Chapter 5 - The Room Beneath the Library
Daniel ran.
The hospital corridor blurred around him as alarms screamed behind the operating-room doors.
“Chloe!”
He reached the surgical suite and slammed both hands against the doors.
They opened.
The room was chaos.
Nurses were shouting. Monitors flashed red. One surgical light swung slowly above the operating table.
And Chloe was gone.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Her bed was empty.
The restraints had been cut.
A pool of blood stained the floor beside the table.
“Where is my wife?”
Nobody answered.
Daniel grabbed the nearest nurse by the shoulders.
“Where is Chloe?”
“She was here!”
“Where?”
“I—I don't know!”
The federal agent pulled Daniel away.
“Mr. Mercer, look at me.”
Daniel shoved him back.
“My wife was taken from a locked operating room.”
“We know.”
“You knew?”
The agent's face hardened.
“We were trying to prevent this.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Then you failed.”
The second agent stepped forward.
“Agent Carter.”
He held up his badge.
“The other one is Agent Ruiz.”
Daniel barely looked at them.
“What happened?”
Carter pointed toward the floor.
“There.”
Daniel followed his finger.
A thin trail of blood led toward the supply closet.
He drew his weapon.
Ruiz caught his arm.
“Wait.”
Daniel looked at him.
“For what?”
“There could be someone inside.”
Daniel pulled free.
“My wife is inside.”
He kicked open the door.
Empty.
Shelves.
Boxes.
Medical equipment.
Nothing else.
Then he noticed the wall.
One of the shelves was slightly crooked.
Daniel pushed it.
It moved.
A hidden doorway opened behind it.
Ruiz swore.
“That's impossible.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You didn't know about this?”
“No.”
Daniel entered.
The passage descended beneath the hospital.
The walls were concrete.
Old.
Much older than the hospital itself.
A faint buzzing came from somewhere below.
They followed it.
At the bottom was a steel door.
Carter entered a code.
Nothing.
Daniel looked at the brass key from the black envelope.
He inserted it.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Inside was a room filled with monitors.
Hundreds of photographs covered the walls.
Patients.
Doctors.
Executives.
Politicians.
And Daniel.
His childhood.
His wedding.
His business meetings.
His private conversations.
His blood turned cold.
“This isn't a hospital.”
Carter stared at the screens.
“No.”
Ruiz whispered:
“It never was.”
A monitor suddenly activated.
A live video appeared.
Chloe.
She was sitting in a chair inside a dark room.
Her hands were tied.
A man stood behind her.
His face was hidden.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Chloe!”
Her eyes widened.
“Daniel?”
“I’m coming.”
The man behind her leaned toward the camera.
“You shouldn't have opened the second ledger.”
Daniel froze.
The voice sounded familiar.
Very familiar.
The man continued.
“Your father spent twenty years trying to expose us.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because your father left something inside you.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“What are you talking about?”
The man laughed softly.
“You really don't remember.”
The screen went black.
Then another video appeared.
A younger Daniel.
Maybe twelve years old.
Standing beside his father in the Mercer library.
His father was holding the black leather journal.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A photograph of a woman.
Daniel leaned toward the screen.
He knew her.
His mother.
But the date beneath the photograph made his blood freeze.
Three years after her supposed death.
Daniel stepped backward.
“My mother was alive.”
Carter looked at him.
“For how long?”
“I don't know.”
The monitor flickered.
A final message appeared.
MIDNIGHT WAS NEVER THE DEADLINE.
Then:
IT WAS THE BEGINNING.
The lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Daniel dropped behind a desk.
Carter fired back.
Ruiz shouted.
“Movement!”
A shadow crossed the doorway.
Daniel fired.
The figure disappeared.
Then the room exploded into smoke.
Daniel coughed.
“Chloe!”
No answer.
He crawled toward the nearest monitor.
A tiny red light remained.
The camera feed returned.
Chloe was no longer tied to the chair.
She was standing.
And beside her stood a woman wearing a red coat.
Dark hair.
Black gloves.
Daniel's heart stopped.
Vanessa.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
“Hello, Daniel.”
The screen went black.
Daniel whispered her name.
“Vanessa.”
Carter stared at him.
“You know her?”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“She was my father's secretary.”
Ruiz shook his head.
“No.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
Ruiz looked terrified.
“She wasn't his secretary.”
He handed Daniel a photograph.
It showed Vanessa standing beside Daniel's father.
On the back was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT TWO.
Daniel looked up.
“Then who was Subject One?”
Ruiz didn't answer.
A gunshot echoed from somewhere above them.
Carter looked toward the stairs.
“They found us.”
Daniel gripped his weapon.
“Then let's find Chloe first.”
And for the first time that night, Daniel understood the truth.
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He wasn't hunting the people who had destroyed his family.
They had been hunting him for years.
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