Chapter 50 - THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE
Gabriel led them into the hidden chamber beneath the courtyard.
Unlike the levels above, this place resembled a command center abandoned in haste. Maps still covered the walls. Filing cabinets remained open. Coffee mugs, yellowed papers, and dusty computers sat exactly where someone had left them years before.
Nothing looked staged.
Everything looked interrupted.
Gabriel stopped before a large bulletin board.
Pinned across it were dozens of photographs.
Children.
Doctors.
Security personnel.
Executives.
Some faces Alex recognized.
Many he did not.
In the center hung a photograph of the Orion estate from Jonathan Reed's journal.
A thick red line had been drawn through the mansion.
"What happened?" Alex asked.
Gabriel answered quietly.
"The fire everyone talks about..."
"...wasn't at the bank."
He pointed to the estate.
"It started here."
Arthur lowered his head.
"I was told the children had already been evacuated."
Gabriel looked at him.
"Most were."
Daniel stepped closer.
"And Ethan?"
Gabriel looked directly at Alex.
"Ethan refused to leave."
Alex's heartbeat quickened.
"I was six."
"You were almost seven."
Gabriel nodded.
"You wouldn't leave without Noah."
Fragments flashed across Alex's mind.
Smoke.
Running footsteps.
Someone shouting.
A small hand gripping his tightly.
Then darkness.
He staggered slightly.
Bennett caught his shoulder.
"What did you remember?"
Alex closed his eyes.
"A door."
"What door?"
"A red door..."
Arthur looked stunned.
"The isolation wing."
Gabriel nodded once.
May you like
"That's where Noah disappeared."
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