Chapter 4 - THE MAN ON THE BED
Mara reached Luke before the officers could stop her.
The restraints around his wrists were medical-grade leather.
Fresh bruises circled both forearms.
A clear tube ran from a hanging bag into the back of his left hand.
His skin felt cold and damp.
“Luke, look at me.”
His eyes struggled to focus.
“Mara?”
“I am here.”
“You should not be here.”
“I came to find you.”
“I told you to burn the notebook.”
His voice cracked into a cough.
Mara tore at the buckle nearest his right wrist.
Detective Ortiz caught her hand.
“Let the medic do that.”
“They have been drugging him.”
“That is why we need to preserve the line and the bag.”
Luke looked toward the open vault.
Alexander stood in the doorway, pale beneath the dust.
Marcus remained behind him.
Celeste and Julian had stopped in the corridor.
Naomi moved closer to Mara.
Luke saw her and began to shake.
“You sent the invitation.”
Naomi nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
Mara looked at her.
“You knew he was alive?”
“I knew someone was being held under the estate.”
“You told me you only found an archived employee number.”
“I lied.”
The confession hit Mara with almost as much force as the explosion.
She stood.
“You used me.”
“I needed someone the security system would not recognize.”
“You knew the vault required an Ellison print.”
“I suspected it.”
“You brought me into a room with a poisoned glass and armed guards.”
“I did not know anyone planned to kill my father.”
Mara stepped toward her.
Ortiz moved between them.
“This argument waits.”
A paramedic disconnected Luke’s intravenous line.
He held the clear bag toward the light.
“There is no hospital label.”
Mara saw a faint blue tint in the fluid.
“V-Seventeen?”
Luke made a weak sound.
“No.”
The paramedic leaned closer.
“What is it?”
“Counteragent.”
Alexander entered the vault.
Luke’s eyes followed him.
“You still take the capsules?”
Alexander stopped.
“What capsules?”
“The gray ones for your tremor.”
No one in the corridor moved.
Celeste looked at her husband.
“You told me those were vitamins.”
Alexander ignored her.
“How do you know about them?”
Luke swallowed with difficulty.
“Because my father made them.”
Mara stared at him.
“Our father died twelve years ago.”
“The formula is older.”
“What formula?”
Luke’s eyes closed.
The paramedic checked his pulse.
“He needs a hospital now.”
Ortiz spoke into her radio.
“Prepare protected transport.”
Derek appeared at the edge of the corridor with two officers behind him.
“No vehicle can reach the west drive.”
“Why?”
“The blast damaged the service bridge.”
Ortiz’s expression turned dangerous.
“Then we carry him through the main entrance.”
“The main doors remain locked.”
“You are the head of security.”
“I am working on it.”
Alexander turned on him.
“Work faster.”
Luke gripped Mara’s sleeve.
“Do not take me outside.”
She bent close.
“Why?”
“They are waiting.”
“Who?”
“The people who moved me every time I woke up.”
Ortiz heard him.
“How many?”
Luke’s mouth moved.
Mara could not hear.
She leaned closer.
“Six.”
A soft click came from the back wall.
Mara turned.
One of the silver canisters had shifted.
A red light blinked beneath its base.
“Everyone out,” Ortiz shouted.
The officers moved at once.
The paramedics released Luke’s restraints and lifted him onto a folding stretcher.
Mara grabbed the notebook.
Naomi seized two file boxes from the nearest shelf.
Alexander reached for a third.
Marcus caught his shoulder.
“Leave it.”
Alexander ripped free.
“Why?”
“That could be a pressure trigger.”
“You seemed very certain.”
Marcus stared at him.
The red light blinked faster.
Derek pushed past them and inspected the canister.
“It is connected to the door alarm.”
Mara saw a thin wire running into the wall.
“No.”
She pointed toward a second wire hidden behind the shelf.
“That goes down.”
Derek followed it with his eyes.
His face changed.
“Move.”
They crowded into the narrow corridor.
The paramedics carried Luke toward the ballroom.
Ortiz was the last officer out.
Derek pulled the steel door closed.
The lock engaged.
Three seconds later, a muffled detonation shook the foundation.
Dust burst from the ceiling.
The corridor lights failed.
A thick metallic clang sounded behind the door.
Mara pressed her palm against the steel.
Heat spread through it.
“The files.”
Naomi held up the two boxes she had taken.
“We have these.”
Marcus stared at them.
Mara saw fear in his eyes for the first time.
He reached for the nearest box.
Naomi stepped back.
“Do not.”
“I am chairman of the company those records belong to.”
Ortiz drew her sidearm.
“They belong to my investigation.”
Marcus lowered his hand.
Luke moaned on the stretcher.
His eyes opened again.
“Box seven.”
Naomi checked the labels.
One box read ARCHIVE 7-B.
The other read MEDICAL TRUST.
Luke pointed weakly toward 7-B.
“Camera.”
Ortiz opened the box.
Inside were dozens of old video cassettes, three hard drives, and a compact digital recorder.
A black plastic camera no larger than a button rested on top.
Mara recognized it.
“It was inside my brother’s jacket when he disappeared.”
Luke shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed toward the ballroom.
