CHAPTER 23 #2
“Medical first. Blood testing. Psychological evaluation. Then assignment.”
“They’ve had my children less than an hour.”
“The Circle can determine a child’s value in fifteen minutes.”
“My children aren’t valuable to them.”
“Every child is valuable to somebody.”
“Where’s the entrance?”
“A service tunnel runs beneath the horse barn.”
Karen pointed to another section.
“It was sealed twenty years ago.”
“You’ve been here too?” I asked.
“Once.”
“Everybody visited the secret child prison except me?”
“You weren’t born.”
“That hasn’t stopped people from involving me in everything else.”
Serena pointed toward the front gate.
“Somebody needs to enter with the original key. The system will focus security there.”
“A distraction,” Tasha said.
“I’ll go,” Karen offered.
“No,” Serena replied. “The system knows your authority was terminated.”
“Then you.”
“It knows I own the key. If it scans me, Harris will understand we’re trying to access the registry.”
Everybody looked at me.
“Of course.”
Tasha shook her head.
“You’re hurt.”
“So is Dymond, and she jumped in front of a bullet.”
“You don’t have to prove anything.”
“I’m not proving it.”
I took the gold device.
“I’m getting my children.”
The plan was simple.
That meant it would probably fail.
I would approach the front gate and use the original key.
Serena, Karen, and Tasha would enter through the service tunnel.
Shay would remain outside with a rifle and watch the exits.
Meech would use my access to enter the internal system remotely.
Once inside, he would locate every child and unlock the facility.
Nobody would fire unless Harris fired first.
That part was mostly for Karen and Shay.
I walked toward the gate alone.
Cameras followed me.
A speaker turned on.
“Place the device against the scanner.”
Harris.
“Let me speak to my children.”
“Open the gate.”
“Children first.”
A monitor appeared beside the entrance.
Jayce and Amaya sat inside a white room.
They held hands.
Neither appeared injured.
“Momma!” Amaya shouted.
I moved closer to the screen.
“I’m here, baby.”
Jayce looked toward the camera.
“He took Laila somewhere else.”
“I know.”
“He said we have to take a test.”
“You’re not taking anything.”
Harris entered their room.
He placed one hand on Jayce’s shoulder.
My son pulled away.
“Open the gate,” Harris said.
“Let them walk out.”
“You know it doesn’t work that way.”
“It does today.”
He smiled.
“Keyshia, the gate isn’t keeping you out.”
“What?”
“It’s keeping the children in.”
The iron doors opened by themselves.
I didn’t use the key.
He wanted me inside.
I stepped through.
The gate closed behind me.
A scanner moved across my body.
KEYSHIA CARTER IDENTIFIED
FOUNDER ACCESS DETECTED
WELCOME TO CARTER HOUSE
Every child on the soccer field stopped playing.
They turned toward me at the same time.
Not curious.
Trained.
A woman in a gray uniform approached.
“Ms. Carter, please follow me.”
“Where are my children?”
“Awaiting evaluation.”
“They’re awaiting their mother.”
She smiled.
“Agent Harris said you would be difficult.”
“Agent Harris talks too much.”
I followed her toward the main building.
Cameras tracked every step.
I touched the hidden earpiece beneath my bob.
“Meech?”
“I’m in.”
“Find the kids.”
“Working.”
“Did the others reach the tunnel?”
A pause.
“No.”
I kept walking.
“What happened?”
“The tunnel opened before they got there.”
“Is that good?”
“No. Somebody was waiting inside.”
“Who?”
“Monica.”
I stopped.
The woman in gray looked back.
“Is there a problem?”
“My shoe.”
I bent as if adjusting it.
“Meech, can you see them?”
“Video only. No sound.”
“What is Monica doing?”
“She has a gun pointed at Karen.”
Again.
“What about Tasha and Serena?”
“Kneeling.”
“Can you open the tunnel from my access?”
“I can try.”
The woman stepped closer.
“We need to continue.”
I straightened.
“Then continue.”
Inside the main house, paintings of Carter relatives covered the walls.
Some I recognized.
