Chapter 6 - The Dark Water.The rungs of the steel ladder were slick with condensation and age.
Rosa descended as quickly as she dared, her left arm hooked securely around Lily’s waist.
The child clung to her mother's neck like a terrified monkey, her small breaths puffing warmly against Rosa's collarbone.
Above them, the earth-shattering boom of a secondary explosion rocked the concrete shaft.
Debris rained down the dark tunnel, pinging sharply against the metal ladder and dusting Rosa’s hair with pulverized cement.
"Keep going, Rosa!" Ethan’s voice echoed down the chute, tense and urgent.
She didn't look up, focusing entirely on placing one foot beneath the other in the pitch-black descent.
The air grew colder and smelled heavily of brine, rotting wood, and stagnant water.
Finally, her boots struck a solid, damp stone floor.
"We are at the bottom!" Rosa called out, her voice bouncing off the claustrophobic walls.
She stepped away from the drop zone, blindly feeling her way along the wet brickwork of the tunnel.
A moment later, Ethan slid down the last ten feet of the ladder, landing with a heavy, calculated thud.
He immediately turned and aimed a small, tactical flashlight back up the shaft.
"I rigged the vault's oxygen tanks to detonate when Marcus blows the ceiling," Ethan explained, his breathing heavy.
"It won't kill him, but it will collapse the entrance and buy us a twenty-minute head start."
He clicked a button on the flashlight, illuminating the narrow, water-logged smuggling tunnel ahead of them.
"Stay close to me and do not make a sound," he instructed, taking the lead.
The tunnel was barely wide enough for two people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder.
Ankle-deep water sloshed around their calves, freezing cold and thick with centuries of mud.
Lily buried her face in Rosa's chest, her tiny fingers gripping the fabric of her mother's uniform so tightly her knuckles were white.
"Where does this lead?" Rosa whispered, her teeth beginning to chatter from the biting cold.
"To a hidden grotto on the edge of the Sound," Ethan replied without turning around.
"During Prohibition, my great-grandfather used it to move Canadian whiskey past the Coast Guard."
"I updated the exit ten years ago when the syndicate first threatened a hostile takeover."
As they waded deeper into the darkness, a massive, muffled roar vibrated through the earth above them.
The shockwave knocked Rosa sideways, splashing her violently against the rough stone wall.
Ethan caught her arm, steadying her as dust and ancient mortar rained down upon their heads.
"The vault just went," Ethan stated grimly.
"Marcus will figure out we aren't in the rubble within ten minutes."
He increased his pace, his tactical flashlight cutting through the oppressive, damp gloom.
Ahead, the tunnel began to widen, and the rhythmic sound of lapping waves replaced the deadly silence.
They rounded a sharp bend and emerged into a massive, naturally formed subterranean cave.
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Moored to a decaying wooden dock was a sleek, matte-black interceptor speedboat.
"Welcome to my insurance policy," Ethan said, ushering them toward the vessel.
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