Ch.50: Finding Thorne

I leave him there.

I turn my back on the sobbing, broken man and walk out of the lab.

The corridor is quiet now. The alarms have burned themselves out, or maybe the backup generator finally died. The emergency lights are dimming, casting long, wavering shadows on the walls.

I need to find Thorne.

I go to the sub-basement. The air gets thicker, hotter as I descend. The smell of smoke is stronger here, a choking reminder of the fire in the lab above.

I reach the furnace room.

The heavy iron door is still closed. The magnetic lock is dead, the green light dark.

I grab the handle. It’s warm to the touch.

I pull.

The door groans, heavy on its hinges. It swings open.

"Thorne?" I call out.

My voice echoes in the small, concrete room.

It’s empty.

The furnace is cold. The pilot light is out. The ash buckets are overturned.

I step inside. I scan the corners.

Nothing. No body. No blood.

But then I see it.

On the floor, near the ventilation grate. A smear of red.

I kneel down. I touch it. It’s tacky. Drying, but fresh.

It’s a drag mark.

Someone dragged him out.

But who? The guards are either upstairs dealing with the gas or unconscious in the tunnels. Aris was in the lab.

I follow the trail. It leads out of the furnace room, down the corridor, toward the service elevator.

The elevator doors are pried open. The car is gone.

I look down the shaft. It’s a black pit.

I look up.

A faint light filters down from the upper floors.

The trail doesn't go down. It goes up.

I see a bloody handprint on the cable.

He climbed.

With broken ribs. With a gunshot wound. He climbed the elevator cable.

I feel a surge of hope, sharp and painful. He’s alive. He’s fighting.

But where did he go?

I look at the floor indicator above the open doors. The arrow is stuck between the first and second floors.

The first floor is the kitchen, the foyer, the guest wing.

The second floor is the bedrooms.

The Master Suite.

Why would he go there? To find Isabella? To find Aris?

Or to find something else?

I turn away from the shaft. I head for the stairs.

I climb. One step at a time. My body is failing. The adrenaline crash is hitting me hard now. My legs are shaking. My vision is blurring.

But I keep going.

I reach the second floor landing.

The hallway is dark. The curtains are still drawn.

The trail of blood continues. It’s faint now, just drops on the carpet, but it’s there.

It leads past the guest rooms. Past the library.

It leads straight to the Master Bedroom.

The door is ajar.

I push it open.

The room is a wreck. The bed is overturned. The mirror is shattered. Clothes are scattered everywhere.

But it’s empty.

No Thorne. No Isabella.

I walk into the room. I look around.

On the nightstand, next to an empty bottle of painkillers, is a piece of paper.

It’s a note.

Written in blood.

**ROOF.**

I stare at the word.

The roof.

Why the roof? There’s no helicopter. No escape. It’s a dead end.

Unless...

I look at the window. The heavy drapes are pulled back. The glass is broken.

Outside, the storm is raging. Rain lashes against the pane. Lightning flashes, illuminating the grounds below.

I walk to the window. I look out.

I see the trellis. The one I opened the window for earlier.

And I see something else.

A rope.

A thick, black climbing rope, anchored to the chimney, dangling down the side of the house.

It wasn't there before.

I look up.

A shadow moves on the roofline.

It’s a person.

They are dragging something.

I lean out the window. The rain hits my face, stinging the raw flesh.

"Thorne!" I scream.

The shadow stops. It looks down.

Lightning flashes again.

I see the face.

It isn't Thorne.

It’s Kael.

He survived the paralytic. He crawled out of the lab. And he has Thorne.

He’s dragging him toward the edge.

Did he escape, or was he moved?