Chapter 22 - The Second Keeper
Daniel spun toward the sound.
A man stepped from between two towering shelves.
Gray-haired.
Calm.
Holding an antique revolver.
The Keeper stared at him in disbelief.
"I watched your funeral."
"So did everyone else."
The stranger lowered the revolver.
"My death was necessary."
Daniel studied him carefully.
He looked familiar.
Not from photographs.
From the old film Thomas Mercer had recorded beneath Mercer House.
"You..."
The man nodded.
"My name is Jonathan Hale."
The Keeper slowly backed away.
"The Second Keeper."
Jonathan smiled.
"I've been called worse."
He looked directly at Daniel.
"For twenty-seven years I have been waiting for someone capable of ending this."
"The Trust?" Daniel asked.
Jonathan shook his head.
"No."
"The cycle."
He removed a small brass box from inside his coat.
Its lid bore the same symbol engraved on Daniel's iron key.
"There are three original keys."
He placed the box on the floor.
"You now possess one."
"The Council holds another."
"I protected the third."
Daniel frowned.
"What happens if they're brought together?"
Neither Keeper answered immediately.
Instead, Jonathan carefully opened the box.
Inside lay a yellowed photograph.
Daniel's breathing stopped.
It showed Thomas Mercer.
Victor Lang.
Mrs. Whitmore.
Elias Crowe.
Jonathan Hale.
And...
a little boy no older than six.
The child stood in the center, smiling confidently at the camera.
Daniel looked closer.
The child wasn't himself.
It wasn't Samuel.
It wasn't anyone he recognized.
Jonathan closed the box.
"Before you decide the future..."
He looked directly into Daniel's eyes.
"...you deserve to know who the first Mercer Candidate really was."
A deep alarm echoed through the underground chambers.
Somewhere above them, Mercer House itself began to collapse, sending vibrations through every corridor beneath the restaurant.
The Keeper whispered only one sentence.
"We're running out of time."
Jonathan replied quietly.
"No."
May you like
He looked toward the ancient photograph.
"We're running out of generations."
