Chapter 1 - THE MAN BEHIND THE GLASSThe alarm screamed through Montferrand Correctional Facility like a warning from something buried alive.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Not the prisoners standing in the courtyard.
Not the correctional officers stationed along the walls.
Not even Mara Delcourt, the woman whose name had haunted Lucie Serrano for three years.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to react.
Then the lights above the eastern wing began flashing red.
Lucie turned toward the reinforced window.
The hand was gone.
Only darkness remained behind the glass.
She had spent thirty-six months imagining what she would do if she ever found her brother. She had rehearsed the moment in her mind a thousand times, picturing Julien stepping out of a doorway, thinner and older perhaps, but alive.
She had imagined embracing him.
She had imagined demanding answers.
She had imagined crying for the first time since the night his car was discovered abandoned beside a lonely service road.
But she had never imagined standing inside a prison courtyard while a convicted criminal warned her that the man who authorized her undercover assignment might be responsible for Julien's disappearance.
And she certainly hadn't imagined that her brother might be watching her from a building that officially did not exist.
"Everybody back to your assigned positions!"
Étienne Valois's voice cut through the courtyard.
Several officers immediately began moving the inmates toward the housing blocks.
Lucie remained where she was.
Her eyes were fixed on the eastern wing.
"Lieutenant Serrano!"
Valois approached quickly, his expression hardening.
"That's an order."
Lucie slowly turned toward him.
"You knew."
He stopped.
"What?"
"Building D. You knew something was happening there."
Valois glanced toward Mara.
The older woman stood perfectly still, watching them with an expression Lucie couldn't interpret.
"Not here," Valois said.
"Then where?"
"You're compromising an active operation."
Lucie took a step toward him.
"You compromised it when you called me by my real name in front of half the prison."
His jaw tightened.
"That was a mistake."
"Was it?"
For the first time since she had known him, Étienne Valois seemed uncertain how to answer her.
That frightened Lucie more than the alarm.
Valois had been her commanding officer for eight years. He had trained her, promoted her, and stood beside her at the memorial service held for Julien when the authorities finally classified her brother as presumed dead.
He had placed a hand on her shoulder that day.
He had told her that sometimes justice required accepting answers we didn't want.
Lucie had hated those words.
Now she wondered whether they had been intended as comfort.
Or as a warning.
A heavy metallic crash echoed from somewhere inside Building D.
Every officer in the courtyard looked toward the sound.
Valois immediately reached for his radio.
"Control, this is Commander Valois. Confirm the source of the alarm."
Static answered.
Then a strained male voice.
"Security breach. Eastern service corridor. We have an unauthorized door opening."
Valois went pale.
"Seal the corridor."
"Sir, the locking system isn't responding."
"Then shut down the entire wing!"
Another burst of static.
"Sir, someone has overridden the controls."
Lucie felt her pulse accelerate.
An overridden security system.
A supposedly abandoned prison wing.
A missing electronics technician.
The pieces were beginning to connect.
She turned toward Mara.
"What did Julien discover?"
Mara looked at Valois before answering.
"Something he wasn't supposed to survive."
Valois grabbed Lucie's arm.
"Enough."
She pulled free.
"Don't touch me."
"You're coming with me."
"No."
His voice dropped.
"Lucie, you don't understand the danger."
"Then explain it."
Valois stared at her for several seconds.
Something moved behind his eyes.
Fear.
Regret.
Perhaps both.
Finally, he said, "Your brother was involved in something much bigger than you realize."
Lucie felt the air leave her lungs.
"You told me he was probably dead."
"I told you what the evidence suggested."
"You helped search for him."
"Yes."
"You stood beside me when they closed his case."
Valois looked away.
Lucie's voice broke.
"Did you know he was alive?"
Before he could answer, Mara spoke.
"Ask him about the transfer on November seventeenth."
Valois turned sharply.
"Be quiet."
Mara smiled without humor.
"Three years of silence, Étienne. Isn't that enough?"
Lucie looked between them.
They knew each other.
Not simply as an investigator and a convicted criminal.
