Chapter Ten Archive in London #3
No bells.
No locked doors.
Only wind.
Lucas came up beside her.
Anthony crossed the courtyard toward them at a near run.
“You all look terrible.”
Lucas embraced him before Anthony could say anything else.
That stopped everyone.
Anthony froze.
Then slowly returned the hug.
“You’re frightening me.”
Lucas stepped back.
“My parents.”
Anthony’s expression darkened.
“Security reached the outer gate.”
“And?”
“They found one guard unconscious.”
Lucas turned toward the waiting vehicle.
Anthony grabbed his arm.
“There’s more.”
Naomi moved closer.
“What?”
“The house alarm was disabled from inside.”
Lucas stared.
Anthony continued.
“No forced entry.”
Hudson had taught Lucas since childhood that the most dangerous breach was the one invited through the front door.
“Who was scheduled there today?” Lucas asked.
“Domestic staff. One groundskeeper. Your father’s private assistant.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“Name.”
“Simon Kells.”
Lucas went completely still.
Naomi noticed.
“You know him.”
“He worked for my grandfather.”
Anthony nodded.
“For nearly twenty years.”
Lucas stared toward the valley.
Arthur’s man.
Not Hudson’s.
Not really.
Naomi felt the pieces aligning.
“Could he have known about the station?”
Lucas looked at her.
“Yes.”
Anthony continued.
“Kells disappeared from Taylor payroll records three years ago.”
“Why?”
“Retirement.”
“According to whom?”
“Arthur.”
Naomi said it first.
“He never retired.”
Anthony nodded grimly.
“Apparently not.”
Lucas pulled open the vehicle door.
“We’re going home.”
The flight to London took less than two hours.
It felt like two days.
Naomi sat beside Lucas while Adrian remained across from them, staring through the small aircraft window as though seeing ordinary clouds for the first time.
Anthony worked continuously.
Calls.
Messages.
Security updates.
Agency alerts.
At one point, he looked toward Lucas.
“They found Olivia.”
Lucas shot upright.
“Where?”
“In the conservatory.”
Naomi reached for his hand.
Anthony continued quickly.
“She’s alive. Sedated but stable.”
Lucas closed his eyes.
Relief moved through him visibly.
“And Hudson?”
Anthony’s expression tightened.
“Still missing.”
Lucas opened his eyes.
Naomi squeezed his hand.
“We’ll find him.”
He nodded once.
His thumb moved over the back of her hand.
Not reassurance.
Anchoring.
Anthony looked at his phone again.
“The police found blood near Arthur’s study.”
Lucas’s face hardened.
“Whose?”
“No match yet.”
Naomi looked toward Adrian.
He had become alert.
“Simon Kells?”
“Possibly.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“What do we know about him?”
Anthony answered.
“Former military intelligence liaison. Worked private security before Arthur hired him. No immediate family.”
Adrian looked toward Lucas.
“He wasn’t an assistant.”
Lucas shook his head.
“No.”
Naomi understood.
Arthur had kept another secret in plain sight.
Simon Kells had likely been an operational guardian.
Perhaps the missing piece behind the “traitor never signed Covenant.”
She looked toward Anthony.
“Was Kells ever a Covenant member?”
“No record of it.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Then he fits Joseph’s clue.”
Naomi stared.
The traitor never signed Covenant.
Not Edmund.
Not a dead patriarch.
Someone who had worked beside Arthur without ever joining the organization.
“Kells betrayed them,” she said.
Lucas looked at her.
Naomi continued.
“He had access without obligation.”
Anthony nodded slowly.
“And if he served Arthur personally, he could have poisoned him.”
Silence.
There it was.
A mystery stretching all the way back to Arthur’s death.
Not an abstract betrayal.
A man.
A living one.
Lucas’s face went cold.
“He killed my grandfather.”
Adrian corrected quietly.
“If we’re right.”
Lucas looked toward him.
“I am tired of being right about dead relatives.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“So is Naomi.”
She looked at him.
“Welcome to being my brother.”
The plane began descending.
London appeared below.
Rain.
Gray roofs.
The Thames.
Home and danger tangled together.
Taylor House was surrounded by police when they arrived.
Naomi had seen the estate beautiful before.
Grand.
Imposing.
Now blue lights flashed against its stone walls.
The front doors stood open.
Lucas got out before the vehicle fully stopped.
Naomi followed.
Anthony and Adrian were right behind them.
An officer met them near the steps.
“Mr. Taylor.”
“My mother?”
“Being transported to St. Thomas’ for observation.”
“My father?”
The officer hesitated.
“We believe he’s still on the property.”
Lucas’s eyes sharpened.
“Believe?”
“We found evidence someone moved through the old service tunnels.”
Lucas stared at the house.
Anthony sighed.
“Of course this place has tunnels too.”
They entered.
The main hall looked almost untouched.
That made it worse.
No overturned furniture.
No broken glass.
A vase of flowers still stood on the center table.
Violence hidden beneath elegance.
Very Taylor.
They passed the conservatory.
A scarf lay on the floor.
Olivia’s.
Lucas stopped.
Naomi slipped her hand into his.
He looked at her.
She said nothing.
They moved on.
Arthur’s study door stood open.
Inside, one wall had been stripped bare.
A hidden steel panel was exposed.
The archive station.
Lucas approached the terminal.
The screen displayed a single message.
COPY VERIFIED.
Below it:
LOCAL EXTRACTION COMPLETE.
Adrian stepped beside him.
“Someone took the files physically.”
Lucas checked the ports.
“A drive.”
Anthony looked around.
“Where’s Hudson?”
A sound came from behind the bookshelf.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Lucas froze.