CHAPTER 9 : THE MAN ON THE SECURITY FOOTAGE
Nathaniel reached Noah before the boy could panic.
“Stay with your mother.”
He opened a drawer and removed a flashlight.
Rosa appeared in the hallway carrying a radio.
“The backup generators aren’t responding,” she said. “Someone disabled them manually.”
Claire took Noah’s hand.
“Where are the residents?”
“Counselors are moving them into the reinforced legal wing.”
Nathaniel headed toward the security room.
Claire followed despite his warning to remain upstairs.
The estate had once been designed to trap people.
Now those same reinforced walls protected them.
When they reached the underground level, the security door stood open.
The lock had not been broken.
Someone had used an authorized access code.
Inside, three servers were missing.
The cabinets containing Malcolm’s remaining financial records had been emptied.
Nathaniel checked the electronic log.
The last person to enter the room had used his credentials.
“That’s impossible,” he said.
The system showed an entry at 2:13 that morning.
Claire remembered waking briefly at two. Rain had struck the windows, and Noah had called for her after a nightmare.
Nathaniel had been in the main residence.
Alone.
“Where were you at 2:13?” she asked.
“Asleep.”
The security cameras had continued recording on an independent battery.
Nathaniel opened the footage.
A man entered the underground corridor wearing a dark suit.
He turned toward the camera.
It was Nathaniel.
The same face.
The same height.
The same slight stiffness in his right shoulder from an old riding injury.
The man entered Nathaniel’s code and disappeared into the server room.
Claire watched the recording twice.
Nathaniel said nothing.
Rosa leaned closer to the screen.
“That isn’t him.”
Claire looked at her.
“How can you tell?”
“Mr. Blackwood wears his wedding ring on his left hand.”
The man in the footage wore one on his right.
Nathaniel enlarged the image.
The intruder’s features appeared perfect until the camera caught him from the side. For less than a second, the edge of a prosthetic mask became visible near his ear.
Someone had entered the estate disguised as Nathaniel.
Rosa’s brother, Mateo, arrived with the residents from the legal wing.
When he saw the Sentinel Meridian logo on the tracking device, he stepped backward.
“I saw that symbol at the Sacramento clinic.”
Claire faced him.
“Where?”
“On the uniforms of the men who moved patients at night.”
“Were they doctors?”
“No.”
Mateo’s voice dropped.
“They were government contractors.”
Nathaniel contacted the federal task force commander, Agent Daniel Cross.
Cross arrived with twelve armed officers forty minutes later.
He examined the missing servers and blamed Malcolm’s remaining associates.
Claire handed him the tracking device.
Cross glanced at it only once.
“This model is commonly available.”
“Your agency hired the company that made it,” Claire replied.
“That doesn’t mean we placed it.”
Nathaniel watched Cross closely.
“Who knew Noah would carry that boat?”
Cross remained silent for half a second too long.
Then his phone rang.
He stepped into the corridor to answer it.
Claire noticed something protruding from his jacket pocket.
A silver keycard.
Sentinel Meridian’s lighthouse logo had been printed across the front.
Cross returned and saw her staring.
His expression remained calm.
But his hand slowly moved toward his coat.
Nathaniel stepped between them.
“Agent Cross,” he said, “put both hands where I can see them.”
Every federal officer in the room raised a weapon.
May you like
Not at Cross.
At Nathaniel.
