Chapter 4: The Secret Room Beneath the Garage
The camera flash vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Mason yanked Emma away from the window.
"Down!"
A deafening crack shattered the night.
The bullet punched through the garage window exactly where Emma had been standing a second earlier.
Glass exploded across the concrete floor.
Emma covered her ears, shaking.
"They found us..."
Mason grabbed the old shotgun hanging on the wall.
It hadn't been fired in years.
He checked it anyway.
Still loaded.
Outside...
Three black SUVs surrounded the building.
Men dressed in tactical gear stepped out without saying a word.
No police badges.
No license plates.
Just black uniforms and earpieces.
One of them spoke calmly into a radio.
"Target confirmed."
"The girl is alive."
"The father is with her."
"Permission to eliminate both?"
A cold voice answered through the speaker.
"Negative."
"Bring the girl."
"Kill Mason."
Inside the garage...
Emma looked at the old folder again.
"Mason..."
"There's another page."
He flipped to the back.
A rough blueprint was taped inside.
It showed the garage.
But something was strange.
According to the blueprint...
The building had a basement.
Mason frowned.
"There is no basement."
Emma pointed to a faded note written by hand.
The truth is buried beneath the floor.
Before Mason could react—
BOOM!
The front garage door exploded inward.
Steel twisted like paper.
Smoke filled the room.
The attackers were coming.
"Move!"
Mason dragged a heavy workbench across the floor.
As it scraped across the concrete...
CLANK!
The sound wasn't solid.
He dropped to one knee and pounded the floor.
"Hollow..."
Using a crowbar, he pried up the rusted metal plate hidden beneath decades of dust.
A narrow staircase appeared beneath it.
Emma stared in disbelief.
"It was real..."
Without another second to waste, they climbed down.
Mason slammed the hatch shut above them just as boots thundered across the garage floor.
The attackers never noticed the hidden entrance.
The underground room smelled of old paper and machine oil.
Dust covered everything.
Shelves lined every wall.
Hundreds of cardboard boxes.
Filing cabinets.
Video tapes.
Photographs.
And one ancient reel-to-reel recorder sitting on a desk.
A small yellow sticky note rested on top.
FOR MASON.
His hands trembled as he pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then...
A familiar voice.
Claire.
"If you're hearing this..."
"...they failed."
Mason's knees nearly gave out.
Claire continued.
"I discovered something I was never supposed to see."
"It wasn't just your father."
"There were judges..."
"Police..."
"Military officers..."
"They've been creating fake deaths for decades."
"They erase people."
"Steal children."
"Hide witnesses."
"And anyone who gets too close..."
"...simply disappears."
Emma clutched Mason's arm.
"My mom knew all of this?"
He nodded silently.
Then Claire's voice suddenly changed.
She sounded terrified.
"They're coming."
"If I don't survive..."
"There's only one person you can trust."
The recording crackled.
A single name escaped the speakers.
Agent Daniel Ross.
The tape stopped.
Silence.
Mason searched the room frantically.
Every file mentioned the same operation.
PROJECT GHOST.
Thousands of names.
Thousands of disappeared citizens.
Each file stamped:
CASE CLOSED. DECEASED.
Even though many of them had never died.
Then Emma gasped.
She picked up a framed photograph hidden behind a dusty box.
It showed a younger Claire...
Standing beside Mason.
Holding a newborn baby.
Mason smiled through his tears.
"The day you were born..."
Emma looked closer.
"There are three people in this picture."
Mason's smile disappeared.
Standing beside Claire...
His arm wrapped protectively around the family...
Was a man wearing a federal badge.
The same man Claire had just named on the tape.
Agent Daniel Ross.
But someone had written one sentence across the back of the photograph in fresh black ink.
DON'T TRUST HIM.
Before Mason could process what it meant...
A loud metallic click echoed above them.
The hidden hatch slowly began to open.
May you like
Someone had found the secret room.
To Be Continued...
