Chapter 2 - SEVEN MINUTES“Why are you here?”
Nathan Cole stared at Maya for a long second.
Then he looked at the camera mounted in the upper corner of the room.
“Because Grant Harrow is going to murder three hundred people tonight.”
Maya’s fingers tightened around the flashlight.
Above them, applause thundered through the mansion.
It sounded monstrous now.
“What?”
“Six minutes,” Nathan said. “You can ask questions, or you can decide whether your mother gets to see tomorrow.”
“Stop using my mother to scare me.”
“I’m trying to keep her alive.”
“You just told me she would die if I screamed.”
“I told you what Harrow will do.”
Nathan leaned forward, chains scraping against concrete.
Pain crossed his face.
For the first time Maya noticed something strange about his bruises. They were terrible, but deliberate. Not the chaotic damage of a beating. Thin parallel marks ran along his ribs. His left hand had two burned fingertips.
Someone had been asking questions.
And Nathan had not answered.
He nodded toward the steel cabinet behind her.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
Her blood went cold.
“You know my name.”
“It’s on your chest.”
She glanced stupidly at her name tag.
Nathan almost smiled.
It vanished quickly.
“Cabinet. Bottom drawer.”
Maya hesitated, then pulled it open.
Medical supplies.
Zip ties.
A handgun.
And beneath them, three passports.
She froze.
All three contained photographs of young women.
All three had the same surname.
Bennett.
Maya pulled one free.
The woman in the photograph looked nothing like her.
“What is this?”
“Insurance.”
“Whose?”
“Grant’s.”
Nathan nodded toward another drawer.
Maya opened it.
Inside were dozens of employee files.
Housekeepers.
Drivers.
Nurses.
Gardeners.
Assistants.
Every file contained photographs of family members, medical histories, debts, immigration documents, school schedules.
Ordinary lives catalogued like weaknesses.
Then Maya found hers.
MAYA BENNETT.
She opened it.
Her mother’s hospital photograph was clipped to the first page.
Underneath was a medication chart.
Maya’s stomach dropped.
Someone had circled one medication in red.
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE.
Beside it were four handwritten words.
IF NECESSARY — ROOM 614.
Maya stopped breathing.
Nathan watched her.
“I’m sorry.”
She turned on him.
“You knew.”
“I found the files before they caught me.”
“Then why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I did.”
“To who?”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“Federal prosecutor Daniel Mercer.”
Maya waited.
“And?”
“He disappeared eleven days ago.”
Thunder shook the walls.
The lights flickered.
Nathan looked toward the camera.
“Five minutes.”
Maya’s thoughts raced.
“Three hundred people,” she whispered. “What happens to them?”
“The charity auction starts at midnight. Harrow will move everyone into the glass ballroom.”
“I’ve cleaned that room.”
“Then you’ve seen the ventilation system.”
Maya remembered polished brass vents running beneath the windows.
Nathan continued.
“Grant is going to release an incapacitating aerosol into the ballroom. Nobody dies immediately. They collapse. Security seals the doors. A fire starts in the west wing twelve minutes later.”
Maya stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if seventeen people attending tonight have evidence that can destroy him.”
“Then why kill everyone?”
“Because seventeen targeted deaths create an investigation.”
Nathan’s voice hardened.
“Three hundred deaths during a catastrophic electrical fire create a tragedy.”
Maya felt sick.
Grant Harrow.
The man whose photograph hung in hospitals.
The man who funded shelters.
The man who had paid for Ruth Bennett’s treatment.
“He saved my mother.”
“No,” Nathan said softly. “He purchased your gratitude.”
Something snapped inside her.
She crossed the room and slapped him.
The sound cracked through the basement.
Nathan’s face turned with the blow.
Maya immediately looked horrified.
“I—”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I’ve had worse this week.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
For some reason, that silenced him.
Maya saw something almost human enter Nathan’s eyes.
Not the cold calculation from the news photographs.
Surprise.
