CHAPTER 26 THE EMPTY CHAIR
“Where is Rebecca?”
No one answered.
Daniel overturned the table.
The representatives moved back as Mara searched the darkened room.
Rebecca’s transmitter remained active, but its signal appeared to be coming from every direction at once.
Charles checked the locked doors.
“They want us focused on Calder.”
Daniel seized Celia Hale by the arm.
“Where did my wife go?”
Celia remained calm.
“Rebecca has always known where she belonged.”
“She belongs with us.”
“That is what Vivian taught her to believe.”
Mara found a service door concealed behind the old trading board.
The Skeleton Key opened it.
A tunnel descended beneath the exchange.
Daniel, Emily, Mara, and Charles followed.
Celia did not try to stop them.
The tunnel led to a circular room containing twelve chairs.
Eleven carried family symbols.
The twelfth stood alone in the center.
No family name.
No banner.
Only Daniel’s childhood designation.
D-12.
“The Correction chair,” Emily said.
A screen activated.
Rebecca appeared on a live video feed.
She was walking through an underground passage beside Eleanor Vale.
Her biological mother.
Rebecca was not restrained.
She moved willingly.
Daniel pressed the communication control.
“Rebecca, stop.”
She looked toward the camera.
For a moment, Daniel believed she could hear him.
Then Eleanor touched Rebecca’s shoulder and led her through another door.
Charles examined the twelve chairs.
“There were never twelve families.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What?”
“Whitmore records sometimes referred to eleven Houses and one blade.”
“The Correction,” Mara said.
Charles nodded.
“The Houses built a mechanism capable of cutting away any family that threatened the others. Daniel was never intended to lead them.”
He looked at the central chair.
“He was intended to execute them.”
The screen changed.
A historical list appeared.
Twenty-seven Houses had existed during the past century.
Sixteen had been removed.
Some families had disappeared through scandal.
Others through accidents, criminal investigations, plane crashes, or financial collapse.
The Correction system had destroyed them.
Daniel recognized several operations from his intelligence career.
He had participated in four.
He had never known the targets belonged to Meridian.
Celia’s voice came through the speakers.
“Sit in the chair, Daniel.”
“What happens if I do?”
“You will remember.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Rebecca will remember for you.”
The live feed returned.
Rebecca entered a white medical room.
Eleanor placed a hand against her chest.
Rebecca’s second implant illuminated beneath her skin.
Daniel reached for the central chair.
Mara grabbed him.
“That is what they want.”
“They have your mother.”
“Rebecca walked away willingly.”
Daniel turned on her.
“You think that makes it better?”
“No.”
Pain appeared in Mara’s face.
“It makes it more dangerous.”
Emily studied the screen.
“Mom is following the heartbeat signal. Eleanor may be controlling her implant.”
Charles discovered a narrow slot inside the Correction chair.
It matched the Skeleton Key.
Before Daniel could stop him, Charles inserted it.
Every chair activated.
Memories flashed across the walls.
Daniel at seven.
Mara in Prague.
Rebecca receiving the implant.
Emily meeting Charles.
Their lives had been observed from the beginning.
A final recording appeared.
Rebecca sat alone inside a dark room one year earlier.
Mara entered.
They spoke quietly.
Rebecca handed Mara a photograph of Daniel.
“Watch him,” Rebecca said.
“Why?”
“Because Room Zero is searching for him again.”
“Does he know?”
“No.”
“Should I tell him?”
Rebecca looked toward the camera.
“Not until we know whether he is still Daniel.”
The recording ended.
Daniel stared at Mara.
“You knew.”
Mara’s silence answered him.
The satellite phone rang.
Daniel opened the case.
Rebecca’s voice came through.
“Don’t come after me.”
“Where are you?”
“I know what I am now.”
“Rebecca, listen to me.”
“You were right in the bunker. There was another way.”
Her voice broke.
“But it was never going to save all of us.”
The call disconnected.
The screen displayed Rebecca’s heartbeat.
It was moving away from the city.
Toward a lake in northern Virginia.
May you like
Beneath the signal was a new message.
ROOM ZERO WILL OPEN WHEN THE PRIMARY VESSEL DIES.
