Chapter 25 - The SuccessorThe lights returned one by one.
The security monitors showed empty hallways.
Then every screen displayed the same image.
A black compass.
Beneath it, a sentence appeared.
THE HEIR HAS BEEN LOCATED.
Noah stood up.
“That's about me.”
I pulled him behind me.
Eleanor moved to a locked cabinet and removed a handgun.
“Who has access to this system?” I asked.
“Only three people.”
“Who?”
“Me. My brother before he died. And the Northstar trustee.”
“Who is the trustee?”
Eleanor stared at the screen.
“That's what I have spent twenty years trying to discover.”
The front gate alarm sounded.
Then the house phone rang.
Eleanor answered.
A man's voice came through.
“Eleanor. You were told to stay out of this.”
She stiffened.
“Who is this?”
“You know who.”
The caller disconnected.
Noah looked at me.
“Was that the man from the video?”
Eleanor shook her head.
“No. That voice belongs to someone who should be dead.”
Before I could ask what she meant, a hidden panel opened behind the fireplace.
Inside was a narrow staircase leading underground.
We descended into a bunker lined with steel shelves and emergency equipment.
At the far end stood a wall of monitors.
One showed the exterior gate.
Another showed the road.
A third displayed a live feed of our house.
My house.
The camera angle was from inside my office.
Someone had been watching us for weeks.
Eleanor pressed a command.
The screen changed.
A file opened.
PROJECT SUCCESSOR — ACTIVE MONITORING.
There were photographs of Noah at school.
Noah entering the house.
Noah sleeping in the back seat of my car.
Noah wearing Claire's bracelet.
My stomach turned.
“How long?” I asked.
“Since Claire began investigating.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know whom to trust.”
The bunker door above us slammed.
Footsteps thundered across the floor.
Eleanor handed me a keycard.
“There is a second exit through the old service tunnel. Take Noah and go.”
“What about you?”
She looked at the monitors.
“I have spent half my life running from Northstar.”
She chambered a round.
“Tonight, I stop.”
I grabbed her arm.
“Claire trusted you.”
“And I failed her.”
She looked at Noah.
“Don't make the same mistake I did. Protect the boy, but don't turn him into a prisoner.”
The bunker door began to buckle.
Eleanor pushed us toward the tunnel.
May you like
The last thing I heard before the steel door gave way was a voice from above.
“Daniel Carter. You have something that belongs to us.”
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