Chapter 16 - Locked Again
The nurse had not taken Rowan.Ethan had used the hospital transport team as a decoy. The nurse found the empty bassinet in the garage, the rear doors standing open, and a white medical van disappearing down the road.Patricia sat on the floor with a blanket around her shoulders while officers searched the property.“He took her through the service corridor,” she said. “There’s an underground passage to the old carriage house.”Reyes turned to Madison. “Stay here.”Madison picked up the brass key marked fourteen.“He wants the server.”“We have him in custody.”“His people may not know that.”“We’ll find them.”“The van is connected to the house system. I can track it.”Reyes hesitated.Madison opened the Nestor control app on her phone. Patricia’s house remained linked to the original server. A moving blue dot crossed the map.“He’s heading north,” Madison said. “Toward the cannery.”“How do you know it’s him?”“The van is broadcasting a quiet-entry signal.”Reyes took the phone.“We follow,” Madison said.“You’re not going.”“He took my child.”“And you’re still recovering from surgery.”“Then put me in an ambulance.”Nora stepped forward. “She’s going.”Reyes looked between them, furious and afraid.“If you come,” she said to Madison, “you follow every instruction.”“I will.”They reached the cannery to find the outer gates locked. The blue dot had stopped moving.Inside Unit fourteen, the lights came on one by one.The speakers activated.“Welcome home, Madison.”Ethan’s voice.Reyes ordered the doors breached. The moment the officers crossed the threshold, the outer gate slammed shut. The building’s alarm blared.“He’s locking us in,” an officer shouted.Madison looked at the walls. “He’s using the original server.”“Can you open it?”“Not from here.”“Then find the panel.”Madison remembered the house map. The red dots marked sensors, but the system’s central relay was hidden behind the old freight elevator.She ran toward it.“Madison!” Reyes yelled.At the elevator, she found a keypad. It required a six-digit code.The date of Ethan’s birthday.She entered it.Nothing happened.She tried the date of Patricia’s birthday.The lock opened.Behind the elevator was a narrow room filled with monitors. One displayed Rowan in a transport carrier. Ethan stood beside her in the old medical chamber.“The gate won’t open until you enter the room,” he said.Madison pressed the talk button. “You’re under arrest.”“I’m already arrested.”“Then why are you still controlling the building?”“Because no one knows the system like I do.”“You kidnapped Rowan.”“I moved her away from people who want to use her.”“You sedated her.”“I stabilized her.”“You killed Owen.”Ethan stared at the camera.“Owen killed himself.”“You pushed him into the lake.”“He jumped.”“Patricia recorded you.”He smiled faintly. “My mother recorded a conversation she didn’t understand.”“She understood enough.”“She understood money.”Madison looked at the monitor. Rowan’s eyes were open. She was crying silently.“Put her down.”“Come get her.”The feed cut.The building lights went dark.Madison heard a lock engage behind her.She turned.The monitor room door had sealed.Reyes pounded on the glass. “Madison!”The air began to smell sweet.Gas.Madison pulled her shirt over her mouth. She searched the room, finding no window and no manual release. The original server hummed beneath the consoles.On the desk lay a printed activity report.7:18:44 a.m. — Quiet Entry.7:22:20 a.m. — Quiet Exit.The opening mystery stared at her in black ink.She touched the report. The entry had been made forty-eight hours before the cloud archive expired.“He came back,” she whispered.The gas thickened.Madison noticed a red emergency button beneath the desk. It was labeled MEDICAL SAFETY MODE.Ethan had designed the system to lock during a crisis.She pressed it.Every door in the building sealed.Then, after a three-second pause, the ventilation system reversed.Fresh air roared into the room.The glass door opened.Reyes pulled Madison into her arms.“What did you do?”“I remembered how he thinks.”From the far end of the building came the sound of a baby crying.
