Chapter 5: Sixteen Minutes
The phone kept ringing.
Nia stared at it on the tunnel floor.
The little girl clung to her sleeve, breathing so fast her shoulders jumped with every breath.
“Officer,” she whispered, “please don't answer.””
Nia crouched beside her.
“What’s your name?””
The girl swallowed.
“Kayla.””
“Kayla, listen to me. Nobody is taking you anywhere. You're staying with me.””
The phone stopped.
For one second, the tunnel was silent.
Then it rang again.
Nia picked it up.
The screen showed her own number.
She answered.
“Who are you?””
A man's voice came through.
Calm.
Almost bored.
“You have fifteen minutes.””
Nia tightened her grip.
“Where are the other children?””
“You're standing next to one.””
“I want all of them.””
“You can't save all of them.””
“Try me.””
A quiet laugh.
“You still think this is about saving them.””
“What is it about?””
“The debt.””
Nia's expression hardened.
“I don't owe you anything.””
“You already paid.””
“How?””
“Ask your father.””
Nia froze.
“My father is dead.””
Silence.
Then the voice said,
“That's what you were told.””
The call ended.
Kayla stared at her.
“What did he say?””
Nia slipped the phone into her pocket.
“Nothing that matters right now.””
But her pulse said otherwise.
Her father.
A dead man.
A warning about Ava.
A list with seventeen names.
And a countdown.
Nia forced herself to focus.
She pulled the little girl's jacket closed.
“Can you walk?””
Kayla nodded.
“Good. We're getting out of here.””
They hurried through the tunnel.
When they emerged, the daylight felt painfully bright.
Bear was waiting near the cruisers.
He saw Kayla.
His face changed.
“Where did she come from?””
“We found her in the tunnel.””
“Where's Lena?””
“Gone.””
Bear looked down the road.
Then at Eli.
The boy was standing beside Denise, clutching the edge of her vest.
“Where's Nia?””
Denise pointed.
Bear rushed over.
“What happened?””
Nia didn't answer immediately.
She looked at the two police cruisers.
One of the doors was open.
Mason was gone.
“So is he,” she said.
Bear's jaw tightened.
“Who?””
“Mason.””
Bear went still.
“You think he's involved?””
“I know he's involved.””
“Then we leave.””
“No.””
Bear stared at her.
“Nia, we have children here.””
“I know.””
“Then move.””
“If we run, whoever is doing this will keep controlling us.””
Bear pointed toward Eli.
“They're already controlling him.””
Nia stepped closer.
“Then we stop reacting.””
Bear looked at her.
“How?””
Nia pulled the photograph from the evidence envelope.
“We find out what happened twelve years ago.””
Bear stared at Ava's face.
His fingers began to tremble.
“This was taken the week before the fire.””
“You recognize the place?””
“Of course.””
“What's the name of the shelter?””
“Harbor House.””
Nia looked at the photograph again.
“Is it still there?””
“No.””
“What happened to it?””
“Closed.””
“When?””
“Three months after the fire.””
Nia turned toward Denise.
“Can you keep the children together?””
Denise nodded.
“We've been doing it.””
“Take them to the church on Maple. It's two miles east. Stay inside until I call.””
Bear shook his head.
“No churches.””
Nia looked at him.
“Why?””
“Too many cameras.””
She paused.
He wasn't wrong.
“Then where?””
Bear pointed toward the motorcycles.
“Old mill.””
Nia frowned.
“Abandoned?””
“Mostly.””
“Is it secure?””
“Yes.””
“Fine. Go there.””
Bear didn't move.
“You're coming.””
Nia shook her head.
“I need to check something.””
“You'll get yourself killed.””
“I've spent the last half hour realizing that.””
That almost made him smile.
Almost.
“Then come back alive.””
Nia looked at Eli.
The boy was watching her.
She crouched.
“Eli.””
“Yes?””
“I need you to stay with Bear.””
He nodded.
“Do you trust him?””
Eli looked up at Bear.
“With my life.””
Bear's eyes glistened.
Nia noticed.
She stood.
“Go.””
The engines started one after another.
Children were lifted onto motorcycles.
Bear mounted last.
Before he rode away, he looked at Nia.
“Don't trust anyone wearing a badge.””
Then the line disappeared down the road.
Nia waited until the last motorcycle was gone.
Only then did she return to the tunnel.
She found Mason's dropped flashlight near the wall.
Beside it was something else.
A small metal badge.
Not a police badge.
A shield-shaped emblem stamped with a number.
*17*
Nia turned it over.
A phrase had been engraved on the back.
*PROPERTY OF HARBOR HOUSE*
She slipped it into her pocket.
Then her phone buzzed.
One new message.
*15 MINUTES.*
Below it was an image.
A house.
Old.
Red paint.
Boarded windows.
Nia recognized it immediately.
The house Eli had described.
