Chapter 10 - THE FLOODED TUNNEL
Cold water surged around Claire’s ankles.
Ethan searched the steel door for a release mechanism.
There was none.
The water rose quickly.
Claire pressed her hands against the wall.
“There should be an emergency ladder.”
“How do you know?”
“I spent weeks mapping these tunnels.”
“You never told me that.”
“I never expected to come back.”
The water reached their knees.
Ethan found a drainage pipe beneath the stairs.
It was blocked by a metal grate.
He kicked it repeatedly.
The grate did not move.
Claire searched the wall.
During her captivity, guards had brought her through this section twice.
She remembered counting twelve lights between the door and the junction.
There were only eleven now.
She touched the dark space where the missing light should have been.
Her fingers found a recessed switch.
A narrow panel opened.
Inside was a manual wheel.
Ethan turned it.
The drainage grate released.
Water rushed through the pipe.
The level stopped rising.
Ethan exhaled.
Claire leaned against the wall.
“You saved us.”
“Not yet.”
A red light began flashing above the door.
A mechanical voice announced an oxygen failure.
Ethan examined the drainage opening.
“It is large enough to crawl through.”
Claire looked into the pipe.
Black water rushed beneath them.
“We don’t know where it ends.”
“We know where this room ends.”
Ethan entered first.
Claire followed.
The pipe forced them onto their stomachs.
Metal scraped against Claire’s injured ribs.
She nearly screamed.
Ethan reached back and held her hand.
“Stay with me.”
The pipe descended sharply.
They slid into an underground reservoir.
Claire surfaced, coughing.
Ethan pulled her toward a concrete ledge.
A ladder climbed to another tunnel.
They reached it as an alarm sounded behind them.
The sealed chamber exploded.
The blast shook dust from the ceiling.
Ethan wrapped his arms around Claire.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then a child cried in the distance.
Claire lifted her head.
“Sophie.”
They ran toward the sound.
The tunnel opened into a large underground room.
Rows of hospital beds stood beneath dim lights.
Medical equipment lined the walls.
An elderly man lay connected to monitors near the center.
Ethan stopped.
The man’s hair was white.
His face was thin.
Yet Ethan recognized him.
“Dad?”
Victor Hawthorne opened his eyes.
He stared at Ethan as if seeing a ghost.
“My son.”
Ethan crossed the room and gripped his father’s hand.
Claire searched for Sophie.
The crying came from a speaker.
It was a recording.
Eleanor’s voice replaced it.
“You always followed your heart, Ethan.”
“That is why you were never fit to lead this family.”
Victor’s monitor began beeping faster.
Claire checked the intravenous line.
A clear liquid flowed toward his arm.
She pulled the needle out.
Victor gasped.
“She is going to kill the child.”
“Where is she?”
Victor struggled to lift his hand.
He pointed toward a black door at the far end of the room.
“Above us.”
“The glass house.”
Ethan remembered the burned remains of the original estate.
“The greenhouse?”
Victor nodded.
“She rebuilt it.”
A violent pounding came from the tunnel.
Grant’s men had found the drainage route.
Ethan looked toward the black door.
Claire took Victor’s hand.
“We cannot leave him.”
A shadow moved behind the frosted glass.
Nathan entered the room.
He raised his pistol.
Ethan stepped in front of Claire.
Nathan aimed past him and fired.
Grant Keller fell from the doorway behind them.
Nathan lowered the gun.
“I changed my mind.”
Ethan looked at Grant’s body and then at his brother.
“You almost drowned us.”
Nathan’s eyes filled with shame.
“I know.”
Victor stared at him.
“Nathan?”
Nathan’s face collapsed.
The father and son who had both been declared dead looked at one another across the hidden hospital.
Then Eleanor’s voice came over the speaker.
May you like
“Bring me the memory card in ten minutes.”
“Or Sophie will take her final breath beneath the morning sun.”
