room.
Empty kitchen.
Then he heard breathing behind a closed bedroom door.
He kicked it open.
Sarah sat in a chair.
Alive.
Emily screamed, “Mom!”
Sarah lifted her head.
Adrian took one step forward.
Then stopped.
Because Sarah’s hands were not tied.
A pistol rested in her lap.
May you like
And it was pointed directly at him.
