Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF SILENCEAlarms screamed inside the underground laboratory.
Steel doors sealed both ends of the passage.
Water rose around Maya’s shoes.
Agent Ortiz ordered her team toward the emergency controls.
The system had been activated remotely.
Marcus searched the wall beside the elevator.
“Gabriel designed every facility with a mechanical override.”
“How do you know?” Maya asked.
“Because he never trusted computers with people’s lives.”
The water reached Maya’s knees.
Ortiz found a control panel, but the internal wires had been removed.
One of the agents fired at the upper hinge of the nearest door.
The bullets barely marked the reinforced steel.
Maya stared at the Vaughn insignia stamped above the elevator.
Something about the design felt familiar.
Three wings.
A star.
A narrow opening in the center.
She removed the medal from the evidence pouch.
Its shape matched the opening exactly.
“The medal is a key.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Gabriel gave it to you because he knew you could open this facility.”
Maya inserted the medal.
The mechanism resisted.
She twisted it.
Nothing happened.
Water reached her waist.
“Try pressing the damaged edge,” Marcus said.
Maya pushed the blackened corner.
The medal clicked.
Emergency lights turned green.
The doors released.
Water exploded into the next corridor.
Agents pulled Maya through the opening.
They reached the elevator moments before the laboratory completely flooded.
When they emerged inside the house, Marcus called the ballroom.
No answer.
He called Eleanor.
Nothing.
Agent Ortiz contacted the agents stationed at the estate.
The signal broke repeatedly.
Someone had activated a communications jammer.
Maya ran toward the convoy.
The drive back would take nearly two hours.
She knew Victoria would not need that long.
Inside the Sterling ballroom, Ethan noticed a security guard approaching Eleanor.
The guard wore the same uniform as the others.
But his shoes were wrong.
Sterling guards wore black tactical boots.
This man wore polished dress shoes.
Ethan stepped between him and Eleanor.
“Who authorized you to enter?”
The man reached beneath his jacket.
Ethan struck him before he could draw the weapon.
They crashed into a banquet table.
Guests screamed.
The attacker pulled a knife.
Ethan grabbed his wrist.
The blade cut across Ethan’s shoulder.
Agent Ortiz’s remaining officers rushed forward.
The attacker was restrained.
A second man ran toward the service door.
Colonel Vance’s former assistant tackled him near the stage.
The jammer was found inside a catering cart.
Communication returned.
Eleanor held Noah tightly.
The baby had never awakened.
Ethan pressed a napkin against his bleeding shoulder.
“Where is my mother?”
An agent looked toward the chair where Victoria had been sitting.
It was empty.
During the confusion, Victoria had disappeared.
A hidden door behind the stage stood open.
Ethan knew where it led.
His mother had built a private passage beneath the estate.
It connected the ballroom to the old carriage house.
A black sedan was missing.
Agent Ortiz’s voice came through Ethan’s phone.
“Victoria is no longer contained.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“I know where she may be going.”
“Where?”
“Sterling Memorial Airport.”
“My father kept a private hangar there.”
Ethan looked toward Noah.
“My mother once told me that every family problem could be solved from the air.”
Ortiz ordered airport security to close the runways.
Ethan stopped her.
“She owns the emergency control company.”
“She can reopen them remotely.”
“What aircraft does she have?”
“A Gulfstream.”
“And an older cargo plane registered under a medical charity.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“The cargo plane has no passenger records.”
Maya heard every word through Ortiz’s call.
Her mother was in a medical van.
Victoria was heading toward an airport.
The plan became clear.
“She is taking my mother out of the country.”
Marcus looked at the rising sun.
“If that plane leaves, Leah may disappear forever.”
May you like
Maya climbed into the federal vehicle.
“Then we reach the runway before she does.”
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