Chapter 9 - two faces of Alexander Vale
Everyone turned toward the white-haired man in the medical chair.
He did not react with surprise.
Mara’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Who are you?”
The man she had called Father looked at the image on her watch.
“His name is Adrian Vale.”
“Alexander’s brother,” Nathan whispered.
Mara looked at him.
“My father had no brother.”
“He had a twin,” the man said.
Celia stepped away.
“You allowed us to believe you were Alexander.”
“I answered the name.”
“You called Mara ‘little star,’” Brooke said.
“He taught me the name.”
Mara gripped the edge of the desk.
“Tell me who you are.”
The man removed the oxygen tube.
“My name is Alexander Vale.”
Grant laughed.
“Convenient.”
Alexander ignored him.
“The man in that recording is Adrian. My younger twin by eleven minutes. Our father hid him from the public because Adrian suffered violent episodes as a child. When we inherited the company, I gave him responsibility for certain private operations.”
“The surveillance network,” Mara said.
“At first.”
“And Helena?”
“She loved power more than either of us. She learned to move between us, making each brother believe the other was the threat.”
Nathan studied the video.
“The man resembles you perfectly.”
“Adrian underwent surgery after my plane disappeared. He took my identity in private circles while allowing the world to believe Alexander Vale was dead.”
Mara’s thoughts moved quickly.
“If Adrian is alive and working with Helena, why keep you here?”
“Because certain biometric systems can distinguish us. They needed my living authorization.”
“The second scanner.”
“Yes.”
Grant shook his head.
“Do not believe him. Adrian is the one in the chair. Alexander is with Helena.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“You told me the prisoner was Alexander.”
“I told you what Helena told me.”
“That is not an answer.”
Grant smiled.
“Nothing in this family has one.”
Gunfire sounded closer.
Price checked the service tunnel.
“We settle identities later. We move now.”
Mara looked at the screens.
Commander Shaw’s team had reached the basement entrance.
The service tunnel was their only escape.
Vanessa led them into the medical suite. She shoved aside the oxygen cabinet, revealing an iron wheel set into the wall.
“It requires two people.”
Price and Nathan turned it together.
A section of concrete slid open.
Cold night air entered through a narrow passage.
Brooke stared at Vanessa.
“You knew this existed for years.”
“Yes.”
“You could have escaped Helena.”
“Not without leaving you.”
Brooke looked tired.
“You never asked whether I would have gone.”
Vanessa had no reply.
Price sent two agents ahead. The remaining group moved into the tunnel: Brooke, Celia, Nathan, Alexander, Mara, Vanessa, and the handcuffed Grant.
The passage sloped downward before rising toward the forest.
Mara’s pain had become a continuous fire. Each movement of the evacuation chair made her vision pulse.
Nathan noticed.
“You need a hospital.”
“I need answers.”
“You may need surgery.”
“Then find me a surgeon after we survive.”
Behind them, metal screamed.
Shaw’s operatives had entered the medical suite.
Price ordered silence.
They moved faster.
Halfway through the tunnel, Alexander began coughing. Blood stained his hand.
Mara looked at him.
“What did they do to you?”
“Kept me weak enough to control.”
“Who brought food and medication?”
“Grant.”
Everyone looked at him.
Grant shrugged.
“I was following Helena’s schedule.”
Mara felt disgust.
“You stood beside my father for years and came home pretending you did not know whether he was alive.”
“I did not know which brother he was.”
“That made it acceptable?”
“It made it complicated.”
“No. It made you a coward.”
They reached a junction.
Three tunnels split in different directions.
Vanessa stopped.
“This was not here before.”
The walls bore fresh painted symbols: a crown, a crescent, and a star.
Alexander looked at Mara.
“The star is yours.”
Grant laughed.
“Or it is bait.”
A speaker hidden above them crackled.
Commander Shaw’s voice filled the passage.
“You cannot leave the maze without choosing an identity.”
Price fired at the speaker.
The sound continued from another location.
“Alexander designed the tunnels. Adrian modified them. Helena completed them. Each path belongs to one.”
The crown route descended steeply.
The crescent route curved east.
The star route climbed upward.
Mara examined her smartwatch. Its property map showed only the first section of the tunnel. The rest had been deleted.
“Which symbol belonged to Helena?” she asked.
“The crescent,” Alexander replied.
“And Adrian?”
“The crown.”
“Then the star was created for me.”
Nathan looked at her.
“That does not make it safe.”
“No. It makes it personal.”
Footsteps echoed behind them.
Price glanced back.
“We choose now.”
Grant moved toward the crescent path.
“Helena will leave an exit for herself.”
Vanessa blocked him.
“Helena leaves exits that become cages.”
Alexander pointed toward the crown.
“Adrian always believed the shortest route was the most obvious.”
Celia looked at the star tunnel.
“Mara’s room contained the manual controls. Helena expected her to find them. She may expect her to choose this too.”
Mara studied the ceiling.
A faint current of cold air came from the star path.
It smelled of wet pine.
“Fresh air,” she said.
They entered the star tunnel.
After fifty yards, the passage narrowed.
Then the lights came on.
The walls were lined with photographs of Mara’s life, continuing from the red room.
At the end stood a white door.
A woman waited beside it.
She was in her late sixties, dressed in a black coat, her silver hair pulled back from a face Mara recognized from corporate portraits.
Helena Thorne.
Price raised his weapon.
Helena pressed a small trigger.
A steel barrier slammed down, separating Price and the agents from Mara’s group.
Helena looked at Mara.
“You finally chose me.”
Mara stared at the woman who claimed to be her mother.
Behind Helena, the white door opened onto the forest.
Freedom was less than ten feet away.
But Commander Shaw stepped from the shadows with a gun pressed against Brooke’s back.
Mara turned.
The Brooke standing beside Vanessa collapsed into pixels.
A holographic projection.
The real Brooke had never entered the tunnel.
Helena smiled.
May you like
“You were so focused on fathers that you forgot to count your sisters.”
👉 Helena had captured the real Brooke and used a hologram to lure Mara through the star passage, forcing Vanessa to choose between her sister and the family secrets.
