CHAPTER 2 THREE BELLS
Emergency lights filled the hallway with a dim red glow.
Daniel grabbed the tracker from the table and crushed it beneath the leg of a chair.
“Lock every exterior door,” he ordered.
A security guard stared at his dead radio.
“The internal system isn’t responding.”
“Then do it manually.”
The guard ran toward the main foyer.
Mara pushed herself upright.
“No.”
Elena moved closer to her.
“You need to lie down.”
“The bells mean they’re already inside.”
Lily stood in the doorway.
Her face had gone pale.
“What happens after the bells?”
Mara looked at her.
“The children have to hide.”
A dull metallic sound came from somewhere above them.
Then another.
Someone was moving inside the walls.
Daniel turned to Elena.
“Take both girls to the safe room.”
Mara grabbed Elena’s wrist.
“Not underground.”
“Why?”
“That’s where they waited for us.”
Daniel drew the handgun he kept secured inside the medical cabinet.
The sight of it made Lily step backward.
He lowered the weapon slightly.
“I’m not leaving you unprotected.”
Lily swallowed.
“I know.”
Daniel’s security chief, Marcus Lane, entered carrying a flashlight.
“The west wing door is open.”
Daniel looked at him.
“That wing was sealed.”
“It isn’t anymore.”
They crossed the mansion together.
The west wing had remained empty since the investigation.
The hidden chamber had been cleared. Its tunnels had supposedly been filled with concrete, and every entrance had been sealed by federal contractors.
Yet the heavy oak door now stood open.
Cold air moved through the corridor.
Daniel swept his flashlight across the floor.
Wet footprints led from the door toward the old chamber.
They were small.
A child’s footprints.
Beside them were the deeper tracks of an adult boot.
Marcus touched the wall panel.
“Someone bypassed the alarm from inside.”
Daniel followed the tracks.
They ended beside a bookcase that had not been moved since the foundation opened.
Marcus pushed it aside.
Behind it was a square opening cut into the wall.
The concrete filling the old tunnel had been removed.
Not broken.
Removed cleanly, section by section.
Someone had worked inside the mansion for days without being discovered.
Daniel crawled through the opening.
Marcus followed.
The narrow tunnel smelled of dust and fresh electrical wiring.
Twenty feet inside, they found a metal box attached to the wall.
A transmitter.
Several cables led from it into the mansion’s security network.
Marcus examined the device.
“This didn’t shut down our system.”
“What did it do?”
“It took control of it.”
Daniel saw a blinking light on the transmitter.
A speaker crackled.
Then Arthur Bell’s voice filled the tunnel.
“The Whitmore child opened the first door.”
Daniel’s fingers tightened around the gun.
The recording continued.
“She survived because fear made her observant. Pain made her patient. Isolation made her useful.”
Daniel stepped closer to the speaker.
Arthur’s voice remained calm.
“Lily Whitmore is not merely a survivor.”
A pause followed.
“She is the key.”
The recording ended.
Marcus disconnected the power cable.
The mansion lights came back on.
Daniel returned to the medical room.
Mara was asleep again.
Elena stood beside her.
Lily sat near the window holding the torn page marked 201.
Daniel crouched in front of her.
“Arthur recorded a message.”
“What did he say?”
“That someone is trying to frighten us.”
Lily studied his face.
“What did he really say?”
Daniel hesitated.
He had promised never to lie to her.
“He called you a key.”
“A key to what?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Mara spoke without opening her eyes.
“The Second House.”
Everyone looked toward her.
Daniel moved to the bed.
“What is the Second House?”
Mara opened her eyes.
“It’s where they send the children after the first family fails.”
“What family?”
“The family they were born into.”
Her gaze shifted toward Lily.
“They watch the parents. They create arguments. They change medicine. They move money. Then they make everyone believe the child is the problem.”
Lily’s expression hardened.
“That’s what they did to me.”
Mara nodded.
“But you exposed the first house.”
“Arthur’s network?”
“That wasn’t the whole network.”
Daniel sat beside the bed.
“Who runs the Second House?”
Mara looked toward the open doorway.
She seemed suddenly terrified.
“The woman who never shows her real face.”
A telephone rang in Daniel’s pocket.
The screen displayed a restricted number.
He answered.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Then Nathan’s voice came through the line.
“Daniel, listen carefully. I bribed a guard for this call.”
Daniel moved away from the girls.
“Nathan?”
“You need to get Lily out of that house.”
“Someone has already entered the mansion.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because the person who opened the tunnel works for you.”
Daniel looked through the glass wall at the Lily Project staff gathering in the corridor.
Nathan’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“The Bell network has a second name.”
“What name?”
“Bellweather.”
Daniel heard shouting in the background.
Nathan began speaking faster.
“One of your employees is connected to it. The name starts with Cl—”
A heavy impact interrupted him.
Nathan grunted.
Then another voice came onto the line.
A woman’s voice.
Calm.
Controlled.
“You should have let your brother finish his sentence.”
The call disconnected.
May you like
Across the corridor, Clara Wynn, the Lily Project’s director of operations, was watching Daniel.
And slowly, she lowered her phone.
