A padlock clicked.
Mason ran forward.
"Hey!"
A vehicle engine started.
Then another.
He shoved against the door.
Nothing.
Gasoline smell entered beneath the metal.
His blood froze.
"No."
Liquid splashed across the concrete outside.
Six years earlier, Adrian's warehouse had burned.
Mercer apparently appreciated repetition.
Mason kicked the door.
Once.
Twice.
Metal bent slightly.
Then he remembered the motorcycle.
He rolled Adrian's old Harley backward.
No fuel.
Of course.
But weight was enough.
Mason positioned it facing the rear wall.
Storage units were built from thin corrugated panels.
He pushed.
The motorcycle hit the wall.
Again.
Again.
The panel buckled.
Smoke entered beneath the front door.
Firelight flickered.
Mason pushed harder.
The wall tore open.
He crawled through.
Flames raced across the front row of units.
Mason ran.
A man emerged near the fence.
Mason tackled him.
They crashed into gravel.
The man wore no club colors.
One of Mercer's private contractors.
Mason ripped a phone from his pocket.
On the screen was an unread message.
Confirm Holt is inside. Then move on the shelter.
Mason stopped breathing.
The shelter.
Ellie.
He ran toward the road.
His phone showed six missed calls.
All from Sister Margaret.
Mason called.
No answer.
Then a text arrived.
From Ruth.
THEY'RE HERE.
Mason reached Saint Luke's seven minutes later.
Police vehicles were already outside.
For one terrible second he thought he was too late.
Then Sister Margaret opened the door.
"Inside."
Mason ran past her.
Ruth sat in the dining room.
Ellie was beside her.
Safe.
Mason almost collapsed.
"What happened?"
Margaret answered.
"Two men came asking about a lost child."
Mason looked at her.
"What did you do?"
"Told them this is a shelter and everybody here is lost somehow."
Despite everything, Mason nearly smiled.
"They tried the rear entrance. One of our residents recognized them from a photograph Ruth had."
Ruth held up her phone.
Caleb had sent images.
Margaret continued.
"I called a deputy I trust."
Mason's expression hardened.
"No police."
"Relax. He's my nephew."
A uniformed man approached.
Deputy Samuel Doyle.
Margaret pointed.
"Samuel has three children and is terrified of me. Therefore he can be trusted."
Samuel sighed.
"Thank you, Aunt Maggie."
Mason explained what had happened at Unit 318.
When he mentioned Adrian's recording, Ruth began crying silently.
Ellie listened without moving.
"Was Dad alive after the fire?" she asked.
Mason looked at her.
"Yes."
"How long?"
"I don't know."
"Then maybe he's alive now."
Nobody answered.
Hope could be cruel.
Mason refused to feed a child something that might destroy her later.
"There were coordinates," he said.
Samuel entered them into a map.
A location appeared sixty miles west.
An abandoned Wayfarer campground near Black Elk Reservoir.
Bear Maddox knew it.
The club had used the land for charity rallies decades earlier.
Mason called him.
Bear answered immediately.
"You alive?"
"Barely."
Mason told him the location.
Silence.
Then Bear whispered, "The cabin."
"What cabin?"
"Adrian built one out there."
Mason closed his eyes.
Of course he had.
"I'll meet you."
Ellie stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"But—"
"No."
"He's my dad."
Mason crouched.
"And if your dad left all these instructions to keep you safe, what do you think he'd say if I drove you into whatever this is?"
Her jaw tightened.
Again, Adrian.
"That's not fair."
"No."
"Adults always say things aren't fair when they want kids to stop arguing."
Mason almost smiled.
"Your father said exactly that when he was twenty-nine."
Ellie looked surprised.
Mason touched the brass tag around her neck.
"Stay with Ruth."
She looked away.
"Ellie."
Finally she nodded.
As Mason stood, she caught his hand.
"Dad had another rule."
"What?"
"If you think you're alone, check twice."
Mason frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
Ruth stared.
"Where did you hear that?"
"Dad used to say it when we played hide-and-seek."
Mason's attention sharpened.
Maybe it was meaningless.
With Adrian, probably not.
Mason, Bear, Eli, Jonas, and Deputy Samuel drove toward Black Elk Reservoir.
The rain turned to sleet in the mountains.
At 2:10 a.m., they reached the abandoned campground.
The cabin stood among pine trees.
No lights.
No vehicles.
The door was unlocked.
Inside they found dust.
A table.
A cold fireplace.
