Chapter 4 - Room 314The lobby smelled of dust and rain.
The Bellwether had been abandoned for years.
Wallpaper peeled from the walls.
A chandelier hung crooked above us.
Dad walked toward the staircase.
"Why here?"
"Because Jake rented a room."
"Under what name?"
Dad stopped.
"Miller."
"Jake's middle name?"
"No."
I followed him upstairs.
"Then whose?"
He didn't answer.
Room 314 stood at the end of the corridor.
The door was unlocked.
Dad pushed it open.
Inside, everything was perfectly arranged.
One chair.
One metal table.
A lamp.
A suitcase.
And dozens of photographs covering the walls.
I stepped closer.
My breath disappeared.
They were photographs of me.
Leaving work.
Entering my building.
Sitting in cafés.
Walking through the city.
Someone had been watching me.
For months.
I turned toward Dad.
"You said they were looking for my mother."
"They were."
"Then why were they watching me?"
He looked at the photographs.
"Because you were the last person they thought could lead them to her."
A sound came from the bathroom.
We both froze.
Dad raised his finger.
Silence.
The door creaked open.
Maya stepped out.
I almost didn't recognize her.
The girl from high school had become a woman.
Her scar remained.
But there was confidence in her face now.
She held a pistol.
"Put your hands where I can see them."
Dad slowly raised his hands.
I stared at her.
"Maya."
Her eyes softened.
"Evan."
I took one step forward.
"You're alive."
She nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"You knew about me?"
"Jake told me."
"Where is he?"
Her face changed.
"He was taken."
"By Halcyon?"
She didn't answer.
Dad did.
"Yes."
Maya looked at him with pure hatred.
"You still lie."
Dad's jaw tightened.
"I never lied to hurt you."
"You lied because you were afraid."
"Yes."
She lowered the weapon.
"Evan, your father was involved with Halcyon."
My stomach dropped.
"What does that mean?"
"He wasn't one of them."
She paused.
"He was inside."
Dad closed his eyes.
Maya continued.
"He was investigating them from within."
I looked at Dad.
"Then why did you throw me out?"
He whispered, "Because Halcyon found out about you."
Maya stepped closer.
"They believed you were the weakness."
I shook my head.
"That doesn't explain why you treated me like garbage."
Dad looked destroyed.
"It was the only way I could convince them you meant nothing to me."
Silence.
I stared at him.
"Ten years."
He nodded.
"Ten years."
My voice broke.
"You could have told me."
"They were listening."
Maya suddenly lifted her weapon again.
"Down!"
A bullet punched through the window.
We dropped.
Glass rained across the room.
Maya fired twice toward the corridor.
Dad grabbed my collar.
"There's a tunnel."
"What?"
"Behind the wardrobe."
We moved.
The wardrobe swung open.
A hidden stairway descended into darkness.
I looked back once.
At the photographs.
At Maya.
At my father.
Then we disappeared underground.
Behind us, footsteps flooded Room 314.
May you like
And one voice shouted:
"Take the son alive."
