Chapter Twenty-Five
O’Connor
Zero for six. I’ve been in the mansion six nights in a row and haven’t found another way into the cellar. But that’s not what’s torturing me.
Being pushed away by Linden is killing me. I thought I was used to the sting of being forgotten and pushed aside.
Being forced out by the Navy felt like the ultimate betrayal. That was my home, and the only thing I knew.
This feels a million times worse.
She doesn’t speak to me when we see each other outside. She doesn’t let Avery come talk to me.
She doesn’t look out her window as much as she used to.
I used to try my best to be invisible, but now it doesn’t matter…
She’s not looking at me at all.
At least tonight I can hide in the shadows and observe Avery from afar. Her laughter fills the cold interior of this mansion with warmth that they don’t deserve.
Linden doesn’t trust me, but I’ll still be here to keep her daughter safe.
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, uh… 7, 8, 9, 10. Ready or not, here I tum!” Avery yells down the hallway outside of the kitchen, where I’m concealed in the wine cellar.
Luckily, it’s an old room meant for staff functions and not for show. There are crates lining the walls, leaving me ample room to hide.
“Found you, Grandpa!” She squeals and comes running past the kitchen again as he counts. I hear the next door over fling open as she presumably hides in the pantry.
I relax against the wall after Edmund passes by the wine cellar and continues on.
“Hello.” My entire body jolts at the sound of her little voice. Avery is standing a few feet away from me, looking directly at me.
The door never opened; she’s backlit by the pantry light.
There’s a small cubbyhole linking the two rooms that is nowhere in the blueprints. It has to be shorter than my kneecaps, and no bigger than a foot and a half across.
Just big enough for a case of wine to be pushed from one room to another, or for a little girl to crawl through.
She’s staring at me curiously, but without fear as I hold up a finger to my mask-covered mouth, asking her to stay quiet.
“Are you playing hide and seek, too?” She asks quietly.
I nod silently, and she giggles.
“I won’t tell.” She scampers back through the hole and shuts the little door behind her just as Edmund searches in the pantry for her.
“My turn!” She yells. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ready or not, here I come!”
My initial fear that I’ve been made dissipates quickly, and in its place is pride because she got all of her numbers 1 through 10 that time.
My head is fucked. But at least now I know there are other entry points I need to be worried about. If there is a cubbyhole between these rooms, there might be a hidey-hole somewhere else to get below the house.
Which means my search continues, and I need to check the blueprints again.
* * *
A full week and a half since I’ve seen Linden. With her consent anyway. I’ve been watching her on my cameras, keeping an eye on them from afar. I’ve watched her drop off and pick up Avery from her grandparents and walk to the houses across the street during the day.
I watch her sleep in the bed that used to be mine every night, and I crave the chance to be beside her.
But she still doesn’t want anything to do with me.
Maybe tonight I’ll knock on the door. Take them a pizza or some steaks. Beg her to give me a minute of her attention.
And be denied when I still can’t tell her all of the truth.
Besides, they aren’t home. She left an hour ago, and I don’t have the privilege of knowing her comings and goings. Not without invading her privacy.
I feel so guilty for how I’ve violated her life.
“Go for Eagle-One.” My handler’s voice comes over the speaker next to my monitor.
“Eagle-One, clear.”
“The final hard drive from Merrill Scott’s office is decoded and in your files. This operation seems to have taken a turn for the worse.”
“Worse, how?” I open the first file, scanning through order forms for medical equipment, and close it out.
“This isn’t just an organ operation. There seems to be full-on trafficking happening.
I suspected they were using recently DOA bodies, or worse, prematurely taking patients off of life support to harvest organs…
But there are missing persons up and down the Eastern states tied to the Scotts and their associates.
Victims snatched from hospital parking lots before they even made it to the waiting room. ”
“Jesus. How have they gotten away with this?”
“A lot of runaways, and people with no living next of kin. I have a list of 50 missing people in the immediate area alone that could potentially be linked to this that still haven’t turned up. Along with medical equipment, there are supplies needed to sustain living bodies.”
“They’re not just stealing organs… They’re experimenting on living people… What kind of Frankenstein shit is this?”
“I don’t know. But it’s time to shut it down.”
“Agreed.”
“Stay ready. Ops plan will be ready at 0100.”
“Copy.” Finally.
This means it’s time to go in hot. Kicking down doors and finally putting an end to the Scott enterprise.
Finally getting Linden and Avery out.
I continue scanning the documents I received as I clean my guns and ready my ammunition, needing to stay busy as the minutes tick by.
I need all this shit to be over.
I want to have the freedom to fight for what I need.
And what I need is right next door.
My magazine clicks into place in my Glock, and I rack a round into the chamber before setting it aside, just as I see a familiar name on my screen.
Experiment Avery.
What the hell?
The file opens, and my eyes get wider as I absorb the contents…
“Oh, my God.”