Chapter 11 - THE PRISON UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSECape Harlow stood alone against the sea.
The lighthouse beam swept across black water.
Nathan and Mara approached through a storm.
Karen stayed behind with a federal team.
The brass token opened a hidden door inside the lighthouse.
Beyond it was an elevator.
It descended.
And descended.
And descended.
Nathan looked at the floor indicator.
They had passed below sea level.
Then the elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
A corridor stretched ahead.
Cells lined both sides.
Inside were men and women.
Silent.
Thin.
Some stared at the floor.
Some stared directly at Nathan.
Mara whispered,
“These are witnesses.”
“To what?”
“Black Harbor.”
A voice came from one cell.
“Nathan Hail.”
Nathan stopped.
An elderly man approached the bars.
“I knew your father.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Peter Vale.”
Mara recognized him.
“Former deputy director.”
Vale smiled sadly.
“Former everything.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Where is my mother?”
Vale's face changed.
“Still alive.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Where?”
Vale looked down the corridor.
“Below.”
Nathan frowned.
“There is another level.”
“Yes.”
Mara stepped forward.
“How deep?”
Vale smiled.
“Deep enough that the federal government stopped pretending it exists.”
They found the lower level.
The air was colder.
Only three cells remained occupied.
One held a man with bandages across his face.
Another held an unconscious woman.
The third was empty.
Nathan approached the unconscious woman.
Her eyes opened.
He froze.
His mother.
Evelyn Hail stared at him.
“Nathan.”
He fell to his knees.
“Mom.”
She touched his face.
“You got so old.”
He laughed and cried at the same time.
“How are you alive?”
“Because your father planned for the day they'd come for me.”
“Who locked you here?”
She looked at Mara.
“Not her.”
Then at Nathan.
“Shaw.”
Mara stepped closer.
“Why?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Because Shaw wasn't the head of Harbor Nine.”
Nathan stared.
“Then who was?”
Evelyn whispered a name.
Nathan knew it.
Everyone knew it.
The current head of federal emergency operations.
The woman who had appeared on television beside the president during disasters.
Mara couldn't speak.
Evelyn continued.
“She built the network.”
A siren suddenly sounded.
Red lights flashed.
The detention center had been breached.
Mara ran to the control room.
Security cameras showed agents flooding the upper corridor.
Ruiz.
But beside him stood someone else.
Gabriel Shaw.
He had survived.
Nathan looked toward his mother.
“Can we get out?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because this prison has a lockdown protocol.”
“What happens?”
She looked directly at him.
“Anyone inside becomes disposable.”
The loudspeaker crackled.
Shaw spoke.
“Mara.”
She looked up.
“Bring Nathan to the central chamber.”
“No.”
“You don't understand.”
A door opened behind them.
Ruiz entered.
He raised his weapon.
“Central chamber. Now.”
Nathan stood between him and his mother.
Ruiz smiled.
“You really are your father's son.”
Then Evelyn whispered something into Nathan's ear.
“Don't trust the woman on the television.”
Nathan looked confused.
“What woman?”
Evelyn's eyes widened.
“The head of emergency operations.”
The lights went out.
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Then every cell door opened at once.
And the prisoners began running.
