Chapter 10 - The White House
Harrison dragged Mercer behind the burning remains of the tower.
Price fired again.
The bullet struck the metal cylinder.
Lucy crawled beneath a water trough.
A ranch truck appeared across the field.
Harrison expected more Silver Crown men.
Instead, Dr. Naomi Keller stepped from the passenger side with two federal agents.
Mercer had contacted her before leaving the clinic.
Naomi treated his wound while agents pursued Price.
He escaped into the hills.
The coordinates led to a boarded white mansion near the dry river.
Official property maps showed no building.
Silver Crown had removed it from county records.
Federal agents entered through the front.
The house appeared abandoned.
Dust covered the furniture.
No food remained in the kitchen.
Lucy walked toward a wall beside the fireplace.
“Tommy counted here.”
She pressed a loose brick.
A hidden door opened.
A concrete staircase descended underground.
Small rooms lined the first corridor.
Each contained a bed, a camera, and locks on the outside.
Lucy pointed toward the third room.
“We lived there.”
Harrison entered.
Crayon drawings covered one wall.
Most showed horses, mountains, and a tall man wearing a black hat.
“Who is that?” Harrison asked.
“You.”
“Mom drew you for us.”
At the end of the corridor, agents found a medical room.
Tommy’s birth records lay inside a cabinet.
Mara had delivered him without a doctor.
Lucy had been six years old.
She cut the cord using instructions Mara remembered from a book.
Harrison turned away so Lucy would not see him cry.
Naomi found traces of medication in several bottles.
Mara had been kept weak for years.
A second tunnel led toward an underground loading area.
Fresh tracks crossed the floor.
Evelyn had moved everyone hours earlier.
But one prisoner remained.
An old man was chained inside a storage room.
His beard covered most of his face.
Lucy stared at him.
“Daddy?”
Daniel Bennett lifted his head.
He was alive.
He reached for Lucy, but Harrison stopped when he saw the device strapped beneath Daniel’s shirt.
A red light blinked.
It was connected to enough explosive material to destroy the entire tunnel.
Daniel whispered.
May you like
“Do not touch me.”
“Evelyn has the release code.”
