CHAPTER 24 — BENEATH THE FINAL STATION
The wooden bird contained a narrow strip of paper.
Daniel unfolded it.
ROOM ZERO.
Gabriel looked toward the far wall of the control room.
“There is no Room Zero.”
Celeste pointed beneath the railway map.
A small black circle marked the space below the station.
“Yes, there is.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I heard Margaret mention it once. She said Charles built a room no one could enter without both of his sons.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“He built a room for us after allowing one of us to disappear.”
Daniel looked at him.
“He searched for you.”
“For seventeen years.”
“I was seventeen. I had no power.”
“You had his name.”
“And I spent every year believing you were dead.”
The brothers stared at each other.
Claire stepped between them.
“Noah is still missing.”
She inserted both plastic keys into the console.
A section of the platform floor opened.
A spiral staircase descended into darkness.
Adrian’s voice came from above.
“Claire!”
He appeared at the station entrance with Victoria behind him.
One side of Adrian’s face was bleeding.
Claire ran toward him.
“What happened?”
“The elevator dropped. The emergency brake caught us two floors down.”
Claire looked at Victoria.
“You killed my mother.”
Victoria did not deny it.
“I authorized the vehicle.”
Daniel moved toward her.
Adrian blocked him.
“We need her alive.”
Claire held the wooden bird in front of Victoria.
“Where is Noah?”
“With Margaret.”
“Where?”
“Room Zero.”
“You said no one could enter without Daniel and Gabriel.”
“Margaret found another way.”
Victoria looked at Celeste.
“She used the twins.”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“What does that mean?”
“The room recognizes bloodline markers. Two grandsons can replace Charles’s two sons.”
Elias moved behind Claire.
Victoria looked at him.
“Margaret needed both children alive long enough to open the archive.”
“Then why send Noah away?”
“To make you bring Elias underground.”
Claire understood the entire train journey had been designed to deliver them to this point.
The ring.
The two keys.
Daniel and Gabriel.
Both boys.
Margaret had not lost control.
She had guided every decision.
The lights on the staircase came on one by one.
A voice rose from below.
Charles Vale’s voice.
“Daniel.”
Daniel froze.
Then the voice said another name.
“Gabriel.”
The brothers descended together.
Claire followed with Elias.
At the bottom stood a steel chamber.
Behind a glass wall, an elderly man sat in a medical chair.
Tubes ran from his arms.
A breathing mask covered his mouth.
Charles Vale was alive.
Margaret stood behind him.
Noah was beside her.
A thin wire had been fastened around his wrist.
Margaret held a switch in her hand.
“If anyone touches the door,” she said, “the wire tightens.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Noah, look at me.”
He raised his tearful eyes.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I believed her.”
“That is what people like Margaret do. They make innocent people feel responsible for their cruelty.”
Margaret smiled.
“Still giving speeches.”
Charles lifted one trembling hand.
He pointed toward the ring.
Then he spoke through the mask.
“Do not give it to her.”
Margaret placed her thumb on the switch.
Noah cried out as the wire tightened.
Claire held up the ring.
“Release my son.”
May you like
Margaret looked at Elias.
“Which one?”
