CHAPTER 78 — EVELYN’S PRICE
Margaret stood between Evelyn and Lily.
“Your son died forty years ago.”
“That is what they told me.”
Evelyn’s hands shook.
“The Council showed me a live recording.”
Sarah spoke carefully.
“They create faces.”
“I know my child.”
“So did Margaret.”
The words hurt, but they reached Evelyn.
Claire moved closer.
“What did they ask you to do?”
“Keep the keys inside until the Crown team arrived.”
“You do not have to finish it.”
Evelyn looked at the photograph of her missing son.
The outer doors shook under explosives.
She lowered the gun.
“There is another exit through the costume vault.”
Before they could move, a bullet passed through the hidden camera and struck Evelyn.
The second Adrian had found a direct line of fire.
Evelyn collapsed.
Margaret caught her.
“Where is your son?” Claire asked.
Evelyn handed her an old ticket stub.
A child’s handwriting covered the back.
THE SHOW BEGINS UNDER THE RIVER.
Then she died.
The Crown team breached the theater.
Adrian fought his double among the stage curtains.
Their movements were almost identical.
Mason could not determine which one to shoot.
Lily watched them.
She covered her left ear.
“Both are wrong.”
Claire looked at her.
“What?”
“The real one doesn’t hear the song.”
Both Adrians had reacted when Lily whispered the first line of the lullaby.
The man traveling with them was another conditioned version.
The true Adrian had never reached the lighthouse.
The two doubles stopped fighting.
They turned toward Olivia at the same moment.
“The Anchor must be returned.”
Jonah and Mason attacked them.
The group escaped through the costume vault.
Beneath the theater, they found an old river tunnel.
A boat waited at the dock.
The ticket stub opened its ignition system.
Daniel examined the navigation chart.
The tunnel led beneath Washington.
At the final destination was a building marked only by the seven Council symbols.
Sarah felt Silas moving inside her again.
He forced her to speak.
“The Council is not in Washington.”
Claire stared at her.
“Then what is beneath the river?”
May you like
Silas smiled.
“The place where governments are selected.”