“You’re apologizing to me?”
“I hit you.”
“You thought I threatened your mother.”
“You did threaten her.”
“I communicate badly.”
Despite everything, Maya nearly laughed.
Then footsteps sounded outside.
Nathan’s face changed instantly.
“Light off.”
Maya killed the flashlight.
Darkness swallowed them.
A second later, Nathan whispered, “Behind the door.”
Maya moved.
The steel door opened.
A flashlight beam swept across the floor.
A man entered.
Maya recognized him.
Victor Dane.
Chief of security.
He had searched her purse when she arrived for work.
He walked toward Nathan.
“You comfortable?”
Nathan lifted his head.
“Your hospitality lacks imagination.”
Victor smiled.
Then he punched Nathan across the mouth.
Maya flinched behind the door.
Victor grabbed Nathan’s hair.
“Where is the drive?”
Nathan spat blood.
“Check your mother’s house.”
Victor hit him again.
“Cute.”
Victor’s radio crackled.
“Dane, Mrs. Harrow wants you upstairs.”
Victor released Nathan.
“Tell Celeste I’m coming.”
Maya’s heart stopped.
Celeste?
Mrs. Harrow?
Victor turned toward the door.
Maya pressed herself against the wall.
He passed within inches.
Then stopped.
Maya saw his flashlight illuminate the floor.
Her shoe.
Victor slowly turned.
Their eyes met.
For half a second neither moved.
Then Maya swung the flashlight.
It struck Victor’s temple.
He staggered.
Nathan shouted, “Again!”
Maya hit him again.
Victor caught her wrist.
He slammed her against the wall.
Pain exploded through her shoulder.
“You stupid little—”
Nathan kicked the chair sideways.
The heavy metal leg smashed into Victor’s knee.
Victor collapsed.
Maya tore free.
Nathan stretched his chained hands toward Victor’s belt.
“Keys!”
Maya grabbed them.
A dozen keys.
Her hands shook so badly she dropped them.
“Silver one!”
She found it.
The handcuffs opened.
Nathan ripped them away.
Maya unlocked his ankle.
Nathan stood.
Or tried.
His legs buckled.
Maya caught him.
He was heavier than she expected.
“You can barely walk.”
“I’ve been chained to furniture for three weeks.”
“That would explain it.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Was that a joke?”
“I panic sarcastically.”
“Useful skill.”
Victor groaned.
Nathan took his gun.
Maya recoiled.
Nathan saw it.
He removed the magazine, cleared the chamber, and handed the unloaded weapon to her.
“Hold this.”
“Why?”
“Because if I keep it, you’ll spend the next five minutes wondering whether the newspapers were right about me.”
That unsettled Maya more than the gun.
Nathan searched Victor’s pockets.
Phone.
Keycard.
A small black device.
Nathan’s face changed.
“What?”
“Remote trigger.”
“For the gas?”
“No.”
He turned it over.
A red indicator blinked.
“For the hospital.”
Maya went white.
Nathan grabbed Victor by the collar.
“What does this activate?”
Victor smiled through bloody teeth.
“You already know.”
Nathan slammed him against the floor.
“WHAT DOES IT ACTIVATE?”
Victor laughed.
“Room 614.”
Maya made a sound Nathan would remember for the rest of his life.
Not a scream.
Something smaller.
Broken.
She lunged toward Victor.
Nathan caught her.
“Where is my mother?”
Victor looked directly at Maya.
“Safe.”
“You put something in her room?”
Victor smiled.
“Not something.”
Nathan’s grip tightened.
“Someone.”
Maya stopped struggling.
Victor continued.
“Your mother has a night nurse tonight. Very kind woman.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s her name?”
Victor looked amused.
“You should ask Mrs. Harrow.”
A distant chime sounded through the mansion.
Nathan looked at the clock on Victor’s phone.
11:36 p.m.
“Twenty-four minutes.”
Maya stared at him.
“To midnight?”
Nathan nodded.
