Chapter 8: The Labyrinth of Echoes
The key had a stamp on the bow: S.T. 104.
Elias knew the Seattle Transit tunnels. Before the 2006 fire, there was a private maintenance sector under the old Union Station. Station 104.
He didn't call Julianna. The scent of almond oil on her coat was a splinter in his mind that he couldn't pull out. If she was involved, he had to find the evidence before she did.
He descended the rusted ladder behind the station's boiler room. The air grew heavy, smelling of damp earth and ancient soot. $40$ feet down, the city's noise died, replaced by the rhythmic drip-clack of leaking pipes.
"I told you not to come looking," a voice echoed through the tunnel. It wasn't distorted this time. It was raw.
Elias clicked on his tactical light. The beam cut through the dark, illuminating Kaelen—The Ghost. He was sitting on a crate, cleaning the long-range rifle that had ended Miller's life.
"You killed a police captain," Elias said, his gun leveled at Kaelen's chest.
"I killed a traitor," Kaelen countered. He stood up, the light catching the scars on his neck—burn marks that looked like twisted vines. "Miller didn't just let that warehouse burn in '06. He set the charge. He watched me scream, Elias. Your father held the door shut."
"You're lying. My father saved Julianna."
"He saved the 'useful' one," Kaelen spat. "Julianna was the prodigy. I was the witness. She doesn't even know I'm alive, Elias. Or maybe she does, and she's just better at keeping secrets than you are.