CHAPTER 18 : Room 314
By morning, the storm had blocked the mountain road.
The center was isolated.
Local police could not reach them until snowplows cleared the pass.
Daniel searched every room, corridor, storage closet, and ventilation entrance.
No intruder was found.
But one security card was missing.
It belonged to Mia.
“I left it in my office last night,” Mia said. “I didn’t realize it was gone.”
Daniel checked the access logs.
The card had been used during the blackout.
It had opened a door on the third floor.
Room 314.
“That room doesn’t exist,” Ethan said.
The residential hallway ended at Room 312.
There was no Room 314 on the building plans.
Elsie overheard them.
The little girl dropped her stuffed fox.
“Room 314?”
Marissa looked at her.
“What is it?”
Elsie backed away from the adults.
“That was the room at the house.”
Noah moved protectively toward his sister.
“You don’t have to talk about it.”
Elsie pointed toward the ceiling.
“It made noises at night.”
“What kind of noises?” Rachel asked.
“Children crying.”
Noah took Elsie’s hand.
“There were numbers on all the doors. They told us never to go near 314.”
Sophie looked at the wall between Rooms 312 and 316.
“There’s space behind this.”
Daniel measured the corridor.
She was right.
The hallway was nearly twelve feet shorter than the exterior dimensions of the building.
Workers removed a decorative wall panel.
Behind it was an old elevator door with no visible controls.
Daniel found a hidden key slot beneath the molding.
The silver Vale ring from the utility station fit perfectly.
The doors opened.
A small elevator waited behind them.
The control panel displayed only one number.
They descended below the lodge.
The elevator opened into a room decorated like a nursery.
Faded animals covered the walls.
Six small beds stood in two rows.
Leather restraints remained attached to several bed frames.
Marissa covered Elsie’s eyes.
Noah stared at the floor.
Sophie moved toward a wooden rocking chair.
A child’s name had been carved into one arm.
EMILY.
Ethan remembered the plane ticket prosecutors had found during Cassandra’s investigation.
It had been issued under the name Emily Vale.
Authorities believed the name had been invented for Sophie.
“What was this place?” Mia whispered.
Olivia opened an old filing cabinet.
Most of the folders had been removed.
One remained.
PROJECT NORTHSTAR
SUBJECT 07
EMILY VALE
The file contained medical charts, photographs, and psychological assessments.
Every page mentioning the child’s birth name had been blacked out.
A camera sat on a shelf near the ceiling.
Its red indicator light was blinking.
Daniel pulled it down.
“It’s transmitting.”
A speaker inside the rocking chair suddenly activated.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman’s voice began playing.
Ethan stopped breathing.
It was Laura.
“If you are hearing this, I failed to shut Northstar down.”
Sophie stepped closer.
Her mother’s recorded voice continued.
“Victor Vale believes children can be erased by changing their documents. He is wrong. A name can be stolen. A history can be buried. But the truth remains inside the child.”
Ethan looked at the file.
Laura’s voice became quieter.
“Emily is the key. Cassandra does not know who she really is.”
The recording paused.
“If Sophie is hearing this, tell her I’m sorry.”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears.
“Sorry for what?” she whispered.
The lights in the hidden nursery switched off.
A girl’s voice came through the speaker.
But this time, it was not a recording.
“Sophie Blackwood?”
Daniel aimed his flashlight toward the camera.
“Who is this?”
“My name is Emily.”
May you like
The voice trembled.
“And they’re coming to take me back.”