She zoomed in.
Ava stood on the porch.
Alive.
Holding a baby.
Nia's breath caught.
She looked closer.
The baby was not Eli.
The child in Ava's arms was a girl.
And standing behind Ava was her father.
Nia's hands went cold.
Her father had been dead for fourteen years.
Yet there he was.
Smiling beside Ava.
She opened the image details.
No timestamp.
No location.
But there was a second photograph attached.
A close-up of the porch.
Written on one board in fresh black paint:
*BROOKS FAMILY — 15*
Nia whispered,
“What did you do?””
Her phone buzzed again.
This time, the message contained an address.
It was not her home.
It was her father's old house.
The house had been sold eleven years ago.
Nia had never gone back.
Another message appeared.
*COME ALONE.*
Then:
*BRING THE PHOTO.*
Nia started the cruiser.
The GPS route appeared automatically.
She stared at the destination.
Forty-one minutes away.
Then she remembered the countdown.
She had fourteen.
She stepped on the accelerator.
The cruiser shot onto the highway.
Her radio crackled.
“Nia?””
Bear.
She grabbed the microphone.
“Bear, go.””
“We found something.””
“What?””
“An underground room.””
Nia's eyes stayed on the road.
“Where?””
“Inside the mill.””
Her grip tightened.
“Is anyone there?””
“No.””
A pause.
“But there are cages.””
Nia's stomach turned.
“How many?””
“Seventeen.””
The radio went silent.
“Bear?””
Nothing.
“Bear, answer me.””
Static.
Then his voice returned.
He sounded different.
Shaken.
“Nia…”
“What?””
“We found names.””
“On the cages?””
“No.””
“Then where?””
“In a ledger.””
Nia's heart began pounding.
“What does it say?””
Bear breathed slowly.
“Payments.””
“To whom?””
“To police officers.””
Nia stared through the windshield.
“How many?””
Bear didn't answer.
“Bear, how many?””
“All of them.””
Nia's mouth went dry.
Before she could respond, another voice came through the radio.
Not Bear.
Mason.
“She's finally understanding.””
Nia slammed the brakes.
The cruiser fishtailed slightly before stopping.
“Mason, where are you?””
“At the mill.””
“Where's Bear?””
“He's alive.””
“Put him on.””
“He can't.””
“Why?””
“Because he's looking at the same thing you are.””
Nia's eyes narrowed.
“I haven't seen anything.””
Mason laughed.
“You have.””
She looked at the screen of her phone.
The photographs.
The names.
Her father.
Ava.
The missing children.
It all seemed connected.
“Tell me what happened twelve years ago.””
“You don't want the truth.””
“I do.””
“You weren't supposed to be born into it.””
Nia's breathing stopped.
“What does that mean?””
Silence.
“Mason?””
His voice softened.
“Your father wasn't a detective.””
Nia stared straight ahead.
“He was a cop.””
“No.””
Mason whispered,
“He ran Harbor House.””
The line went dead.
Nia sat motionless.
Her father.
The shelter.
Ava.
The children.
The fire.
She remembered being eight years old.
Her father coming home one night with ash on his sleeves.
Her mother asking why he smelled like smoke.
His answer had always been the same.
“Electrical fire at work.””
Nia suddenly remembered something else.
A little red shoe.
A child's shoe.
On the floor of their garage that night.
She had asked where it came from.
Her father had told her to forget it.
Her phone buzzed.
A final message.
*10 MINUTES.*
Then another.
*THE FIRST CHILD IS ALREADY AT YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE.*
Nia threw the cruiser into gear.
As she accelerated, a voice came through her personal phone.
A little girl's voice.
Terrified.
“Officer Brooks?””
Nia answered immediately.
“Kayla?””
“No.””
Nia's blood ran cold.
The girl whispered,
“It's me.””
“Who?””
A pause.
Then—
“Your sister.””
Nia nearly drove off the road.
“My sister died when I was twelve.””
“I know.””
The girl's voice trembled.
“But your father told everyone she died.””
Nia gripped the steering wheel.
“Where are you?””
The answer came through a sob.
“In the basement.””
“Whose basement?””
“Your father's.””
A sharp noise sounded in the background.
A door unlocking.
Then the girl whispered,
“They just opened it.””
The call went silent.
Nia looked at the countdown.
Nine minutes.
Then she saw a motorcycle speeding toward her from the opposite direction.
Bear.
He was alone.
His vest was torn.
Blood streaked one side of his face.
He pulled alongside her cruiser and shouted through the window.
“TURN AROUND!””
Nia rolled it down.
“Why?””
Bear's eyes were wide with terror.
“Because the address they gave you isn't your father's house.””
He pointed behind her.
“It’s Harbor House.””
Nia stared at him.
Bear swallowed.
“And somebody just called me from inside.””
“Who?””
May you like
His voice broke.
“Ava.””
