Chapter 10: Beneath Blackthorn Manor
The words struck the room harder than gunfire.
The Sterling Archive was beneath Blackthorn Manor.
Nathan stared at the marble floor beneath his feet.
His voice barely rose above a whisper.
"...I've lived here for four years."
Grandfather nodded.
"And you never questioned why the wine cellar occupied only half the basement."
Nathan's mind raced.
There had always been sealed corridors.
Locked service doors.
An elevator that supposedly "had never worked."
He had assumed they were remnants of the estate's original construction.
Now...
Every strange detail suddenly made sense.
The FBI tactical commander snapped into action.
"Seal every basement entrance."
A Sterling security officer immediately shook his head.
"It won't matter."
"Why not?"
"There are nine access routes."
The commander frowned.
"Nine?"
Grandfather answered quietly.
"Only two appear on the official blueprints."
The room fell silent.
Nathan whispered,
"You built a fortress."
Grandfather looked at him.
"No."
"We built a sanctuary."
My father spread another set of blueprints across the dining table.
Unlike the first, these weren't architectural drawings.
They resembled a maze.
Hidden corridors.
Pressure doors.
Underground rail tunnels.
Emergency escape shafts.
Nathan's eyes widened.
"This estate is twice as large underground."
"It had to be."
Grandfather replied.
"The Archive was never meant to survive days."
"It was meant to survive wars."
An FBI explosives specialist leaned over the plans.
"These tunnels..."
"...they connect to the old railway outside the estate."
Grandfather nodded.
"And to the river."
"And the chapel."
"And the observatory."
Nathan stared.
"There are exits everywhere."
Grandfather corrected him.
"There were."
He tapped three passages.
"I sealed these twenty years ago."
Another.
"Flooded this one."
Another.
"Collapsed this tunnel after an earthquake."
The specialist counted.
"So only..."
"Four remain."
A radio suddenly crackled.
"Alpha Team to Command!"
"We've located fresh footprints."
"How many?"
"Unknown."
"But they're moving toward Level Three."
The tactical commander looked at Grandfather.
"How close is that?"
Grandfather's answer chilled everyone.
"One floor above the Archive."
Without hesitation, my father reached beneath the conference table.
There was a metallic click.
Everyone looked down.
Part of the marble floor slowly slid aside.
Nathan stepped back in disbelief.
Hidden beneath...
A biometric weapons locker emerged silently from the floor.
Inside rested compact carbines.
Medical kits.
Night-vision goggles.
Encrypted radios.
The FBI commander raised an eyebrow.
"You planned for this."
Grandfather answered simply,
"My family has enemies."
Nathan watched as Sterling security armed themselves with practiced efficiency.
One of the guards handed my father a rifle.
He checked it in seconds.
Not the awkward movements of someone holding a weapon.
The confidence of long experience.
Nathan frowned.
"You were never an accountant."
My father smiled faintly.
"No."
"I retired from another profession."
"What profession?"
Grandfather answered instead.
"He commanded a special operations regiment."
Nathan blinked.
"You were military?"
"For twenty-eight years."
Nathan suddenly understood why my father had always seemed so calm.
Why he noticed exits before conversations.
Why he never startled.
He had spent a lifetime preparing for nights exactly like this.
Meanwhile...
The FBI cyber team intercepted another encrypted signal.
"It's Victor."
The speaker activated automatically.
Victor sounded amused.
"William..."
"I must compliment your engineers."
"The Archive is extraordinary."
Grandfather's eyes narrowed.
"You're already inside."
"I've been inside for twenty minutes."
A ripple spread through the room.
Twenty minutes?
That meant...
While everyone had been watching the forest...
Victor's true team had already infiltrated below.
My father immediately keyed his radio.
"Bravo Team!"
Static.
"Bravo Team, respond!"
Nothing.
The tactical commander tried another frequency.
"Charlie Team!"
Only silence answered.
Grandfather slowly closed his eyes.
"They're gone."
Nathan whispered,
"How?"
No one had heard gunfire.
No alarms.
No explosions.
Victor's people had eliminated three tactical teams...
Without making a sound.
Suddenly...
One of the surveillance monitors flickered.
Then another.
Every screen inside the ballroom changed simultaneously.
Instead of security footage...
Victor appeared.
Live.
He stood in a dimly lit stone corridor.
Behind him...
Massive steel doors covered in intricate locking mechanisms.
The Archive.
Victor smiled politely.
"Good evening."
He brushed dust from his sleeve.
"I've finally arrived."
The FBI commander barked,
"Trace the signal!"
The cyber team typed furiously.
"It's internal."
"What?"
"He's broadcasting through the manor's own network."
Victor continued.
"I've spent thirty years searching for these doors."
He turned slightly.
Running his fingers across the steel.
"They're beautiful."
Grandfather remained expressionless.
"They'll never open."
Victor chuckled.
"We'll see."
Nathan suddenly stepped closer to the monitor.
"You used me."
Victor looked directly at him.
"I did."
Nathan clenched his fists.
"My company."
"My marriage."
"My life."
Victor shrugged.
"Acceptable expenditures."
Nathan's voice shook with anger.
"I would've followed you willingly if you'd asked."
Victor smiled.
"I know."
"Which is precisely why I never intended to ask."
Behind Victor...
A masked operative approached.
"Sir."
"The biometric scanner is active."
Victor nodded.
"Excellent."
He looked back toward the camera.
"William..."
"Would you like to explain to your granddaughter why her pendant was never merely jewelry?"
I stared at Grandfather.
He remained silent.
Victor answered for him.
"The Archive recognizes only Sterling blood."
He smiled.
"Specifically..."
"...hers."
My pulse quickened.
"What does that mean?"
Victor's smile widened.
"It means..."
"The first key unlocks the system."
"The second key authorizes it."
He paused.
"But the final seal..."
He looked directly into the camera.
"...requires Evelyn Sterling's DNA."
The ballroom froze.
Even Grandfather looked shaken.
Nathan whispered,
"My God..."
Victor laughed softly.
"Now you understand."
"I never wanted to kill Evelyn."
"I needed her alive."
The medic beside me instinctively stepped closer.
As did every bodyguard.
For the first time that night...
I realized something terrifying.
I wasn't simply a target.
I was the only person on Earth capable of opening the Archive.
Then the impossible happened.
A mechanical rumble echoed beneath everyone's feet.
The marble floor vibrated.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
One of the engineers looked at his seismic scanner.
His face turned white.
"Sir..."
"What is it?"
"They've activated the emergency vault sequence."
Grandfather stared at the monitor.
"No..."
The engineer looked back.
"If they complete the sequence..."
"...the entire underground complex will permanently seal."
Nathan frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Grandfather answered quietly.
"It means Victor..."
"...is willing to bury himself alive..."
"...if it means taking the Archive with him."
At that exact moment, Victor smiled into the camera.
Then he raised his hand.
Behind him, two masked operatives dragged someone into view.
Bruised.
Handcuffed.
Barely conscious.
The ballroom gasped.
It wasn't one of the FBI agents.
It wasn't Sterling security.
It was someone no one expected to see.
The elderly housekeeper...
Margaret Parker.
Victor rested a hand on her shoulder.
"I believe..."
"...this woman has been keeping secrets from all of you."
Margaret slowly lifted her head.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then at me.
With the last of her strength, she whispered:
"Don't... trust..."
Before she could finish...
May you like
Victor struck her across the face.
The screen went black.
