Chapter 5 - The Breach.Ethan rushed to the monitors, his blood running cold.
"It's Marcus," Ethan muttered.
"Who is Marcus?" Rosa asked, feeling her chest tighten with fresh panic.
"Victoria's head of security," Ethan replied grimly.
"He's an ex-CIA wetwork specialist."
On the screen, Marcus looked directly into the security camera and smiled.
He raised a detonator in his right hand.
"The vault is built to withstand a mortar strike," Ethan said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.
"He can't get in with just C4."
"He doesn't want to get in," Marcus's voice suddenly echoed through the intercom system.
Ethan cursed, realizing the external communication line was still active.
"I don't need to breach the door, Ethan," Marcus laughed over the speaker.
"I just need to collapse the foundational supports above your little bunker."
Rosa gasped as she realized what the man was implying.
"He's going to bury us alive," she whispered.
"I'll give you one chance, Caldwell," Marcus announced.
"Open the door, hand over the woman and the child, and you get to live."
"Victoria is willing to forgive your momentary lapse in judgment."
Ethan didn't bother pressing the intercom button to reply.
He immediately turned to a heavy metal grate on the floor of the panic room.
"Help me pull this up," Ethan ordered.
"Is that a way out?" Rosa asked, grabbing the edge of the iron grate.
"It's an old prohibition-era smuggling tunnel that leads to the Long Island Sound," Ethan explained.
"I modernized it when I built the panic room, just in case."
Together, they heaved the heavy iron grate aside, revealing a dark, damp concrete shaft with a steel ladder.
"Take Lily and start climbing down," Ethan instructed.
"What about you?" Rosa asked.
"I'm going to set a little surprise for Marcus," Ethan said, picking up his Glock and turning toward the weapon rack.
The bunker violently shook as the first exterior explosive charge detonated somewhere above them.
Dust poured from the ceiling, coating the sterile room in a layer of gray ash.
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"Go!" Ethan shouted over the rumbling architecture.
Rosa grabbed Lily, held her tight, and stepped blindly into the dark abyss.
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