CHAPTER 20: BENEATH THE HOSPITAL

The original Vale hospital had been abandoned for twenty years.

At 3:10 a.m., Adrian’s group entered through an underground ambulance tunnel.

Adrian walked with braces and a cane.

Eli rolled beside him.

Emma, Mason, Naomi and Victoria followed.

The silver interface unlocked a hidden elevator behind the morgue.

It descended far below the hospital basement.

No floor numbers appeared.

Only names.

SUBJECT ONE.

SUBJECT TWO.

SUBJECT THREE.

The final level read:

DANIEL.

The doors opened into a laboratory larger than the hospital above it.

Rows of empty glass chambers filled the room.

Children’s handprints covered the inside walls.

Eli stared at them.

“This isn’t the facility where they kept me.”

Victoria looked frightened.

“This was the first one.”

A voice came through the speakers.

“You should not have brought the boy.”

Adrian recognized Daniel’s voice from the train.

“Show yourself.”

A man stepped from behind the glass chambers.

He appeared to be in his mid-thirties, though Daniel should have been twenty-four.

His dark hair was streaked with silver.

Scars crossed his neck and hands.

He wore Sebastian’s ring.

Eli stopped breathing.

Daniel looked at him without emotion.

“My son.”

Emma moved between them.

“You don’t get to call him that.”

Daniel’s gaze shifted to Adrian.

“And you do not get to call me your son.”

Adrian took one step forward.

“I came to take you out of here.”

Daniel smiled faintly.

“You signed me into this place before I could open my eyes.”

“I was lied to.”

“So was I.”

Eli moved his wheelchair closer.

“Can you fix my legs?”

Daniel’s expression changed.

For the first time, pain appeared in his eyes.

He knelt before the boy but did not touch him.

“Yes.”

Emma whispered, “Then do it.”

Daniel looked at the ceiling cameras.

“I can restore him. But the moment I touch him, Sebastian will know exactly where we are.”

A slow clap echoed from the upper balcony.

Sebastian Cross stepped into the light.

“I already know.”

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Behind him stood twenty armed guards.

And beside him, still connected to his breathing machine, was Alistair Vale.