Chapter 13 - The Estate Goes Dark
Marcus hesitated for only a second.
Then he pulled the emergency power switch.
Every monitor went black.
The underground vault fell silent.
Emergency lights flickered on.
My mother looked at me.
“You just cut our only view of your father.”
“No.”
I held up my phone.
“I cut David’s view of us.”
The estate’s security system had two architectures.
The visible system operated through conventional power and network lines.
The second was older.
Analog.
Independent.
My grandfather had designed it for emergencies.
David knew the modern network.
My father had taught me the old one.
Marcus smiled when he understood.
“You still remember the bunker protocol.”
“My father made me memorize it when I was fourteen.”
Caroline stared at me.
“He taught you that?”
“He taught me everything except the truth.”
Pain crossed her face.
I regretted the sentence immediately.
But I did not take it back.
We moved into the maintenance room.
Marcus opened a metal panel.
Old indicator lights glowed.
One showed every sealed door.
Another showed motion sensors.
Three lights flashed near the north garage.
“He’s moving.”
Marcus pointed.
“He needs a manual gate.”
“Why?”
Caroline answered.
“Because if he has Richard in a vehicle, that is the only exit wide enough.”
We moved quickly.
Eleanor stayed behind with Anna to copy the files.
My mother came with us.
I wanted to tell her not to.
I had lost the right to protect her years ago.
Or maybe she had lost the right to listen.
We reached the north corridor.
A gunshot echoed somewhere ahead.
Marcus pushed me behind a concrete pillar.
“Stay down.”
I heard tires squeal.
A black SUV slammed into the steel garage barrier.
Once.
Twice.
The barrier held.
Then headlights snapped off.
Silence.
Marcus motioned toward Lena.
They moved forward.
My phone vibrated.
A text message appeared from an unknown number.
COME ALONE OR RICHARD DIES.
Below it was a photograph.
Dad.
Conscious.
A knife against his throat.
I showed Marcus.
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You are not going alone.”
“I know.”
I typed a reply.
WHERE?
The answer came immediately.
GREENHOUSE.
The estate greenhouse sat on the western lawn.
There was no vehicle access.
David had moved Dad.
That meant the SUV in the garage was a diversion.
Marcus realized it too.
“He wants security focused here.”
My mother whispered.
“He knows the property.”
I studied the old sensor panel.
Then I remembered something.
“The greenhouse has a drainage tunnel.”
Marcus looked at me.
“How do you know?”
“I used to play here when Grandpa still owned the estate.”
Caroline’s face changed.
“Thomas used that tunnel for private meetings.”
“Where does it exit?”
“Outside the perimeter.”
My stomach dropped.
David did have a way out.
I ran toward the western stairwell.
This time, nobody tried to stop me.
May you like
Because if David reached that tunnel with my father and the ledger, the entire truth could disappear with him.
And this time, the doors might not be enough.
