Chapter 16 - The Choice at Midnight
Eleanor pressed both hands against the monitor.
“Thomas.”
He looked weak, but his eyes were alert.
Victor stood several feet behind him.
His gun was pointed downward, though his grip looked tense.
Adrian’s voice came through the speakers.
“At midnight, Daniel Cole will be formally charged. By sunrise, Bellarose will be seized. By tomorrow evening, the Founder's Vault will belong to me.”
Samuel searched the room for another exit.
“There has to be a manual release.”
Eleanor kept watching the screen.
“What do you want from me?”
Adrian appeared on a separate monitor.
“The trust authorization.”
“You already have the deed.”
“I need the living beneficiary to confirm the transfer.”
“Daniel is the beneficiary.”
“Not anymore.”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
Adrian held up a legal document.
It contained Thomas Hayes’s signature.
According to the paper, ownership of the trust would return to Thomas if he were proven alive.
And Thomas had already signed a transfer to Adrian.
“That signature is false,” Eleanor said.
Thomas suddenly spoke.
“No.”
His voice came weakly through the monitor.
“I signed it.”
Eleanor stared at him.
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
Adrian smiled.
“Touching, isn’t it?”
Victor looked toward the camera.
His crossed fingers appeared briefly behind his back again.
He was still signaling.
Samuel found a control panel beneath one of the desks.
Most buttons were unmarked.
One displayed the same symbol carved into Thomas’s journals.
A circle divided by three lines.
“The Bellarose Circle,” Samuel said.
He pressed it.
Every monitor went black.
The generators slowed.
For three seconds, the magnetic lock released.
“Now,” Eleanor shouted.
They forced the door open and ran into the corridor.
Alarms echoed behind them.
At the police station, Daniel saw the security feed disappear.
The interview room door unlocked by itself.
A folded note slid beneath it.
The handwriting belonged to Melissa.
MIDNIGHT IS NOT THE DEADLINE. IT IS THE ACTIVATION TIME.
Daniel opened the door.
The hallway was empty.
Every officer on the floor had been called downstairs by a false emergency alarm.
Daniel moved toward the exit, but a familiar figure stepped from the stairwell.
Victor Kane.
Daniel froze.
Victor still carried the gun from the video.
“You escaped,” Daniel said.
Victor shook his head.
“I was released.”
“By Adrian?”
“By someone above him.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“There’s someone more powerful than Adrian?”
Victor handed him a black access card.
“The Circle has twelve members. Adrian is only number eleven.”
Daniel looked at the card.
A single number was engraved on it.
ONE.
Victor lowered his voice.
“If Eleanor reaches the Founder's Vault before midnight, she will open something Thomas spent twenty-eight years trying to keep sealed.”
A distant clock began striking eleven.
May you like
Victor looked toward the stairwell.
“And once it opens, Adrian will no longer be the most dangerous person beneath Bellarose.”
