Chapter 9 - The Surveillance Room
Celeste ran toward the guesthouse tunnel.
Adrian followed.
Nora and Marcus remained behind long enough to secure Charles and Pierce.
Then they entered the tunnel.
Smoke poured through the vents.
Julian had set the surveillance room on fire remotely.
Celeste reached the locked steel door.
She pounded against it.
“Ethan.”
Her brother shouted from inside.
The electronic lock had failed.
Adrian pulled a fire ax from the wall.
He struck the hinges.
Marcus joined him.
Together, they forced the door open.
Flames climbed one wall.
Ethan remained tied to the chair.
Nora crawled beneath the smoke and cut the ropes with a broken piece of metal.
Ethan could barely stand.
Celeste wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
As they escaped, Nora saw a second figure behind the equipment cabinets.
A woman lay unconscious on the floor.
“Someone else is here.”
Adrian returned through the smoke.
They carried the woman into the tunnel.
When Nora saw her face, she stopped moving.
“Grace?”
Her sister opened her eyes.
“Nora.”
The sound of her name shattered ten years of grief.
Nora dropped beside her.
Grace touched her cheek.
“Dad was right.”
“You kept the watch.”
Nora began crying.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I had to disappear.”
“Charles’s men followed me after Dad’s funeral.”
“Who kept you hidden?”
“Richard.”
Adrian looked at her.
“My father?”
“He regretted protecting Charles.”
“He helped me enter a federal witness program under a false identity.”
“Then why return?”
“Because Julian found me.”
Grace looked toward the burning room.
“He forced me to help restore the files.”
“He said he wanted justice.”
“But once he learned the Vale system could control the company’s voting network, justice became ownership.”
Julian had not simply wanted his father’s acknowledgment.
He wanted to become the sole legal heir.
The drive contained enough evidence to destroy Charles.
The microfilm in Michael Bennett’s watch contained enough evidence to destroy Julian.
Grace took the watch from Nora.
She opened a second hidden compartment.
Inside was a handwritten list of eleven names.
The first was Charles Wynn.
The second was Julian Cross.
The final name was Adrian Vale.
Adrian stared at it.
“Why am I on the list?”
Grace looked toward him.
May you like
“Because your father believed you approved the medical proxy operation seven years ago.”
“That operation killed Richard Vale.”