There was history in the way they spoke.
Something personal.
Something dangerous.
"What transfer?" Lucie demanded.
Neither answered.
Then a young correctional officer hurried into the courtyard.
He couldn't have been older than twenty-five. His uniform was slightly too large, and sweat darkened the collar of his shirt.
"Commander, we have a problem."
Valois turned.
"What now?"
"The eastern medical station is reporting an emergency."
"What kind of emergency?"
The officer hesitated.
"A patient has escaped."
Lucie stared at him.
"Patient?"
The young officer looked confused.
"That's what they called him."
Valois's expression changed.
"Where was he last seen?"
"Level three. Observation Room Six."
Mara closed her eyes.
"Oh, God."
Lucie moved closer to the officer.
"What's the patient's name?"
The young man looked toward Valois.
"I don't have authorization to—"
"His name," Lucie repeated.
Valois stepped between them.
"Officer, return to your post."
But the young man had already glanced at the tablet in his hand.
"J. Serrat," he said.
Lucie's heart slammed against her ribs.
Serrat.
One letter away from Serrano.
A false name.
A hidden patient.
A security system that her brother might have been able to manipulate.
She looked at Mara.
The older woman's face had lost all color.
"Is it Julien?"
Mara didn't answer.
Lucie seized her by the shoulders.
"Tell me!"
Mara whispered, "If he's opened that door, he knows you're here."
Valois suddenly spoke into his radio.
"All units, locate the escaped patient. Do not allow him to reach the central courtyard."
Lucie turned toward him.
"Why?"
Valois ignored her.
"Repeat. The patient must be contained."
"Why can't he reach the courtyard?"
Valois lowered his radio.
"Because people will die."
Lucie stared at him.
"Who?"
He said nothing.
Mara answered instead.
"Everyone who can identify him."
A cold silence settled between them.
Then, from somewhere beyond the courtyard wall, came three sharp metallic knocks.
A pause.
Two more knocks.
Another pause.
Three final knocks.
Lucie's knees nearly buckled.
She knew that pattern.
When she and Julien were children, their father had taught them a secret signal to use whenever one of them got lost during family camping trips.
Three knocks.
Two knocks.
Three knocks.
It meant one thing.
I'm here. Come find me.
Lucie slowly turned toward the eastern service door.
The knocks came again.
Three.
Two.
Three.
Tears filled her eyes.
"Julien?"
Valois grabbed his radio.
"Security, lock down the courtyard immediately!"
But Lucie was already running.
She crossed the pavement, ignored the officers shouting behind her, and reached the heavy metal door.
The electronic keypad was flashing.
ACCESS DENIED.
She slammed her palm against it.
"Julien!"
Nothing.
She tried again.
"Julien, it's Lucie!"
A faint scraping sound came from the other side.
Then a man's voice.
Weak.
Ragged.
Almost unrecognizable.
"Lucie?"
Her hand flew to her mouth.
She hadn't heard that voice in three years.
But she knew it.
She would have known it anywhere.
"Julien!"
"Don't open the door."
She froze.
"What?"
His breathing sounded labored.
"Listen carefully."
"Are you hurt?"
"Lucie, you have to leave."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Please."
There was a sound behind him.
Footsteps.
Several people moving quickly.
Julien's voice became urgent.
"They know who you are."
Lucie pressed her forehead against the cold steel.
"I know. Valois made a mistake."
Silence.
Then Julien whispered something that turned her blood cold.
"He didn't make a mistake."
Lucie stopped breathing.
"What do you mean?"
"Lucie, he brought you here because they needed you."
"Needed me for what?"
A violent crash sounded behind the door.
Julien gasped.
Then he shouted the last words she heard before the connection went dead.
"DON'T LET THEM TAKE YOUR BLOOD!"
The keypad suddenly turned green.
The lock clicked open.
And from behind Lucie, Étienne Valois whispered:
May you like
"Step away from that door. Now."
End of Chapter 1 — Cliffhanger: Julien is alive, but his warning suggests Lucie herself is the real target of the conspiracy. Why would the people running Building D need her blood?
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