Chapter 10 - THE THEATER OF GHOSTS
Valerie and Adrian entered the abandoned Lyric Theater through a flooded basement.
The countdown showed twenty-two minutes.
Adrian moved like a man familiar with danger.
Valerie moved like a woman who had run out of fear.
They found Eleanor on the stage beneath a single white spotlight.
No guards were visible.
“That means there are too many,” Adrian whispered.
Valerie climbed the aisle.
A recording of applause began to play.
Conrad Ward appeared on the balcony above them.
He was older than the photographs and thinner than memory, but his presence filled the theater.
“Hello, daughter.”
Valerie stopped.
“You are not my father.”
“Biology has always been an inconvenient accountant.”
Adrian raised his gun.
Conrad smiled.
“If I die, the theater burns.”
Red lights appeared beneath every exit.
Explosive charges lined the walls.
Eleanor shouted through the gag.
Valerie saw that her chair rested on a pressure plate.
Moving her would trigger the device.
Conrad extended his hand.
“The key.”
“Vault Nine is destroyed.”
“The room was never the vault.”
He looked at Valerie’s silver key.
“The key contains the archive.”
Adrian stared at it.
The metal shaft concealed a microscopic storage drive.
Valerie understood why everyone had hunted her.
She held proof capable of destroying governments.
“Release my mother.”
“Come with me.”
“And Sebastian?”
“Sebastian has already been arrested for your father’s murder.”
Valerie’s composure cracked.
Conrad saw it and smiled.
“You love him.”
She hated that the answer lived visibly on her face.
Adrian whispered, “Do not give him the key.”
The timer reached ten minutes.
Valerie stepped onto the stage.
She placed the key in Conrad’s waiting hand.
Then Eleanor screamed behind the gag.
Conrad examined the key and looked almost amused.
May you like
“This is a copy.”
The timer dropped instantly to ten seconds.