Most I didn’t.
Children stood beside teachers in the hallway.
Every child watched me.
One girl couldn’t have been older than eight.
A small silver circle had been tattooed behind her ear.
“What did they do to these kids?” I whispered.
The woman heard.
“We prepared them.”
“For what?”
“The world their parents built.”
“Their parents built a prison.”
“They built opportunity.”
She opened a classroom door.
Ten children sat at desks studying files on state politicians.
A boy recited the names of judges.
Another memorized bank-account numbers.
The six-year-old near the window wore an ankle monitor.
Rage moved through me.
Not only for Jayce and Amaya.
For every child inside Carter House.
“We’re getting all of them out,” I whispered.
Meech answered through the earpiece.
“That might be harder than we thought.”
“Why?”
“Some of them don’t want to leave.”
“They’re children.”
“This is the only home they know.”
The woman led me toward the medical wing.
Harris waited outside a locked door.
“You came alone.”
“Yes.”
“That was careless.”
“So was shooting Serena’s doctor.”
“He’ll live.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I didn’t come to discuss him.”
He held out his hand.
“The key.”
“Children first.”
He opened the door.
The white room was empty.
My stomach dropped.
“Where are they?”
“Nearby.”
“Harris.”
“Give me the key.”
I removed the gold device.
He stared at it.
Greed returned to his face.
“Put it on the table.”
I obeyed.
He reached for it.
The moment his fingers touched the device, I pressed the side button Serena had shown me.
The screen flashed.
UNAUTHORIZED USER DETECTED
Steel cuffs shot from the table and locked around Harris’s wrists.
His face twisted.
“What did you do?”
“Gave the house a thief.”
Alarms sounded.
Every door in the hallway locked.
Meech laughed through my earpiece.
“That worked better than expected.”
“Open the children’s rooms.”
“I need thirty seconds.”
Harris pulled against the restraints.
“You think this facility answers to Serena?”
“No.”
I picked up the gold device.
“It answers to me.”
The screen displayed a map of Carter House.
Twenty-three children.
Two new arrivals.
Jayce and Amaya were beneath us.
Underground.
“Harris moved them to the basement,” I said.
His smile returned.
“Not Harris.”
I pressed the gun against his chest.
“Who?”
A woman’s voice filled the hallway speakers.
Monica.
“Bring the key to the nursery.”
The floor beneath me opened.
A staircase led down.
Harris laughed.
“She got here before you.”
I struck him across the face with the gun.
“Enjoy the table.”
I descended into the basement.
The air grew colder with every step.
At the bottom was a long hallway lined with glass rooms.
Beds.
Medical equipment.
Small chairs fitted with restraints.
The nursery.
Amaya stood at the far end.
Alone.
“Momma.”
I ran toward her.
A red light appeared on her chest.
A laser from somewhere above.
I stopped.
“Don’t move, baby.”
Tears covered her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything.”
“The lady said I had to bring you here.”
“What lady?”
Monica stepped from behind the glass.
One hand rested on Jayce’s shoulder.
The other held a detonator.
My son wore a black vest covered in wires.
A bomb.
“Give me the original key,” Monica said.
I raised my gun.
“Take that vest off my child.”
“If my finger releases this button, it explodes.”
Jayce stood perfectly still.
Trying not to cry.
Trying to be strong.
Monica held out her empty hand.
“The key.”
“What do you want with it?”
“The seven million was enough to disappear.”
Her eyes moved toward the children locked behind the glass.
“But the heir registry is enough to rule.”
“You said you kept Nesha out of this life.”
“I did.”
“Then why put my babies in it?”
“Because they aren’t mine.”
I wanted to kill her.
She knew it.
She smiled.
“Slide the key across the floor.”
I placed the gold device down.
Before I could move it, another voice came from the darkness behind Monica.
“She gives you that key, you’ll kill all three of them.”
Nesha stepped into the light.
Hospital gown.
Fresh bandages.
Gun aimed at her mother.
Monica’s face changed.
“How did you get here?”
Nesha’s hand didn’t shake.
“You taught me how to disappear.”