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“Black rooms.”
The name alone makes my stomach tighten.
“What happened there?”
Hannah swallows hard.
“I don’t know everything yet.”
A pause.
“But children disappeared into them and never came back out.”
Cold slides down my spine.
Not dead.
Worse somehow.
Conditioned?
Reprogrammed?
Weaponized?
Before I can ask another question—
the vineyard alarms suddenly explode.
Sirens scream across the estate.
Motion sensors.
Perimeter breach.
Hannah’s head jerks upward instantly.
And downstairs—
gunfire erupts.
“CONTACT EAST FENCE!”
I move automatically.
One hand shoving Hannah behind me while the other reaches for my weapon.
More shots explode outside.
Glass shatters somewhere downstairs.
Mason’s voice roars through the estate:
“GET THE CHILDREN MOVING!”
Not another assault.
Too fast.
