CHAPTER 22: Beneath the Ballroom
The center entered full lockdown.
Daniel checked every camera.
Elsie had left the interview room three minutes earlier.
The hallway footage showed her following Marissa.
But Marissa had already been missing for nearly an hour.
“It was another disguise,” Emily said.
“No,” Sophie replied.
She stared at the frozen image.
“That’s really her.”
Marissa appeared on the screen wearing different clothes from the courthouse footage.
Her hair was wet.
A bruise marked one side of her face.
She walked unsteadily, as though drugged.
Elsie followed her into the elevator leading toward Room 314.
The elevator had not opened again.
Ethan, Daniel, Rachel, and Emily entered the tunnel behind the nursery.
Sophie refused to remain above.
“My mother found this place,” she said. “I might recognize something she left.”
Ethan knew he could not stop her without becoming another adult deciding that ignorance was safer than truth.
She joined them.
The passage descended beneath the ballroom.
Old electrical cables ran along the walls.
Symbols had been painted at each intersection.
Emily recognized them.
“Northstar navigation marks.”
“What do they mean?” Daniel asked.
“Circle means a child holding room. Triangle means medical. The black line means transfer route.”
They followed the black line.
The tunnel ended at a steel door.
Behind it, they found Marissa tied to a chair.
Her eyes were open, but she was barely conscious.
Rachel ran to her.
“Where is Elsie?”
Marissa struggled to speak.
“She thought I called her.”
Daniel cut the restraints.
“Who brought you here?”
“A woman.”
“The one who looked like Rachel?”
Marissa shook her head.
“She looked like Laura.”
Ethan froze.
“What did you say?”
“She showed me a photograph. She said Laura built the tunnels.”
A child screamed somewhere beyond the wall.
“Elsie!” Marissa cried.
Daniel found a second door hidden behind storage shelves.
It opened into a large underground archive.
Thousands of boxes filled the room.
Each was labeled with a child’s name, birth date, and financial value.
Sophie stared at the nearest box.
ADDISON GRAY
ESTIMATED FAMILY CLAIM: $2.4 MILLION
Rachel covered her mouth.
Addison had been selected.
Another box bore Elsie’s name.
ELSIE LANE
MEDICAL TRUST: $8.1 MILLION
A third box belonged to Noah.
NOAH LANE
COGNITIVE RETENTION CANDIDATE
“They weren’t only taking children with inheritances,” Olivia said through Daniel’s radio. “They were selecting children with useful abilities.”
Emily found her own box.
SUBJECT 07
GENETIC CONNECTION: BLACKWOOD
She did not open it.
Sophie heard movement behind a row of shelves.
Elsie was sitting on the floor.
She appeared unharmed.
Marissa rushed toward her.
Then Daniel raised one hand.
“Stop.”
A pressure sensor had been placed beneath Elsie.
A wire ran from the sensor to explosives attached to the archive supports.
“If she moves, the tunnel collapses,” Daniel said.
Elsie began crying.
“I want Mommy.”
Marissa dropped to her knees several feet away.
“I’m right here.”
Daniel crawled toward the device.
Sophie remained close to Emily.
“Genetic connection to Blackwood,” Sophie whispered. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
Emily’s eyes filled with fear.
Before she could answer, a voice echoed through the archive speakers.
“Subject Seven has returned.”
Emily looked upward.
The voice belonged to Judge Wren.
“Bring her to the lower chamber, and the Lane child may leave.”
Daniel continued working on the pressure sensor.
“Don’t listen.”
Wren laughed softly.
“Ask Emily why Laura Blackwood was searching for her.”
Sophie turned toward Emily.
Emily finally opened her file.
A photograph fell from the first page.
It showed Laura holding Emily as a newborn.
May you like
On the back, Laura had written:
MY FIRST DAUGHTER.
