Chapter 4 - Project Lark

Richard Hawthorne had spent most of his adult life believing he understood power.

Power was votes.

Contracts.

Board seats.

Money.

Access.

That morning, standing in the breakfast room while Elena connected her father's flash drive to an isolated laptop, he learned that power could also be the ability to decide which version of the past survived.

The drive opened with a password prompt.

Elena stared at it.

"No clue?"

"Give me a minute."

She tried her father's birthday.

Rejected.

Her mother's.

Rejected.

Mateo's.

Rejected.

Richard stood behind her.

"What did the note mean?"

"The house remembers what money tries to bury."

"Could be a password."

"Too long."

Owen entered.

"Mercer's on his way back. Evelyn called him herself."

Richard laughed bitterly.

"Of course she did."

"She also locked herself in the east office."

"Let her."

"She made six calls before I cut the external line."

Richard looked up.

"You did what?"

"You told me to secure the estate."

"I didn't tell you to imprison my mother."

Owen's expression remained neutral.

"Then I'll restore her phone."

Richard hesitated.

"No."

Elena looked between them.

"Are we pretending this is normal?"

"No," Richard said. "We're discovering normal never existed."

Noah entered holding Gabriel's red button.

"Did you find it?"

Elena closed the laptop.

"Find what?"

"The thing Grandpa Miguel hid."

She froze.

"You know about my father?"

Noah nodded.

"Gabe told me."

Richard sat beside him.

"What else did Gabriel tell you?"

"That Grandpa Miguel knew the blue room."

Elena's pulse jumped.

"My father wasn't your grandfather."

Noah frowned.

"He said people can have extra grandpas."

Elena almost laughed despite herself.

"What blue room?"

Noah pointed upstairs.

"The one nobody uses."

Agnes appeared behind him.

Her face changed when she heard the words.

Elena saw it.

"Agnes?"

The housekeeper stopped.

"Where is the blue room?"

"There are thirty-two bedrooms in this house."

"Which one did my father know?"

Agnes looked at Richard.

He said, "Answer her."

Agnes sat slowly.

"Third floor. North corner."

Richard frowned.

"That room's been closed since my father died."

"No," Agnes said. "It was closed after Miguel Reyes finished work there."

Elena stared.

"My father worked inside this house?"

"For two weeks."

"Why didn't my mother know?"

"He told the crew it was a private residence."

Richard stood.

"What was he doing?"

"Installing fireproof storage behind the old wardrobe."

Elena looked at the laptop.

The house remembers.

She ran.

The blue room smelled of dust and cedar.

Furniture sat beneath white sheets.

A faded blue wallpaper covered the walls.

The wardrobe stood against the far side.

Elena pulled it open.

Empty.

Richard and Owen arrived behind her.

"Fireproof storage," Elena said.

Owen inspected the back panel.

"There's no latch."

Noah appeared in the doorway.

"Wrong side."

Richard turned.

"Noah, you were supposed to stay with Miriam."

"Gabe said help."

He walked to the wall beside the wardrobe and pressed a carved wooden bird.

A click sounded.

The entire wardrobe shifted forward.

Behind it was a narrow steel cabinet.

Elena's breath caught.

"My father built this?"

Agnes, standing at the door, nodded.

"He said the mechanism was old-fashioned but reliable."

The cabinet contained three binders.

A portable hard drive.

And a sealed envelope.

Elena picked it up.

Her name was written across the front.

ELENA REYES.

Her knees weakened.

Richard reached for her.

She pulled away.

"I can stand."

She opened it.

Inside was a letter.

Mija,

If you are reading this, then I failed to get far enough away from what I found.

I am sorry.

Elena stopped.

The words blurred.

She forced herself to continue.

The family whose house I am working in is hiding children harmed by a medical program. I do not know how many. I know one boy named Gabriel is alive and was declared dead. I know records are being moved and destroyed.

I copied what I could.

If something happens to me, do not trust the company, the police report, or anyone who tells you I was careless.

I was not careless.

You taught me to look twice before crossing a street.

Remember?

I looked twice.

Elena pressed the paper to her mouth.

For a moment, she was thirteen again, holding her father's hand at a crosswalk.

Richard turned away.

Owen stared at the floor.

The letter continued.

There is a woman in the house named Agnes Bell who helped me hide this.

Do not blame her.

She is afraid.

She has reason to be.

Elena looked at Agnes.

The housekeeper was crying silently.

"You knew."

Agnes nodded.

"All this time."

"I knew some."

"You let my mother believe he caused his own death."

"I was told Mateo would be next."

Elena stood so fast the chair struck the wall.

"Who told you?"

"Caleb Voss."

"Why didn't you go to police?"