“Your phone.”
Mara understood.
The button camera had transmitted the video she recorded.
The phone had only displayed it.
Whoever stole the phone did not have the original.
Naomi smiled without humor.
“So the evidence still exists.”
Marcus’s face became blank again.
Ortiz placed the camera into an evidence bag.
“Where does it store data?”
Luke whispered.
“Remote server.”
“Location?”
He looked at Alexander.
“His chapel.”
Alexander frowned.
“There is no server in the chapel.”
Luke gave a weak laugh.
“There is no corridor in the wall either.”
The paramedics carried him into the ballroom.
Guests recoiled at the sight of him.
Camera flashes erupted.
Ortiz ordered every photographer to lower their equipment.
Some obeyed.
Others did not.
Celeste covered her mouth.
She had regained one glove but not the stained one.
Julian stood beside Marcus with his face drained of color.
Luke noticed him.
“You.”
Julian stepped back.
“I have never seen you.”
“You delivered the food.”
“No.”
“You wore a mask.”
Julian looked at his father.
“This is insane.”
Luke tried to rise from the stretcher.
The paramedic held him down.
“You said I deserved it because my family ruined yours.”
Julian shook his head.
“Dad, I swear.”
Alexander crossed the marble floor.
“Did you know he was here?”
“No.”
“Did Marcus bring you into the corridor?”
“Years ago.”
“Did you enter the vault?”
“No.”
Luke laughed again, then winced.
“You asked me where the ledger was.”
Julian’s eyes widened.
Mara moved toward him.
“What ledger?”
Luke stared at Julian.
“The one that proves who owned V-Seventeen.”
Julian backed into a table.
“I did not touch him.”
“You broke two fingers.”
“I have never been in that room.”
Luke lifted his right hand.
Two fingers had healed crooked.
Naomi looked at her brother with disgust.
“What did you do?”
Julian’s panic turned to anger.
“He was blackmailing us.”
The words escaped before he could stop them.
The ballroom became silent again.
Alexander’s voice was almost inaudible.
“So you did know.”
Julian looked at Marcus.
Marcus closed his eyes briefly.
Julian pointed at Luke.
“He threatened to release documents that would destroy the company.”
“What documents?”
“I never saw them.”
“You broke his fingers without seeing them?”
“He was lying.”
Mara lunged.
Ortiz caught her around the waist.
Julian flinched behind Marcus.
Mara fought the detective’s grip.
“You tortured my brother.”
“I did not mean for him to get hurt.”
“Two fingers do not break by accident.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“I authorized a private interview.”
Alexander turned on him.
“You authorized this?”
“I believed Luke had stolen proprietary material.”
“So you imprisoned him beneath my home?”
“I was told he was transferred to a secure medical facility.”
“By whom?”
Marcus looked at Derek.
The head of security said nothing.
Ortiz pointed at both men.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Derek’s guards shifted uneasily.
Two county officers moved to flank him.
Derek glanced toward the balcony.
Mara followed his eyes.
A tiny red light blinked behind the upper railing.
Another camera.
Luke saw it too.
“They are watching.”
Ortiz signaled an officer to retrieve it.
The officer climbed the stairs.
The red light vanished.
A door slammed above.
Footsteps ran through the gallery.
Ortiz sent two more officers after them.
Derek spoke into his radio.
“All internal units hold position.”
Only static answered.
Alexander looked around at the guards who had protected his home for years.
“How many of them answer to you?”
Derek did not reply.
“How many answer to Marcus?”
Marcus laughed softly.
“You are losing control, Alex.”
Alexander stepped close enough that their tuxedo lapels nearly touched.
“I lost control the moment I trusted you.”
The chapel bell began ringing.
It struck once.
Then again.
Blackthorne’s chapel had not been used since Alexander’s first wife died.
Naomi looked toward the north windows.
“No one is in the chapel.”
Luke gripped Mara’s hand.
“The server.”
The bell rang a third time.
Every screen in the ballroom turned on at once.
The stage display showed a live image of the chapel altar.
Mara’s stolen phone rested on the white cloth.
Beside it stood Vivian Cross.
Her wrists were bound.
A strip of silver tape covered her mouth.
A man in a black coat held a gun against the base of her skull.
His face remained outside the camera frame.
A distorted voice filled the ballroom.
“Bring Alexander Vale to the chapel alone.”
Celeste stepped forward.
“No.”
The voice continued.
“Bring the Ellison notebook.”
Mara clutched it to her chest.
“And bring the contents of Archive Box Seven.”
Ortiz looked at the video feed.
“What happens if we refuse?”
The man pulled the tape from Vivian’s mouth.
She screamed.
He forced her face toward the camera.
“Tell them.”
Vivian sobbed so hard that her words broke apart.
“He put something under the ballroom.”
Derek looked toward the floor.
The distorted voice returned.
“You have twelve minutes.”
A digital timer appeared on the screen.
11:59.
11:58.
11:57.
Luke tried to sit up.
Mara held him down.
“What did he put under us?”
Luke stared at the marble where Alexander’s glass had shattered.
“The original canister.”
May you like
The timer reached 11:40.
A blue vapor began seeping through the cracks in the ballroom floor.
