Chapter 17 - Ten Minutes of Water
A warning siren began immediately.
Metal shutters dropped over the tunnel exits.
Water exploded through vents near the floor.
Marcus called for agents above.
Static answered.
The tunnel walls blocked the signal.
Daniel ripped panels from the control console.
“Manual override is encrypted.”
“Can you break it?”
“Not in ten minutes.”
Water reached my ankles.
Owen and Sophie began crying behind the locked door.
I pounded against it.
“Stay away from the door.”
Marcus examined the hinges.
Steel.
Reinforced.
No simple way through.
Then I saw an old emergency diagram bolted beside the monitors.
FIRE SUPPRESSION.
PRESSURE RELEASE.
Every sealed underground system needed a mechanical emergency route.
Victoria trusted technology.
Claire had taught me to look for what existed underneath it.
I followed a red pipe behind the cabinets.
It disappeared beneath a metal floor panel.
Marcus tore the panel open.
A manual wheel sat below.
We turned it together.
Nothing happened.
Daniel looked over.
“Counterclockwise.”
We reversed direction.
The wheel moved.
A violent metallic bang echoed through the room.
The children's door unlocked.
I ripped it open.
Owen and Sophie stood inside.
Both were terrified.
Both were alive.
I grabbed Sophie.
Marcus lifted Owen.
Water reached our knees.
Daniel found another mechanical release.
The steel shutter leading toward the cliff opened halfway.
We crawled beneath it.
Behind us, water roared through the blue room.
The tunnel toward the cliff was already flooding.
At the end, pale daylight showed through an iron grate.
Marcus fired at the lock.
Once.
Twice.
The third shot broke it.
We climbed onto rocks seconds before the tunnel disappeared beneath seawater.
Federal boats raced toward us.
Sophie wrapped both arms around my neck.
“Are we safe?”
I looked at Marcus.
He did not answer.
Neither did I.
Because Nathaniel Vale had just demonstrated something terrifying.
The network still had allies.
People powerful enough to remove him from federal custody.
People willing to kill children to protect themselves.
Lucy had been behind the wall.
Victoria had been behind Lucy.
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But behind Victoria stood an entire system.
And systems did not surrender because one family fell.
