Chapter 4 - The Camera Under the Building Was Still Broadcasting

Jared drew his weapon before anyone could speak.

I had never been close to a gun before, not like that, not close enough to hear the faint friction of his sleeve against the grip. Every old instinct from Brendan told me to freeze, become small, avoid eye contact.

Instead I looked at Caesar.

He was staring at the camera.

"Turn it off," I said.

"It may be wired to a remote server," Naomi said.

"Then whoever is watching already knows we're here."

Jared stepped toward the wall.

Adrian caught his arm. "If you destroy it, Victor will know exactly how afraid you are."

Jared looked down at his cousin's hand until Adrian released him.

Miles found a cable conduit running into the next storage cage. Naomi followed it and discovered a compact network unit hidden behind a breaker panel.

"It's transmitting through a separate cellular modem," she said. "Not the building system."

"Can you trace it?" Jared asked.

"Maybe, if you stop breathing on my shoulder."

He moved half a step back.

I nearly laughed despite myself.

Caesar suddenly turned toward the bloodstained silk again.

He sniffed it, whined, then walked to the room's far corner where the wall looked slightly newer than the rest.

"What's behind there?" I asked.

Miles frowned. "Utility shaft, I think."

Adrian tapped the surface. Hollow.

Jared found a seam and pulled. A disguised panel opened into a narrow maintenance tunnel.

The smell hit first: dust, rust, old concrete, and something medicinal.

Caesar stepped inside.

"Absolutely not," I said.

Jared looked at me. "You just told me to ask the dog."

"The dog is recovering from starvation. He doesn't get to lead a tunnel expedition."

For the first time, Jared's mouth actually moved toward a smile.

Miles took a flashlight and went first. The tunnel ran forty feet before opening into a second chamber containing a cot, restraints bolted to the wall, medical packaging, and empty water bottles.

Adrian leaned against the wall.

"She was here," he said.

Jared's face changed.

Not rage this time.

Grief.

He had believed his cousin's sister was safely overseas while she had been held beneath his own building.

Naomi picked up one of the water bottles with gloved fingers. "Recent."

"How recent?"

"The expiration batch is from this year. That tells us almost nothing. But the dust around it has been disturbed."

Miles opened a cabinet and found medication bottles labeled under false names.

One contained a sedative commonly used after surgery.

Another held antibiotics.

"If Sophie was injured, they may have treated her here," Naomi said.

Adrian squeezed his eyes shut.

A phone vibrated.

Not mine.

Not Jared's.

The sound came from beneath the cot.

Miles crouched and pulled out a cheap prepaid phone taped to the metal frame.

The screen showed one incoming message.

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE DOG ALONE.

Jared took the phone.

Another message appeared.

ASK THE CLEANER WHAT BRENDAN PROMISED ME.

My entire body went numb.

Jared looked at me. "Who's Brendan?"

The tunnel seemed to shrink.

I heard myself say, "My ex."

"The man you mentioned earlier?"

I nodded.

Adrian stared at the screen. "Victor knows you?"

"I don't know Victor."

But I knew Brendan.

I knew how he collected people, stories, passwords, favors. I knew how he had once worked private security jobs he never explained. I knew the expensive watches that appeared when he was supposedly unemployed.

And I knew the last thing he had told me the night I finally left him.

You think walking away makes you free? You have no idea who you've embarrassed.

At the time, I thought he meant himself.

Now I wasn't sure.

The phone rang.

Jared hit speaker.

A man's voice came through, calm and amused.

"Hello, Willa."

My stomach dropped.

Brendan.

"You shouldn't be there," he said.

I couldn't move.

"How do you know where I am?"

He laughed softly. "Because I sent Miles to find you."

Every head turned toward Miles.

Miles' face drained of color.

"That's a lie," he said.

Brendan continued. "Ask him who told him about the girl who calmed the military dog."

Miles looked at me.

And suddenly the hundred thousand dollars on the clinic counter no longer felt like desperation.

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It felt like bait.

Naomi copied the prepaid phone's identifying data before we left the chamber. She also photographed the medication labels and sealed the loose packaging in clean bags from her kit. The practical work steadied everyone. Evidence had rules even when fear did not. Adrian kept asking whether the blood on the silk could still be tested after six months. Naomi told him yes, potentially, but warned him not to build hope around one stain. Jared ordered a discreet forensic team, then caught himself and asked Adrian whether he wanted the room preserved before anyone entered. Adrian stared at him, surprised by the question, and nodded. I noticed that exchange because control had already become part of the case. Every one of us wanted to seize the next decision simply because uncertainty hurt. The discipline was learning not to.