An old Wayfarer banner hung on one wall.
Mason searched.
Nothing.
Bear said, "We're too late."
Mason remembered Ellie's words.
If you think you're alone, check twice.
"Wait."
He walked outside.
Checked around the building.
Nothing.
Then he looked beneath it.
The cabin stood on concrete supports.
One section had been covered with boards.
Mason pulled them away.
A steel hatch appeared.
Bear whispered, "Adrian, you paranoid genius."
They opened it.
Stairs descended underground.
The basement smelled of damp earth.
At the bottom they found shelves filled with files.
Computer drives.
Photographs.
Boxes of documents.
And a wall covered with names.
Dozens.
Victims moved through Wayfarer safe houses.
Some had green marks beside them.
Others red.
Mason understood.
Green meant safely relocated.
Red meant compromised.
Mercer had been selling people.
Samuel photographed everything.
"This can destroy him."
"Not without chain of custody," Mason said.
Samuel nodded.
"But it's enough for warrants."
Bear stared at the names.
His face crumpled.
"I drove some of these people."
Eli touched one photograph.
"I told this woman she was safe."
Nobody spoke.
Mason found another recorder.
He pressed play.
Adrian's voice.
"The second rule is this: if you think you're alone, check twice."
Mason smiled despite himself.
"I told Ellie that because children deserve to believe someone is coming for them."
His voice became quieter.
"I didn't know she'd eventually need the rule herself."
Mason's smile vanished.
"If you found this room, Grant probably found Hannah."
Ruth's daughter.
Ellie's mother.
Mason gripped the recorder.
"She knows where the final ledger is."
Adrian gave another address.
A house in a mining town called Silver Creek.
Then came the words Mason feared.
"If Hannah is alive, Grant needs her."
Alive.
"If she isn't..."
Adrian paused.
"Then tell Ellie her mother was braver than any of us."
Mason stopped the recording.
Bear looked toward him.
"We go to Silver Creek."
Samuel shook his head.
"We call state investigators."
"And wait six hours?"
"You are not law enforcement."
"No."
Mason looked at the wall of red names.
"But I helped build the system that made this possible."
"That doesn't make you responsible for Mercer."
Mason thought about it.
"No."
He looked at the broken compass tattoo.
"But knowing now makes me responsible for what I do next."
They left the cabin at three.
Halfway down the mountain, Samuel's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Mason stopped.
Samuel put the call on speaker.
Ruth's terrified voice filled the truck.
"Mason."
"I'm here."
"They took Ellie."
Everything inside Mason went cold.
"How?"
"Caleb came."
Mason could not understand.
"Caleb?"
"He said the shelter wasn't safe. He had a message from you."
Bear swore.
Ruth sobbed.
"I thought you sent him."
Mason closed his eyes.
Adrian's warning returned.
Do not trust the club because of the patch.
Caleb had protected them at the terminal.
Or appeared to.
Maybe that had been the trick.
"Where did he take her?"
"I don't know."
Mason's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Ellie sat in a chair.
Unhurt.
Terrified.
Behind her stood Grant Mercer.
He was older now.
Silver-haired.
Still wearing the Wayfarer president's vest.
Below the image was a message.
SILVER CREEK. COME ALONE. BRING ADRIAN'S FILES.
Another message arrived.
HE SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD.
Mason stared at those words.
Not "he should have died."
Stayed dead.
Bear saw it too.
"What does that mean?"
Mason looked toward the dark mountain road.
The possibility he had refused to give Ellie suddenly became impossible to ignore.
Adrian Cole might still be alive.
Silver Creek had once been a mining town.
By four-thirty in the morning, it looked like a place abandoned by both people and time.
Boarded storefronts lined Main Street.
Snow gathered along sidewalks.
The address Mercer provided belonged to the old Silver Crown Hotel.
Mason parked two blocks away.
Samuel grabbed his arm.
"You're not going alone."
"The message says—"
"I don't care."
Mason looked at Bear.
Adrian's second rule.
If you think you're alone, check twice.
"Fine."
They separated.
Mason entered through the front.
Bear and Eli circled behind.
Samuel called state police and federal investigators, giving them every piece of evidence they had discovered.
Jonas remained with the vehicles.
Inside the hotel, emergency lights illuminated the lobby.
Caleb stood near the stairs.
Mason stopped.
"You."
Caleb raised both hands.
"Listen."
"You took her."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Mercer would've killed Ruth to get Ellie."