Chapter 7 - The Night the Estate Went Dark
The laboratory lights switched from white to red.
Elena grabbed my arm.
“What happened?”
“Security lockdown.”
I tried the door.
Sealed.
My phone showed no signal.
The room had become a box.
On the screen, Genevieve’s recorded face remained frozen.
I looked through the glass wall.
No movement.
Then a voice came over the intercom.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Male.
Distorted electronically.
“You were asked to stay away.”
I stepped toward the speaker.
“You know who I am?”
A quiet laugh.
“That has never been the problem.”
“Open the door.”
“No.”
“Elena leaves.”
“No.”
“Then tell Elias Vane I want to speak to him.”
Another laugh.
“You still think this is about Elias.”
The line went dead.
I scanned the room.
Server racks.
Desk.
Metal cabinets.
Fire suppression vents.
“Elena, look for another exit.”
“There isn’t one.”
“Look.”
We searched.
Nothing.
Then I remembered Prescott.
He had been following.
If the facility had lost our signals, he would move.
Unless someone had intercepted him.
I checked the medical files again.
Jonah.
Blythe.
Treatment-response predictions.
One section was encrypted.
“Can you open this?”
Elena sat at the terminal.
“I’m not a hacker.”
“Try Genevieve’s code.”
“What code?”
“The door code.”
She entered it.
Rejected.
Then she looked at the necklace.
The blue stone.
“Genevieve told me never to remove it.”
“So?”
“She said, ‘If you ever reach the place beneath Aurora, blue opens what numbers can’t.’”
I stared at the necklace.
“It’s not just jewelry.”
Elena removed it.
I examined the sapphire.
The backing seemed thicker than I remembered.
I twisted the silver frame.
A tiny memory card slid out.
Genevieve.
Always three steps ahead.
We inserted it into the terminal.
The encrypted section opened immediately.
Medical protocols appeared.
Treatment data.
Drug combinations.
And one highlighted file:
LARK PEDIATRIC RESCUE PROTOCOL.
I felt my pulse jump.
“Copy everything.”
Elena inserted a drive from the desk.
The transfer began.
12%.
18%.
23%.
The intercom returned.
“You should not have done that.”
“Come stop me.”
“I don’t need to.”
A hiss came from above.
Elena looked up.
“Lawson?”
Gas.
Fire suppression.
Or something worse.
“Cover your mouth.”
We ripped fabric from lab coats stored in a cabinet.
The transfer reached 46%.
My head began to feel light.
Elena stumbled.
I caught her.
“Stay awake.”
58%.
A pounding sound echoed beyond the door.
Then another.
Someone trying to breach it from outside.
Prescott.
Had to be.
66%.
Elena sank against the desk.
“Take the drive.”
“Not yet.”
“Take it.”
78%.
My vision blurred.
The door shook.
A gunshot-like crack came from the lock mechanism, though I never saw a weapon.
Metal bent.
86%.
I dragged Elena closer to the floor where the air seemed clearer.
93%.
“Come on.”
97%.
99%.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
I pulled the drive.
At that exact moment, the laboratory door burst inward.
Prescott appeared wearing a respirator.
His team rushed in.
He fitted a mask over Elena’s face.
Then mine.
The world stabilized slowly.
We escaped through a service corridor.
Outside, cold night air hit like medicine.
I handed Prescott the drive.
“Get this to Franklin.”
“What is it?”
“Maybe the only thing keeping my children alive.”
He passed it to one of his men.
“Secure courier. No network connection.”
Good.
I turned back toward the facility.
“Where’s whoever locked us in?”
“Gone.”
“How?”
“Secondary tunnel.”
“Find them.”
“We’re trying.”
Elena coughed beside me.
“You need to hear the rest of Genevieve’s recording.”
“I know.”
We had copied it.
In the car, Prescott played the file offline.
Genevieve appeared again.
“If Lawson Mercer is watching this, then I failed.”
Same opening.
Then the section we hadn’t heard.
“Elias Vane built Project Lark into what it became. But he had help from someone who could give him access to Mercer resources without raising suspicion.”
She looked exhausted.
“I resisted writing this name because I wanted to be wrong.”
My hands tightened.
Genevieve continued.
“But every record leads back to him.”
She swallowed.
“Prescott Hale.”
The inside of the vehicle became completely silent.
Elena turned toward Prescott.
I didn’t.
For several seconds, I simply stared ahead.
Prescott sat across from me.
No sudden movement.
No denial.
Finally I looked at him.
“Tell me she was wrong.”
He didn’t.
“Prescott.”
His voice was quiet.
“She wasn’t completely wrong.”
Elena’s breath caught.
I felt something dark open inside me.
“How long?”
“Lawson—”
“How long?”
“Before I worked for you.”
My entire body went still.
“You worked for Vane?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“Security analysis.”
“For Project Lark?”
“I didn’t know what Lark was.”
“Genevieve thought you did.”
“She had reason to.”
“Did you kill her?”
Elena looked at him.
Prescott’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Did you know she survived the highway crash?”
“Yes.”
That answer hit harder than the first.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me bury her.”
“I was following her orders.”
I almost struck him.
Almost.
Then my phone rang.
Franklin.
I answered.
“We have the files,” he said.
“Can they help?”
Silence.
“Franklin.”
“There is a treatment protocol.”
My eyes closed.
“Will it work?”
“It was designed specifically for children with the twins’ genetic profile.”
Hope hurt worse than despair.
“Then use it.”
“I can’t yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the protocol requires a biologic compound that was never commercially released.”
“Where is it?”
“A Novagen storage site.”
“Which one?”
Franklin paused.
“The compound is listed under a code.”
“Read it.”
“GV-17.”
Elena suddenly looked at me.
“What?”
She reached for Genevieve’s necklace.
On the back of the tiny blue stone, barely visible in the dim car light, were two engraved letters and two numbers.
GV-17.
Genevieve hadn’t only carried evidence around her neck.
May you like
She had carried the name of the treatment that might save our children.
And if Prescott was telling the truth, the man I had trusted to protect my family might be the only person who knew where it was hidden.
