CHAPTER 12 The Seventh Founder
The tunnel fell silent.
Only the faint drip of water echoed through the darkness.
Nathan held the old photograph beneath the beam of his phone.
Seven people stood around a polished mahogany conference table.
Arthur Cole.
Richard Cole.
Elizabeth.
Three unfamiliar men in expensive suits.
And one elderly gentleman standing at the center.
Everyone else faced the camera.
Only he looked away.
As if he had never wanted to be photographed.
Arthur stared at the image.
His breathing became uneven.
"I buried that man..."
"...thirty years ago."
Nathan frowned.
"Who is he?"
Arthur swallowed.
"His name was Jonathan Mercer."
Elizabeth looked up sharply.
"You told me he died in the warehouse fire."
"I believed he had."
Grace watched Arthur carefully.
For the first time since they met, the old man's confidence had disappeared.
Lily leaned against Nathan's shoulder.
"Is he another grandpa?"
Nathan smiled weakly.
"I hope not."
Arthur took the photograph with trembling hands.
Jonathan Mercer.
Official records claimed he had died in 1996.
Arthur himself had identified the body.
He remembered the funeral.
The rain.
The closed casket.
The widow who cried until she collapsed.
He had attended because Mercer had once been his closest friend.
Nathan quietly asked,
"What was he to you?"
Arthur closed his eyes.
"He saved my life."
The group continued walking through the tunnel.
Its stone walls gradually gave way to old brickwork.
This passage had existed long before the mansion.
Perhaps even before the Cole family owned the land.
Nathan glanced back at the photograph.
"Tell me everything."
Arthur nodded slowly.
"Thirty-five years ago..."
"...there were seven founders."
He pointed to each face.
"Myself."
"Jonathan Mercer."
"Samuel Hayes."
"Victor Lang."
"Daniel Brooks."
"Harold Quinn."
"And..."
His finger stopped on Richard.
"My son."
Nathan frowned.
"You made him a founder?"
Arthur sighed.
"I thought I was giving him a future."
Elizabeth quietly interrupted.
"It wasn't a company."
Arthur nodded.
"It began as a promise."
Nathan looked confused.
"What promise?"
Arthur answered without hesitation.
"To stop powerful people from operating above the law."
Grace blinked.
"What?"
Arthur smiled bitterly.
"The irony isn't lost on me."
The seven founders had once been judges.
Investigators.
Military officers.
Business leaders.
Their goal had been simple.
Share information.
Expose corruption.
Protect witnesses.
No politics.
No money.
No personal gain.
Nathan whispered,
"So what happened?"
Arthur looked at Richard's smiling face in the photograph.
"We succeeded."
"And success attracted monsters."
Meanwhile...
Back inside the archive...
The vault doors finally exploded inward.
Concrete dust filled the chamber.
Sarah Bennett and the remaining federal agents opened fire.
Short bursts echoed through the room.
Three masked intruders dropped immediately.
But more stepped through the smoke.
Disciplined.
Silent.
Moving like machines.
None spoke a single word.
Their black uniforms bore no insignia.
Only a white number.
7
Sarah ducked behind a concrete pillar.
"Fall back!"
An agent shouted,
"They're wearing body armor!"
Another yelled,
"They're flanking us!"
Sarah quickly counted.
One.
Two.
Five.
Ten.
Then she stopped.
Because they kept coming.
One masked operative approached Richard's body.
He knelt.
Placed two fingers against Richard's neck.
Then calmly stood.
"He is deceased."
His voice was emotionless.
Another operative replied through a headset.
"Recover the ledger."
"Negative."
"Ledger missing."
A brief pause.
Then the response came.
"Activate Phase Two."
Deep inside the tunnel, Nathan suddenly heard a distant explosion.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Grace looked behind them.
"They're coming."
Arthur nodded.
"They won't stop."
Nathan frowned.
"How do you know?"
Arthur answered quietly.
"Because I trained them."
Everyone stopped walking.
Nathan stared.
"What?"
Arthur lowered his head.
"The first security division..."
"...became Organization Seven."
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
"I begged you to shut it down."
Arthur nodded.
"I tried."
Nathan's voice hardened.
"You created them."
Arthur looked directly at him.
"No."
"I created guardians."
His face filled with regret.
"They became hunters."
Martin had remained silent for most of the journey.
Now he finally spoke.
"Then Richard wasn't lying."
Arthur shook his head.
"No."
"He truly was only the accountant."
Grace frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Arthur answered.
"The real leader..."
"...was never Richard."
Nathan looked at the old photograph again.
His eyes slowly returned to Jonathan Mercer.
The man standing in the middle.
"The seventh founder."
Arthur nodded.
"He disappeared before everything collapsed."
Nathan whispered,
"And now you think he survived."
Arthur didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Lily suddenly pointed toward the end of the tunnel.
"Light."
A faint glow shone ahead.
Fresh air drifted inside.
The exit.
Grace smiled for the first time in hours.
"We made it."
Arthur's expression didn't change.
"No."
He looked upward.
"We're exactly where they wanted us."
Nathan frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Arthur pointed toward the opening.
The tunnel exited into an abandoned stone chapel overlooking the estate.
Broken stained-glass windows.
Collapsed pews.
A forgotten cemetery.
Nathan stepped outside first.
The afternoon sunlight almost blinded him.
Fresh air filled his lungs.
Then he stopped.
The entire chapel was surrounded.
More than thirty black SUVs.
Dozens of masked operatives.
Snipers positioned on nearby rooftops.
Escape routes blocked.
The group had walked directly into an ambush.
A tall elderly man stood in the center of the courtyard, leaning on an ebony cane.
Perfectly tailored gray suit.
Silver hair.
Warm smile.
As if he were greeting old friends at a garden party.
Nathan felt his pulse quicken.
Arthur dropped the photograph.
It fluttered to the ground.
The old man smiled.
"Arthur."
His voice was gentle.
"It has been a long time."
Arthur whispered,
"...Jonathan."
The man nodded politely.
"I've missed you."
Grace looked between them.
This was Jonathan Mercer.
The man officially declared dead thirty years earlier.
The man Arthur had buried.
Jonathan's eyes shifted to Nathan.
"So..."
He smiled kindly.
"You must be Nathan."
Nathan stepped protectively in front of Grace and Lily.
"Who are you?"
Jonathan chuckled.
"I've had many names."
He glanced at Lily.
"But today..."
"...I'm simply your family's oldest mistake."
Then his eyes settled on the black ledger tucked beneath Nathan's jacket.
His smile widened.
"I believe..."
May you like
"...you're carrying something that belongs to me."
END OF CHAPTER 12
