Chapter 9 - THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
The cold-storage network stretched beneath three blocks.
Most chambers abandoned.
One section still powered through an illegal connection.
Police entered at dawn.
Room one:
empty.
Room two:
equipment.
Room three:
Hannah Cole.
Alive.
Weak.
Frightened.
No graphic injuries.
Then Marcus Lee.
Then Tara Benson.
Then Elliot Graves.
All alive.
Held separately.
Adrian had kept them with food, water, and minimal medical supplies.
Why?
Dead bodies created homicide investigations.
Living missing people created uncertainty.
He controlled them as long as their information threatened him.
Hannah had treated Victor Hale in a private clinic after an escape attempt months earlier.
Marcus had copied an old archive drive.
Tara had seen payments to Hawthorne Civic.
Elliot knew hidden tunnel geometry.
Adrian collected witnesses instead of killing them.
Then Ryan asked:
“Where’s Michael?”
None knew.
Then Hannah said:
“There was another man.”
Older.
Gray hair.
Thin.
Victor Hale.
Alive.
Ryan stared.
Two-year missing person.
Alive.
But not in the rescued chambers.
Adrian had moved Victor and Michael together.
Why?
Because Michael could pressure Victor?
Or because Ryan would?
Then Elliot said:
“There’s a second facility.”
Where?
He did not know.
But he had heard trains.
Not subway.
Freight.
Ryan looked at city maps.
Abandoned cold-storage sites near freight lines.
Three possibilities.
One belonged to Hawthorne Civic through a subsidiary.
Samuel Voss.
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Now the corruption network was no longer background.
It was current.
