Chapter 4 - The Blue RoomThe service tunnel smelled of damp stone, rust, and old smoke.
Matteo moved ahead with his flashlight covered by his palm, allowing only a thin blade of light to escape. Liana followed close behind, Nico tucked beneath her chin. Every few steps, the baby made a soft restless sound, and every time he did, Matteo turned to make sure he was breathing.
“How far?” Liana whispered.
“Not far.”
“You’ve used this tunnel before?”
“Once.”
“Why?”
“To escape men who wanted to kill me.”
Liana glanced at the back of his head. “You say that like it was a normal Tuesday.”
“It was a Thursday.”
Despite herself, she almost laughed. The sound died before it reached her mouth. Somewhere behind them, metal scraped against stone.
They were being followed.
Matteo stopped at a three-way junction. He pointed left, then right, then down at the floor. A narrow line of blue paint ran along the stones.
“Sofia marked the way,” he said.
They followed the line. The tunnel narrowed until Liana had to turn sideways. Her shoulder brushed the wall, and something sharp caught her skin. She looked down and saw a series of child-sized handprints pressed into the dust.
Not painted.
Pressed.
As if small hands had crawled through the tunnel.
“Matteo.”
He saw them. His face became rigid.
“Those weren’t here before.”
“How long ago did you come?”
“Eight months.”
“Children were here.”
“Or someone wants us to think they were.”
The tunnel opened into a circular chamber. The walls were covered in blue tiles, faded by age. A single hanging bulb swayed from the ceiling.
The Blue Room.
In the center stood an old examination table. Metal restraints hung from its sides. Along one wall were shelves filled with glass bottles, empty syringes, and labeled envelopes.
Liana’s throat closed.
“This was a clinic.”
“My father owned the property before me. He told me the room was used during Prohibition.”
“Your father lied.”
Matteo moved toward the shelves. “He lied about many things.”
Liana looked at the restraints. Small leather loops had been fastened to the table.
For infants.
She stepped backward, nearly dropping Nico.
“They brought babies here.”
Matteo opened an envelope. Inside was a photograph of a newborn with the same violet crescent beneath his ear.
Another photograph showed a different infant. Then another.
Dozens of babies.
Every one carried the mark.
“What is this?” Liana asked.
Matteo found a ledger on the bottom shelf. The cover had been burned, but the pages remained. He opened it and began turning through columns of names, dates, and symbols.
Then he stopped.
Liana stepped beside him.
One line had been written in red ink.
NICO VARRIC—SUBJECT 47—TRANSFERRED TO PRIVATE NURSERY.
Beside it was a date.
The date Nico had been born.
Matteo’s hand tightened around the ledger until the leather creased.
“My son was a subject.”
“And these others?”
“I don’t know.”
Liana flipped through the pages. The records continued for years. Some infants were listed as transferred. Some were marked deceased. Some had no names, only numbers.
On the final page, she saw a familiar name.
NORA GRAVES.
Her vision blurred.
The line beneath her daughter’s name read: SUBJECT 92—TRANSFERRED TO MORGUE—STATUS CONFIRMED.
“No,” Liana whispered.
She grabbed the ledger with both hands. “No. This is a lie.”
Matteo looked at the page. “When was she admitted?”
“She was never admitted here.”
“Liana.”
“She was born in a public hospital. She had a fever. They transferred her to St. Agnes when she stopped breathing.”
“Who signed the transfer?”
She stared at the page.
“Dr. Kessler.”
Matteo’s voice dropped. “And who confirmed the death?”
“Dr. Kessler.”
The baby in her arms stirred. Liana pressed her lips to his hair, fighting a wave of grief so fierce it bent her forward.
“He lied to me,” she said.
Matteo took the ledger from her. “Why would he put her name here?”
“Because she was part of this.”
“Or because this ledger was created after her death.”
“That would not make her name less real.”
He looked at her, and something shifted between them. Until then, Matteo had been trying to solve Sofia’s death. Now he understood that the case was also Liana’s.
A crash sounded from the tunnel.
The person following them had reached the chamber.
Matteo shoved the ledger into his coat and pushed Liana behind the examination table.
The hanging bulb went out.
A figure appeared at the tunnel entrance, silhouetted by a weak blue light. Tall. Wearing a hospital mask. In one hand he carried a small metal case.
“Matteo,” the man called. “You should have stayed upstairs.”
Matteo raised his gun. “Take off the mask.”
The figure laughed softly. “You always did mistake violence for control.”
Liana recognized the voice.
Dr. Adrian Kessler.
The doctor stepped into the room and opened the metal case. Inside were rows of small glass vials filled with a pale blue liquid.
Nico began screaming.
Kessler smiled.
“There,” he whispered. “He remembers.”
Matteo’s finger tightened on the trigger.
“What did you do to my son?”
“What your wife asked me to do.”
“Sofia would never trust you.”
“She trusted me enough to bring him here.”
Liana felt Nico’s body stiffen against her. The baby’s tiny fingers dug into her uniform.
Kessler lifted a vial toward the light. “The mark is a delivery point. The substance is harmless to most adults. Infants are different. Their nervous systems remember everything.”
“What substance?” Liana demanded.
Kessler looked at her. “You know the answer. You smelled it at the hospital.”
“Why was my daughter here?”
“Because she was an ideal carrier.”
Liana’s grief turned to rage.
She stepped out from behind the table. “Carrier for what?”
Kessler’s smile disappeared.
“For memories.”
A gunshot exploded through the Blue Room.
Kessler fell backward, clutching his shoulder. The vial shattered at his feet, releasing the bitter scent of clove and chemicals.
Matteo grabbed Liana’s arm. “Run.”
“He knows what happened to Nora.”
“And he wants you dead.”
Kessler reached into his coat with his uninjured hand.
Matteo fired again.
The doctor rolled behind the shelves as glass bottles crashed to the floor.
Liana ran toward the tunnel with Nico pressed to her chest. Matteo followed, but before he disappeared into the darkness, Kessler shouted one final sentence.
“Ask Matteo why his wife was carrying another man’s child!”
Matteo froze.
Liana saw it.
The shock in his face was not outrage.
May you like
It was fear.
And in the darkness behind them, Kessler began to laugh.
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