Chapter 13 - Trial Seventeen
Adrian refused to believe it for almost three seconds.
Then every memory of Elias Hart began rearranging itself.
Claire trusted him.
Lily trusted him.
Elias knew every medication.
Every attack.
Every hospital.
Every private medical record.
He had been called to the Vale mansion after Lily collapsed.
He had known the silver-marked inhaler immediately.
And he had been present at the hospital when Lily disappeared.
Adrian called him.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He called the hospital director.
“Where is Dr. Hart?”
A pause.
“He left approximately an hour ago.”
“With whom?”
“Alone.”
“Vehicle?”
“His car.”
“Track it.”
The director hesitated.
“We don’t normally—”
“Track it.”
Seven minutes later, the answer came.
Elias’s vehicle had exited hospital parking.
It traveled four miles south.
Then stopped beneath an overpass.
The car was found empty.
Adrian looked at Sebastian.
“Why Elias?”
Sebastian sat on a steel bench inside the Glass House.
“Trial Seventeen was his design.”
Adrian stared.
“He said Laurent Medical ran it.”
“They funded it.”
“And Elias?”
“Created the parallel identity system.”
Victoria looked sick.
“Why?”
Sebastian answered quietly.
“Money.”
“Twenty-eight million?”
“More.”
Julian had known only part.
Sebastian continued.
“Conrad handled shell corporations.”
“Elias created medical identities.”
“I approved grants.”
“And Claire discovered it.”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Why did you all let her get close?”
“Because none of us realized how much she knew.”
“How much?”
“Everything.”
Sebastian looked toward the ocean.
“She discovered that some fake patients were real people living under new identities.”
“Criminals?”
“Some.”
“Who else?”
“Witnesses.”
Adrian frowned.
“Protected witnesses?”
“Not officially.”
Sebastian swallowed.
“People wealthy families wanted to disappear.”
Victoria stared.
“Disappear how?”
“New name.”
“New medical history.”
“New country.”
“Why would Claire care enough to risk her life?”
Sebastian looked at Adrian.
“Because one identity belonged to someone she knew.”
Adrian went still.
“Who?”
Sebastian hesitated.
“Her mother.”
Julian and Claire’s mother had supposedly died when Claire was sixteen.
Adrian stared.
“That is impossible.”
“Claire thought so too.”
“What was the identity?”
“I never saw the full file.”
“Then how do you know?”
“She told me.”
“What did she say?”
“That Trial Seventeen had created a new identity for Evelyn Price.”
Adrian thought of Julian.
“Did Julian know?”
“No.”
“Why would their mother need another identity?”
“I don’t know.”
A larger conspiracy opened beneath everything else.
Adrian pushed it aside.
“My daughter.”
Sebastian nodded.
“Elias knows every safe location you use.”
“No.”
“He knew Claire’s habits.”
“Blackridge did not exist then.”
“But your medical security vendor does.”
Adrian frowned.
“What?”
“Vale emergency medical beacons.”
Adrian felt cold.
Blackridge contained one.
Every property did.
The systems automatically connected to Dr. Hart’s network during emergencies.
Elias could potentially locate any estate where Lily’s medical equipment had been activated.
He had known where she was before the hospital move.
That explained too much.
Ortiz approached.
“Conrad is awake.”
Adrian turned.
“Where?”
“County medical center under guard.”
“Can he speak?”
“Yes.”
“I want him on video.”
Ortiz hesitated.
“Five minutes.”
Conrad appeared on a secured tablet.
His face was bruised.
A bandage crossed his forehead.
Adrian felt no sympathy.
“Where is Lily?”
Conrad looked confused.
“What?”
“Do not.”
“I don’t know.”
“Who attacked you?”
Conrad closed his eyes.
“Elias.”
Sebastian looked away.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because I was going to surrender.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Conrad laughed weakly.
“I wouldn’t.”
“Why were you going to surrender?”
“Claire’s audit.”
“What about it?”
“It starts automatically.”
“I know.”
“You cannot stop it.”
“I know.”
“Neither can Elias.”
Adrian frowned.
“He kidnapped Lily to stop the audit.”
“No.”
Conrad shook his head.
“That would not stop it.”
“Then why take her?”
“To find the key.”
“What key?”
Conrad looked terrified.
“Claire designed the audit so the full files require two authentication sources.”
“Which are?”
“One is the trust.”
“And the other?”
“Biometric.”
Adrian’s stomach dropped.
“Lily.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe you wrote the legal structure and do not know?”
“Claire changed it without telling me.”