Then he looked at Victor.
“We need the access code to the ballroom system.”
Victor smiled.
“You won’t get it.”
Nathan crouched beside him.
“I’ve spent three weeks in this room because Grant wanted something from me.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“I never gave it to him.”
Nathan leaned closer.
“You think twenty-four minutes with you frightens me?”
Maya grabbed Nathan’s arm.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“We don’t become them.”
Something passed between them.
Nathan slowly released Victor.
Maya searched Victor’s phone instead.
Locked.
Face ID.
She held it in front of him.
Victor squeezed his eyes shut.
Maya frowned.
Then slapped him.
His eyes opened instinctively.
The phone unlocked.
Nathan stared.
“What?”
“You said we don’t become them.”
“That was therapeutic.”
For the first time, Nathan laughed.
It hurt his ribs badly enough that he immediately regretted it.
Maya opened the messages.
Most were coded.
One was not.
It had arrived two minutes earlier.
WHITE DRESS: Bring the maid upstairs. Grant wants her mother handled before midnight.
Maya read it twice.
“White Dress?”
Nathan’s expression turned grim.
“That’s Celeste.”
Footsteps sounded again.
More than one person.
Nathan grabbed Maya’s hand.
“Time to go.”
“Where?”
“There’s another exit.”
“How do you know?”
“I helped build this room.”
Maya stopped.
“What?”
Nathan pulled aside a rusted metal shelf.
Behind it was a narrow service passage.
“You built a torture room?”
“No.”
His face darkened.
“I built Grant Harrow’s empire.”
That revelation landed harder than anything else.
Maya stared at him.
“You worked for him.”
“For twelve years.”
“You’re not his prisoner.”
Nathan met her eyes.
“I’m his former partner.”
Voices approached outside.
Nathan pushed open the passage.
“Go.”
Maya stepped inside.
Then stopped.
“My mother.”
“We get upstairs. We stop the ballroom attack. Then we get Ruth.”
“No.”
“Maya—”
“My mother first.”
“If three hundred people die—”
“She is my mother!”
Nathan stared at her.
Maya’s eyes filled, but she refused to cry.
“You can hate me,” she whispered. “You can think I’m selfish. But I have spent four years watching machines keep the only person I have alive. I am not gambling her life.”
Nathan’s expression softened.
“I don’t think you’re selfish.”
“Then help me.”
He looked toward the approaching footsteps.
Then at the remote trigger.
Then at Maya.
“Okay.”
Relief broke across her face.
“But we can’t reach Cedars-Sinai in time.”
Her relief vanished.
Nathan held up Victor’s phone.
“We don’t have to.”
He dialed.
Someone answered on the first ring.
Nathan said only four words.
“Protocol Lazarus. Room 614.”
Silence.
Then a woman answered.
“Confirm identity.”
“Nathan Cole.”
Another silence.
Longer.
The woman whispered, “Nathan?”
His face changed.
Maya saw it.
Recognition.
Pain.
Nathan said, “Get Ruth Bennett out of Cedars-Sinai. Now.”
“Who is Ruth Bennett?”
“The maid’s mother.”
Maya stared at him.
The woman on the phone inhaled sharply.
Then said something that made both of them freeze.
“Nathan, listen to me carefully.”
A door slammed somewhere above.
“They already moved Ruth Bennett.”
Maya grabbed the phone.
“Where?”
The woman hesitated.
“Maya?”
“How do you know my name?”
Silence.
Then:
“Because I know your mother.”
Maya’s heart hammered.
“Who are you?”
The answer came quietly.
“My name is Evelyn Cole.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Maya looked at him.
“Cole?”
The woman continued.
“And Maya…”
Her voice broke.
“Ruth Bennett isn’t your biological mother.”
The corridor seemed to tilt.
Maya could barely speak.
“Then who is?”
Evelyn answered.
May you like
“I am.”
And somewhere upstairs, a woman in a white dress began descending toward the basement.
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