Chapter 3 - The House Locks Its Doors.
Claire called her mother back, but the secure line had already disappeared.
Adrian read the message over her shoulder and smiled without warmth.
"Your miracle did not last very long."
Claire turned on him.
"You knew where she was."
"I knew she would eventually become careless."
Helena slapped him across the face.
The sound echoed through the study and silenced everyone.
Adrian touched his cheek with stunned disbelief.
"You will tell us where she is," Helena said.
He caught her raised hand before she could strike again.
"You lost the right to give orders when you invited this parasite into my house."
"It is my house."
Adrian's smile returned.
"Not after midnight."
The emergency lights changed from white to red.
Doors opened along the corridor, and four guards in Vale Meridian uniforms entered with weapons holstered.
Jonah walked behind them, calmly adjusting his cuff.
Claire understood his betrayal before Helena spoke.
"You gave my security codes to Adrian."
"Mr. Vale doubled my pension," Jonah replied.
He took Claire's phone and placed it inside a signal-blocking pouch.
Adrian ordered the guards to search the house for the red ledger.
He instructed Jonah to lock Helena in her bedroom and Claire in the east guest room.
"At eleven forty-five, Mother will sign the voting proxy."
"At midnight, I become chief executive."
"At twelve-oh-one, Eleanor stops being useful."
Claire drove her shoulder into Jonah, but another guard caught her before she reached Adrian.
Helena suddenly became very still.
"Do what he says, Claire."
The surrender in her voice felt like another betrayal.
Claire stared at her while the guards forced her toward the hall.
Helena stepped around the overturned table and pressed the white napkin into Claire's hand.
"Clean yourself up," she said coldly.
Hidden in the folded cloth was a small brass key.
Helena's eyes flicked toward the west wall before her expression hardened again.
Claire concealed the key beneath her palm.
The east guest room had no visible lock on the inside and windows sealed by decorative ironwork.
She waited until the guard's footsteps receded, then tested the brass key against the wardrobe.
It opened a narrow panel behind the hanging coats.
Cold air drifted from a servants' passage that had not appeared on any floor plan.
Claire slipped inside and followed the passage toward the west wing.
Through a ventilation grate, she saw Adrian pacing in the library below.
He was speaking through a satellite phone the network could not block.
"Move Eleanor before Shaw finds the facility," he said.
"Rook, if she remembers the bridge, give her enough medication to forget again."
Claire's stomach turned.
She recorded the conversation on the tiny voice recorder sewn into her cuff.
Adrian ended the call and ordered Jonah to find the passage key.
Claire backed away, but her heel struck a loose pipe.
The metallic knock traveled through the wall.
Adrian looked directly at the grate.
"Claire," he called softly.
"Your mother screamed your name when the car hit the water."
The library door opened, and Jonah's boots entered the passage behind her.
Claire ran toward the only remaining direction, where the darkness smelled of damp stone and river mud.
At the end of the tunnel, she found a steel door painted with one red word.
May you like
ECHO.
THE CALL AT BLACKTHORNE HOUSE