Adrian remembered Claire saying she had copied everything somewhere Conrad could never reach.
“What does Elias need from Lily?”
“Probably a biometric sample.”
“Blood?”
“Maybe.”
Sebastian spoke.
“He already has her medical samples.”
Everyone looked at him.
He was right.
Elias had treated Lily for years.
If blood alone were enough, he would not need to kidnap her.
Adrian turned back to Conrad.
“What else?”
“Voice.”
“Fingerprint.”
“Retinal scan.”
“I don’t know.”
Conrad looked exhausted.
“Claire became obsessed with making the archive impossible to open without Lily physically present.”
Adrian’s heart pounded.
“Where is the archive?”
“The Glass House.”
Everyone looked around.
Conrad continued.
“That building was never a retreat.”
Sebastian stared.
“What?”
“Claire changed the construction plan.”
Adrian looked toward the unfinished structure.
Steel.
Glass.
Concrete.
A building abandoned after her death.
“What is under us?”
Conrad whispered.
“A vault.”
Marcus began searching.
They found the entrance beneath a removable steel plate in the former central greenhouse.
A staircase descended underground.
Adrian stared into darkness.
Claire had built an archive beneath the facility without telling him.
Ortiz called for a technical team.
Conrad’s voice came through the tablet.
“Do not open it.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Elias wants you to.”
Adrian froze.
Conrad continued.
“He cannot activate the archive himself.”
“But I can.”
“You and Lily together.”
Adrian understood.
The kidnapping.
The demand that he bring the trust.
Elias needed both of them.
“Then why lure us here without Lily?”
Conrad’s eyes widened.
“He didn’t.”
Adrian’s blood ran cold.
“What?”
“He expected you to bring the trust.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then he will bring Lily.”
Ortiz shouted.
“Perimeter!”
Lights moved beyond the Glass House.
A vehicle approached the northern road.
Adrian ran toward the entrance.
A white medical van stopped thirty yards away.
The driver’s door opened.
Elias Hart stepped out.
He wore no coat.
No weapon visible.
He lifted both hands.
Adrian stared at him.
“Where is she?”
Elias looked exhausted.
“Alive.”
“Bring her out.”
“I can’t.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Marcus stopped him.
Elias looked toward Sebastian.
“So you finally came back.”
Sebastian said nothing.
Victoria stared at the physician she had trusted for years.
“You took Lily.”
Elias looked at her.
“No.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Do not play games.”
“I did not kidnap her.”
“You disappeared when she did.”
“Because I received a message saying Adrian had authorized an emergency transfer.”
“From whom?”
“Conrad.”
Conrad’s voice came faintly through the tablet.
“That is a lie.”
Elias laughed.
“Of course you say that.”
Adrian shouted.
“Where is my daughter?”
Elias slowly opened the passenger door.
The seat was empty.
He removed Lily’s second shoe.
Adrian stared.
“I found this in my car.”
“What?”
“With a phone.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“Who called?”
“The same voice that called you.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Then who has Lily?”
Elias looked toward him.
“You still do not understand.”
He glanced toward the Glass House.
“Claire built that vault because she discovered someone above all of us.”
Adrian stared.
“Who?”
Elias’s face was pale.
“Someone who controlled Trial Seventeen before Sebastian ever signed a grant.”
“Name.”
Elias looked directly at Victoria.
“Henri Laurent.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
“My father is dead.”
Elias nodded.
“I attended his funeral.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying Claire discovered that Henri had created a new identity for himself years before his supposed death.”
Sebastian stood.
“That is impossible.”
Elias looked at him.
“Is it?”
Silence.
“Trial Seventeen existed to make people disappear.”
He turned toward Victoria.
“Your father was the first person who used it successfully.”
Victoria’s face crumpled.
Adrian’s phone rang.
Unknown.
He answered.
An older man spoke.
“Good evening, Mr. Vale.”
Victoria heard the voice through the speaker.
Her knees nearly gave way.
“Dad?”
The caller laughed softly.
“Hello, Victoria.”
Adrian’s blood went cold.
Henri Laurent was alive.
And Lily’s voice came from somewhere beside him.
“Daddy?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Lily.”
“I want to come home.”
“You will.”
Henri returned.
“Open Claire’s vault.”
Adrian stared at the dark staircase beneath the Glass House.
“Then you give me my daughter.”
“No.”
Henri’s voice became colder.
“First you erase what your wife died trying to expose.”
May you like
The line disconnected.
And deep beneath the Glass House, a system that had been dormant for three years suddenly powered on.
