Chapter 18 - Betrayal at the Door
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An hour later, our armored sedan sped through the heavy wrought-iron gates of the Carter Estate, an imposing Gothic stone mansion overlooking the foggy Hudson River.
The house was dark, preserved like a museum of Ethan’s childhood memories.
We hurried inside through the conservatory entrance, Ethan leading us down a grand spiral staircase into the sprawling wine cellar beneath the main house. He walked over to a heavy brick wall, pressed his palm against a hidden biometric scanner disguised as an antique wine rack, and entered a twelve-digit passcode.
The brick wall slid open with a low, pneumatic hiss.
Behind it lay a climate-controlled server room filled with glowing blue lights and rack servers—the secret heart of Charles Carter’s underground intelligence network.
"There it is," Lucas said, pointing to a central terminal glowing with a prompt screen.
Ethan stepped up to the keyboard. "To unlock the master file, I need three things: my fingerprint, Lucas’s voice authorization, and..."
"And the silver paper heart," I finished, pulling the small ornament from my coat pocket. "The micro-film strip needs to be inserted into the optical drive."
"Precisely," a quiet, sad voice echoed from the doorway behind us.
We turned around.
Standing at the entrance of the server room was Mrs. Dalton, the estate's elderly housekeeper, who had raised Ethan after his mother died. She was crying softly, holding an old snub-nosed revolver in her trembling hands.
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Behind her stepped Dr. Andrew Vaughn, Senator Collins, and Elizabeth Bennett.
"I'm so sorry, Master Ethan," Mrs. Dalton sobbed, her hands shaking violently. "They... they have my grandson. Senator Collins said he would kill him if I didn't open the perimeter security for them."
