Chapter 8: Building Nine
The room fell silent.
Hayes slowly crouched in front of Lily.
He kept his voice calm.
"Grown-up calm."
The kind of calm people use when they're afraid of the answer.
"Lily..."
"Can you tell me about Building Nine?"
She stared at the bracelet in her hands.
Her thumb gently traced the empty space where the pink bead had once been.
"Ava said..."
"...if we got separated..."
"...we should wait there."
"Did she tell you where it is?"
Lily frowned.
"I don't know."
"There were trees."
"And a big fence."
She hesitated.
"And..."
She squeezed her eyes shut.
"There was a train."
The Camera
Back in the cabin basement, the evidence technician carefully opened the disposable camera found inside the lunchbox.
"It's old-fashioned."
"We'll need to develop the film."
Hayes shook his head.
"No."
He pointed to another technician.
"Drive it straight to the lab."
"Priority One."
The technician left immediately under police escort.
Whatever was on that film had been important enough for someone to hide it instead of destroying it.
A Leak
Hayes stepped outside to update headquarters.
Five minutes later he stormed back inside.
His expression had changed.
Someone had betrayed us.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I only told headquarters about Building Nine."
He looked around the room.
"Three minutes later..."
"...someone remotely wiped every surveillance camera along Highway 16."
No one spoke.
The warning in the note echoed in my mind.
Don't trust everyone wearing a badge.
It wasn't paranoia.
It was fact.
The Lab Call
An hour later Hayes's phone rang.
The film had been developed.
He switched the call to speaker.
"The photos are... unusual," the lab technician said.
"How many?"
"Twenty-four."
"What do they show?"
A long pause.
"Children."
My chest tightened.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Another pause.
"They appear healthy."
"Playing."
"Eating."
"Reading books."
Hayes frowned.
"That's not what I expected."
"Neither did we."
The technician continued.
"But every photograph has one thing in common."
"What?"
"They're all standing in front of the same building."
Silence.
"The number painted above the entrance is..."
"Nine."
The First Photograph
Minutes later the images arrived electronically.
Hayes opened the first one.
A large brick building stood behind a chain-link fence.
Its windows were spotless.
Children played basketball in the courtyard.
Teachers smiled nearby.
Everything looked...
Normal.
Almost too normal.
Above the entrance, faded white paint read:
BUILDING 9
My father stared at the photograph.
"That's not a prison."
"It looks like a school."
Hayes zoomed in.
A logo appeared beside the entrance.
A small sparrow.
Exactly like the symbol printed throughout the Project Sparrow binder.
A Familiar Face
The second photograph loaded.
This time the children stood in two neat rows for what looked like a class picture.
My eyes swept across the faces.
Then stopped.
There.
Third row.
Pink sweater.
Brown hair.
Ava.
Alive.
Smiling.
The timestamp in the corner froze my blood.
Six days ago.
Hayes immediately called headquarters.
"We've confirmed the missing child is alive."
"Trace every building matching these photographs."
The dispatcher replied within seconds.
"We already are."
An Impossible Discovery
The third photograph appeared.
This one wasn't of children.
It showed adults gathered around a conference table.
Some wore suits.
Others wore lab coats.
One face made Hayes go completely still.
"No..."
"What is it?" I asked.
He slowly rotated the screen toward me.
The man sitting beside David Reynolds wore a police uniform.
Not just any uniform.
His badge identified him as:
Deputy Commissioner Robert Ellis.
The second-highest ranking officer in the entire state police.
Hayes looked physically sick.
"If Ellis is involved..."
"...every move we've made since tonight may already be known."
The Trap
Hayes immediately powered off his phone.
"So does everyone else."
Every officer exchanged confused looks.
"Our radios?"
"Off."
"GPS?"
"Off."
"Cell phones?"
"Off."
Within seconds the cabin became digitally silent.
Hayes spoke quietly.
"If Ellis is working with Reynolds..."
"...he knows exactly where we're supposed to go next."
My father looked toward the forest.
"So Building Nine..."
"...could be waiting for us."
Hayes nodded.
"Or worse."
"It could be empty."
Lily's Drawing
While the adults argued, Lily quietly walked back into the basement.
She picked up a box of old crayons lying on the floor.
Then she began drawing.
No one interrupted her.
Five minutes later she handed the picture to me.
It showed Building Nine.
The fence.
The train tracks.
Tall pine trees.
But there was one detail she hadn't mentioned.
Behind the building stood a tall white water tower.
Across it, painted in faded blue letters, was a single word.
RAVENWOOD
Hayes immediately grabbed the drawing.
"I've heard that name."
He hurried to an old paper map pinned to the wall.
His finger stopped on a tiny abandoned town nearly one hundred miles farther north.
Ravenwood.
Population: fewer than two hundred.
An abandoned lumber mill.
A railway line.
And according to state records...
An old boarding school closed nearly fifteen years earlier.
Building Nine.
Hayes looked at the map.
Then at us.
"If Reynolds is using the old school..."
"...we still have a chance."
Before anyone could move, one of the officers keeping watch outside burst into the cabin.
"They're here!"
"Who?"
The officer swallowed hard.
"State Police."
Hayes frowned.
"We didn't call for backup."
The officer's face turned pale.
"They already know exactly where we are."
Outside, headlights flooded the forest road.
Six black police SUVs rolled silently toward the cabin.
None of them had emergency lights activated.
And leading the convoy...
May you like
Was Deputy Commissioner Robert Ellis himself.
End of Chapter 8
