Chapter 14 - The House Without Windows.
Mara did not tell anyone about the message for twelve seconds.
Adrian knew anyway.
He watched her face.
“What did you get?”
She looked at him.
“Nothing.”
He waited.
Mara sighed.
“I hate that you can do that.”
“Show me.”
She held up the phone.
Adrian read the message.
“No.”
Mara laughed.
“You did not even pretend to consider it.”
“You are not going alone.”
“That is what the message requires.”
“I noticed.”
“Then maybe the person sending it has a reason.”
“The person sending it is using your father as bait.”
“Or my father is sending it.”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
The newspaper was current.
The station clock matched the timestamp metadata.
Mirror could fabricate both.
That was the problem with a system designed to make truth negotiable.
Kane stepped closer.
“The platform is in Croton.”
Marcus checked the next train schedule.
“Twenty-five minutes away.”
Mara looked at Adrian.
“I am going.”
He held her gaze.
“I know.”
That answer surprised her.
“You're not going alone.”
“That answer does not.”
They compromised badly.
Mara would approach the platform alone.
Adrian and Marcus would remain far enough away to stay out of sight.
Nolan would monitor traffic cameras from the car.
Eleanor and Celeste would stay at the house with Kane.
Nobody trusted the arrangement.
That was probably why it worked.
The Croton station was crowded enough to hide almost anyone.
Mara walked onto the platform wearing a gray coat instead of the green shirt Mirror seemed obsessed with copying.
She scanned faces.
No Thomas.
No obvious watcher.
Her phone buzzed.
PLATFORM THREE.
She crossed the pedestrian bridge.
Adrian watched from behind a newspaper kiosk forty yards away.
Marcus muttered into his earpiece.
“I hate this.”
“So do I.”
“You hide it better.”
“No, I don't.”
Mara reached platform three.
A man sat alone on a bench near the far end.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
Hands folded over a cane.
She recognized the angle of his face from childhood photographs before he looked up.
Thomas Ellis stood.
Mara stopped walking.
Twenty years of absence compressed into the space between them.
Thomas's eyes filled.
“Hi, kiddo.”
Mara's face hardened immediately.
“Don't.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Mom is alive.”
“Yes.”
“You both let me believe you were dead.”
“Yes.”
Mara laughed without humor.
“Everyone has become very good at admitting things after I discover them.”
Thomas looked older than the photograph from Boston.
Tired too.
He glanced toward the crowd.
“You shouldn't have brought Adrian.”
Mara's stomach tightened.
“He isn't here.”
Thomas gave her a sad look.
“You were never a good liar.”
Forty yards away, Adrian went still.
Thomas knew exactly where he was.
Mara crossed her arms.
“Are you working for Mirror?”
Thomas looked down at the tracks.
“I am working inside it.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only safe one.”
“Safe for who?”
“You.”
Mara's voice sharpened.
“Stop using that word.”
Thomas flinched.
For the first time, she saw guilt rather than strategy.
“Okay.”
He sat again.
“Then I will tell you the ugly version.”
Mara remained standing.
“Mirror needed a legal beneficiary to complete its succession protocol.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“I spent years keeping your identity outside the system.”
“So why am I inside now?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Because Celeste put you there.”
Mara stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She said Mirror found me.”
“It did.”
“After she moved you into Vale.”
Mara felt the platform tilt beneath her.
Thomas continued.
“Celeste believed the only way to destroy Mirror was to force it to complete succession.”
“Then what?”
“Then use the three physical keys before it could install a new controller.”
Mara looked at the black card hidden in her coat.
“So she used me.”
Thomas did not soften it.
“Yes.”
Mara swallowed.
“Did you agree?”
“No.”
“Is that why you joined Mirror?”
“I joined because I needed access to the termination layer.”
“Did you meet a man using Adrian's face?”
“Yes.”
“Who was he?”
Thomas looked toward Adrian's hiding place.
“Not a stand-in.”
Mara frowned.
“What?”
“He was Adrian.”
Her blood went cold.
“No.”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“Mirror has been using Adrian without his knowledge.”
Mara stared at him.
“How?”
“Sedation.”
“Memory suppression.”
“Controlled travel.”
“Short windows.”
Mara's face lost color.
“He would know.”
Thomas shook his head.
“That is the point.”
Adrian heard every word through the earpiece Mara had forgotten was open.
He stepped out from behind the kiosk.
Thomas saw him and closed his eyes.
“I told you not to bring him.”
Adrian walked toward them.
“You're saying I was in Boston.”
Thomas stood.
“Yes.”
“I remember being in New York.”
“You were returned before morning.”
Adrian's hand moved toward his temple.
Missing nights.
Headaches.
Security logs that showed him entering his apartment when he did not remember arriving.
Mara stepped between them.
“Who is doing this?”
Thomas looked at Adrian.
“Someone with access to his medical history, private residence, and schedule.”
Marcus arrived behind Adrian.
“That list is short.”
Thomas nodded.
“It gets shorter.”
A train thundered into the station.
The noise swallowed his next words.
Thomas grabbed Mara's hand and pressed a small folded card into it.
Then he stepped backward toward the opening doors.
Mara caught his sleeve.
“You are not disappearing again.”
Thomas looked at her.
“I am trying to keep the shutdown alive.”
“Then stay.”
His eyes filled.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked over her shoulder at Adrian.
“Because the person controlling him is standing inside his life right now.”
The train doors began closing.
Thomas stepped aboard.
Mara tried to follow, but Adrian caught the door too late.
The train pulled away.
She opened the folded card.
One name was written inside.
MARCUS REED.
Mara slowly looked up.
May you like
Marcus was standing beside Adrian.
THE SYNDICATE'S QUIET HOUR
