Chapter 4 – The Brother No One Was Allowed to Remember
The words echoed through the burning garage.
“The man you buried… was never your real father.”
For a moment...
Everything around Ethan disappeared.
The gunfire.
The flames.
The screams.
Only those eight words remained.
He stared at the silver-haired stranger.
“You're lying.”
The man slowly lowered his weapon.
“I wish I were.”
Bullets shattered the windshield of the old Mustang.
Glass exploded across the floor.
The stranger grabbed Ethan's wrist.
“We don't have time!”
A black smoke grenade rolled between the burning cars.
BOOM!
The garage disappeared beneath thick gray smoke.
The stranger lifted Ethan into his arms and sprinted through the chaos.
Behind them, Victoria screamed.
“DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!”
Masked soldiers exchanged fire with the mansion's security team.
No one noticed a hidden elevator opening behind a concrete wall.
The silver-haired man pressed his thumb against a scanner.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The elevator doors slid open.
He stepped inside with Ethan just as bullets struck the closing doors.
CLANG!
Darkness.
Silence.
The elevator descended.
Level -1...
Level -2...
Level -5...
Then...
Level -12.
Ethan looked at the display.
“There aren't twelve basement levels…”
“There are,” the man replied quietly.
“They just don't exist on any blueprint.”
The doors opened into a massive underground tunnel.
Bright white lights stretched as far as Ethan could see.
Electric vehicles moved silently through the passage.
Scientists hurried past carrying sealed cases.
Armed guards nodded respectfully at the silver-haired man.
Nobody seemed surprised to see him.
Nobody questioned why an eight-year-old boy had arrived covered in ash.
Ethan whispered,
“Where are we?”
The man smiled faintly.
“The place your father spent twenty years building.”
Minutes later...
A giant steel door opened.
Beyond it stood a city beneath the city.
Laboratories.
Medical centers.
Artificial waterfalls.
Rows of trees growing beneath enormous skylights.
Thousands of people lived underground.
Families.
Children.
Doctors.
Engineers.
An entire hidden civilization.
Ethan couldn't believe his eyes.
“This... this is impossible.”
“No,” the man answered.
“It was simply hidden.”
Inside a private office, the stranger finally removed his leather gloves.
“My name is Daniel Carter.”
He placed an old photograph on the table.
It showed two identical twin brothers.
Jonathan.
Daniel.
Both smiling.
Both wearing the same Carter family pendant.
Ethan gasped.
“They're twins...”
Daniel nodded.
“No one outside our family ever knew.”
“Why?”
“Because someone wanted one of us erased.”
Daniel opened a dusty file marked:
PROJECT PHOENIX
Inside were newspaper clippings dating back thirty years.
One headline read:
CARTER HEIR DIES IN MOUNTAIN ACCIDENT
Below it...
A photograph of twelve-year-old Daniel.
Ethan frowned.
“But you're alive.”
“Yes.”
“The accident was staged.”
“By who?”
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
“Ashton Blackwell.”
“The most powerful man you've never heard of.”
Daniel walked to a giant screen.
A face appeared.
White hair.
Perfect suit.
Cold blue eyes.
Age: 72.
Occupation:
Officially...
Retired philanthropist.
Unofficially...
Owner of governments.
Banks.
Private armies.
Media corporations.
Daniel spoke quietly.
“He controls presidents.”
“He starts wars.”
“He buys judges.”
“And for thirty years…”
“…he has been hunting our family.”
Ethan's stomach tightened.
“So Victoria works for him?”
Daniel shook his head.
“She thinks she does.”
“What do you mean?”
“She believes she's his partner.”
Daniel's expression darkened.
“But to Ashton…”
“…everyone is disposable.”
Suddenly...
One of the underground security officers burst into the room.
“Sir!”
Daniel turned immediately.
“What happened?”
The officer's face had gone completely white.
“We've just intercepted encrypted satellite footage.”
Daniel opened the file.
His expression froze.
Ethan looked at the screen...
And felt his entire world collapse.
The video showed the helicopter explosion from three days earlier.
Jonathan Carter never entered the helicopter.
Instead...
Moments before takeoff...
He secretly switched places with another man wearing an identical suit.
The man who burned inside the wreckage...
Wasn't Jonathan.
It was his personal bodyguard.
Ethan's eyes filled with tears.
“So...”
“My dad really is alive?”
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Instead...
He enlarged the final frame of the video.
Jonathan could be seen climbing into a black SUV.
Exactly twelve minutes later...
The SUV exploded.
There was nothing left.
Daniel slowly closed his eyes.
“No…”
“That explosion wasn't an accident either.”
Ethan's voice trembled.
“So... is he alive?”
Daniel looked directly into the boy's eyes.
“I honestly don't know.”
Before anyone could speak again...
Every monitor in the underground city suddenly went black.
Then a single face appeared on every screen.
Ashton Blackwell.
He smiled calmly.
“Good evening, Daniel.”
“I've finally found your little sanctuary.”
The lights flickered.
A deafening siren echoed through the underground city.
WARNING. PERIMETER BREACHED.
MULTIPLE HOSTILE UNITS DETECTED.
Ashton smiled wider.
“You've spent thirty years hiding…”
May you like
“…but tonight…”
“…the Carter bloodline ends forever.”
End of Chapter 4…