"I did."

Everyone froze.

Agnes wiped her face.

"I called Detective Lawrence Keene in Greenwich. He met me once. After that, he stopped returning calls. Two days later, Voss repeated the exact words I had told Keene."

Owen swore quietly.

Richard said, "Keene retired last year."

"Then someone paid him," Elena said.

Agnes looked at her.

"I am sorry."

Elena wanted to scream.

Instead she looked at the binders.

"Open them."

The first binder contained medical charts.

Names were replaced with codes.

Dates.

Dosages.

Neurological outcomes.

Adverse events.

Richard read one page.

His face turned gray.

"This is human experimentation."

Owen flipped farther.

"Here."

A column listed authorization initials.

E.H.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Evelyn Hawthorne.

Another set appeared beside several entries.

J.M.

Julian Mercer.

Richard found a form marked TWIN B.

At the bottom was his signature.

Elena saw it.

So did everyone else.

Richard stared.

"I signed this."

Agnes said nothing.

Elena asked, "Did you know?"

"No."

"The form says experimental intervention."

"The page I signed said rescue respiratory protocol."

"Your signature is here."

"I know."

His voice cracked.

"I know what my name looks like."

Elena watched him.

He did not defend himself further.

He sat down.

"My sons were dying."

Noah stood in the doorway.

Richard saw him.

Everything in his face collapsed.

"Noah."

The boy looked at the form.

"Did you hurt Gabe?"

Richard stood.

"No."

"You signed."

"I signed something because doctors told me it might save both of you."

"Did it?"

Richard could not answer.

Noah ran.

Richard started after him.

Elena caught his sleeve.

"Let Miriam."

He stopped.

"I need him to know."

"He needs you to know first."

Richard looked at her.

"What?"

"Whether you're going to protect yourself or tell the truth."

Richard stared at the forms.

Then he nodded.

"Everything goes public."

Owen lifted his head.

"That will destroy Hawthorne Biomed."

"If this is real, it deserves to be destroyed."

Elena opened the second binder.

Financial records.

Payments to hospitals.

Settlements.

Transfers through shell foundations.

One name appeared repeatedly.

VOSS CONSULTING.

Another.

MERCER CLINICAL SERVICES.

Then a date two days before Miguel Reyes died.

$175,000.

Recipient: C. VOSS.

Memo: SITE CONTAINMENT.

Elena stopped breathing.

Richard read over her shoulder.

"Site containment."

Owen's jaw hardened.

"That's not construction language."

Elena whispered, "He killed my father."

"No," Owen said. "It proves payment. Not murder."

"Don't protect them."

"I'm protecting the evidence from becoming an accusation we can't support."

She hated that he was right.

The third binder held photographs.

Hospital rooms.

Infants.

Children in wheelchairs.

Parents signing forms.

A little girl with burns along her scalp.

A boy with a feeding tube.

Elena had to stop halfway through.

"How did this continue?"

Richard answered without looking at her.

"Because our company funds half the institutions that should have questioned it."

There was no pride in his voice.

Only horror.

Owen connected the hard drive.

It contained encrypted folders.

One was labeled GABRIEL.

Another was labeled DISPOSITION.

Another was labeled REYES.

Elena's hand tightened around the mouse.

Before she could open it, the fire alarm screamed.

Red lights flashed.

Smoke pushed beneath the blue-room door.

Owen moved instantly.

"Everyone out."

Richard grabbed the binders.

Elena took the drive and her father's letter.

They reached the hall.

Smoke poured from the stairwell.

Agnes coughed.

"Archive room."

Owen looked toward the west side.

"That's directly below us."

Richard's face changed.

"The original Lark files."

A crash echoed downstairs.

Then another.

Owen pulled his radio.

"Security, report."

Static.

No answer.

He tried again.

Nothing.

Elena looked toward the window.

A black SUV tore away from the rear drive.

"Owen."

He saw it.

"Stay here."

"No."

"Elena."

"Someone is burning evidence."

"And I am going after them."

"So am I."

Richard blocked her.

"You have the drive."

She glared at him.

"Exactly."

Richard understood.

"Get it off the property."

Owen tossed Elena a key.

"Silver Volvo. East garage."

Elena caught it.

"Where do I go?"

"Anywhere public."

Agnes took her arm.

"Go to St. Catherine's."

Elena looked at her.

"Why?"

"Your father left something there too."

"What?"

Agnes's voice trembled.

"A confession."

Then the glass at the end of the corridor shattered.

A shot struck the wall.

Richard shoved Elena down.

Owen drew his weapon.

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"Move!"

Elena ran with her father's letter against her chest while smoke and alarms swallowed the Hawthorne house behind her.