CHAPTER 8 THE GLASS HOUSE
St. Agnes Academy had been abandoned for fifteen years.
At least, that was what the property records claimed.
Daniel, Clara, Marcus, and a federal tactical team approached shortly before midnight.
The academy stood behind a rusted iron fence.
Most windows were broken.
Vines covered the stone walls.
But a generator hummed somewhere beneath the building.
Someone was still using electricity.
Clara studied the prison bracelet Nathan had left behind.
“The future date could be a warning.”
“Or a scheduled transfer,” Daniel said.
“Transfer to where?”
“We’re going to find out.”
Elena remained at the mansion with Lily.
Daniel had doubled the security detail.
He had also made Lily promise not to leave the library.
He knew promises did not stop determined children.
But he trusted her more than he trusted locks.
The tactical team entered through the academy’s rear doors.
Dust covered the entrance hall.
Beyond it, however, the floor had been cleaned.
Fresh shoe marks led toward the basement.
They descended in silence.
The staircase ended at a steel door.
Clara used the key from the brass map’s hidden compartment.
The lock opened.
On the other side was a bright white corridor.
Glass walls divided the space into small rooms.
Beds.
Desks.
Cameras.
Speakers.
Children’s drawings remained taped to several walls.
The building was not abandoned.
It had been evacuated minutes earlier.
Food was still warm in the dining room.
A faucet remained running.
Daniel entered one of the glass rooms.
A child had scratched words into the underside of a desk.
MY NAME IS BEN.
I AM NOT DANGEROUS.
The sentence brought back every photograph from Lily’s case.
Every adult who had accepted false reports because believing a child was difficult had been easier than questioning a professional.
Marcus called from the next corridor.
“We found someone.”
Two boys were locked inside a storage room.
They were brothers, nine and eleven years old.
Neither would give his name.
The younger one repeatedly asked whether their mother was still angry.
Clara crouched beside him.
“Your mother isn’t here.”
“She signed the papers.”
“What papers?”
“The ones that said she didn’t want us.”
Clara’s face tightened.
Daniel understood.
The network had continued operating even after Arthur’s conviction.
Perhaps it had grown stronger.
A speaker activated above them.
Nathan’s voice filled the corridor.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
Daniel looked for a camera.
“Where are you?”
“Do not open the red door.”
At the end of the hall was a single red door.
A faint sound came from behind it.
A child crying.
“Mara?” Daniel shouted.
The crying stopped.
Then Mara’s voice answered.
“Daniel?”
He moved toward the door.
Clara caught his arm.
“It could be another recording.”
“Mara!”
“Please open it!”
Daniel reached for the handle.
Nathan’s voice returned.
“If you open that door, everyone in the west corridor dies.”
Marcus examined the frame.
“Pressure trigger.”
Daniel looked through the narrow glass panel.
Mara appeared to be sitting inside.
Her hands were bound.
A man stood behind her.
Nathan.
He held a gun against the side of her chair.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Nathan, move away from her.”
The man looked toward the glass.
His face was Daniel’s brother’s face.
But he smiled in a way Nathan never had.
Clara whispered, “That isn’t him.”
The man behind Mara raised one hand.
He removed a thin mask from his face.
Underneath was an unfamiliar man with a scar across his mouth.
Mara began screaming.
The corridor lights switched from white to red.
Metal doors slammed shut at both ends.
A countdown appeared on the wall.
Daniel struck the red door.
“Mara!”
The scarred man dragged her away from the window.
Clara examined the wires near the handle.
“We need another entrance.”
The two rescued boys began shouting from the storage room.
The younger one pointed toward a floor drain.
“The quiet hallway.”
“What?” Clara asked.
“The children use it when the bells ring.”
Marcus tore the grate from the floor.
Below it was a narrow passage.
Daniel lowered himself into the darkness.
The countdown reached forty seconds.
He crawled beneath the red room and found a maintenance hatch.
Mara’s chair stood directly above him.
The scarred man was gone.
Daniel forced the hatch upward.
“Mara, move away from the door.”
She climbed from the chair and dropped into his arms.
They escaped through the passage as the countdown reached zero.
Nothing exploded.
Instead, the glass rooms filled with white smoke.
Sprinklers sprayed a chemical foam that began dissolving papers, drawings, and computer drives.
“They’re destroying the evidence,” Clara said.
Marcus found an emergency exit.
They carried the children outside.
As Daniel crossed the lawn with Mara, she pressed something into his hand.
Another key.
It was stamped with the number 201.
“Where did you get this?”
“The real Nathan gave it to me.”
Daniel stopped.
“When?”
“Before the man with his face came.”
“Where is Nathan now?”
Mara pointed toward the academy’s bell tower.
A figure stood at the highest window.
Daniel recognized his brother.
May you like
Nathan placed one hand against the glass.
Then flames rose behind him.
