Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE ON THE WATERThe stormy night air battered my windshield as I pushed my SUV past eighty miles per hour down the dark, winding mountain roads. Detective Miller was right behind me in an unmarked cruiser, his sirens cutting through the torrential downpour.
The lake house had belonged to my family for generations. Nestled on the isolated shores of Blackwood Lake, it was the place where my father spent weeks locked away in his private laboratory in the basement during my childhood. I hadn't stepped foot on the property since his supposed funeral four years ago.
"Sarah, slow down!" Miller’s voice crackled through my car speakers via hands-free call. "We don't have tactical backup up there yet! If Mark or your father's people are at the estate, you are walking into an ambush!"
"My daughter has twelve hours to live, Detective!" I screamed into the mic. "I'm not waiting for a SWAT team to sign paperwork!"
I slammed on the brakes as the massive wrought-iron gates of the Vance estate loomed out of the darkness. They were wide open, hanging off their hinges as if forced by heavy machinery. Fresh tire tracks cut deep ruts into the muddy driveway leading up to the dark, Victorian-style mansion.
I leapt out of the car before it had even fully stopped, my flashlight beam cutting through the sheets of rain. Miller slammed his door shut behind me, pulling his service weapon from its holster.
"Stay behind me," Miller commanded, scanning the dark treeline. "The power to the estate is cut."
We sprinted past the overgrown gardens toward the old wooden water wheel on the side of the stone boathouse. Water churned violently beneath it, splashing freezing spray into our faces. I rolled up my sleeve and plunged my arm into the icy water, feeling along the slick mossy rocks behind the main wooden axel.
My fingers brushed against something hard and metallic. A heavy iron key secured to a waterproof magnetic box.
I pulled it out and popped the latch. Inside was a keycard stamped with the Vance Pharmaceuticals logo and a small black USB drive.
"We got it," I gasped, holding up the keycard.
Before Miller could reply, a high-pitched whine echoed from the shadows of the boathouse, followed by the muffled thwip-thwip of silenced gunfire.
Miller groaned, taking a violent step backward as two red spots bloomed across his chest armor. He collapsed into the mud, pulling me down with him behind a stone pillar.
"Go!" Miller coughed, blood staining his lips as he handed me his spare sidearm. "Get inside... the basement lab... go!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Go, Sarah! Save your daughter!"
I grabbed the gun, turned, and bolted toward the heavy reinforced door at the side of the main house. I swiped the keycard across the digital reader. The light flashed green, and the heavy steel door unlocked with a deep pneumatic hiss.
I threw myself inside and slammed the door shut just as bullets slammed against the exterior steel.
The interior of the house was dead silent, smelled of ozone, bleach, and expensive cigars. I followed a long, dimly lit corridor that descended deep beneath the mountain stone. At the end of the hall sat a massive glass-walled laboratory filled with state-of-the-art medical equipment, glowing computer monitors, and rows of glass vials filled with glowing blue liquid.
In the center of the room sat a man in a tailored suit, his back turned to me, calmly sipping a glass of scotch while watching a live monitor feed of Sophie's hospital room.
"You always were reckless when you were angry, Sarah," the man said, his voice instantly recognizable.
He turned his chair around.
It was my father, Charles Vance. He didn't look a day older than the night he supposedly died.
May you like
"You're alive," I breathed, raising the gun with both hands, pointing it directly at his chest. "You monster... you used my baby!"
Charles took a slow sip of his drink and smiled fondly at me. "Used her? My dear child, I am saving her. I am saving our entire bloodline."
