Chapter 9 - TEN MINUTES BEFORE THE TRUTH BURNED
The emergency destruction system had been designed to prevent kidnappers from accessing family records.
It sealed the bunker.
Then it flooded the archive room with an accelerant.
The original system required two authorization codes.
Someone had altered it.
Julian pulled open the electrical panel.
“Can you stop it?” Elena asked.
“Possibly.”
“That means no.”
“It means insulting me wastes oxygen.”
Adrian searched the desk drawers.
Sophie stood beside Elena, staring at the countdown.
Eight minutes forty-two seconds.
Elena took her hand.
“Do you remember another exit?”
Sophie looked around.
“I was little.”
“Close your eyes.”
“Elena.”
“Listen to my voice. You came here with your mother. Mrs. Hart took you away. Did she use the same door?”
Sophie closed her eyes.
Her breathing slowed.
“No.”
“Where did she go?”
“I heard water.”
Adrian turned.
“The lake.”
They searched the walls.
Behind one filing cabinet, Elena found damp stone.
Julian helped move it.
A circular hatch was hidden behind the cabinet.
Adrian tried the wheel.
It would not turn.
“Pressure seal,” he said.
Six minutes nineteen seconds.
Julian ripped wires from the electrical panel.
Sparks flew.
The countdown stopped.
Everyone froze.
Then the screen reset.
Five minutes.
“You shortened it,” Adrian said.
“I’m aware.”
A hiss came from the ceiling.
The smell of fuel entered the room.
Elena wrapped her jacket around Sophie’s face.
“Open the hatch.”
Adrian and Julian pulled together.
The wheel moved slightly.
Water burst through the edges.
“The tunnel is flooded,” Julian said.
“It may still lead outside,” Adrian replied.
Elena looked at Sophie.
“Can you swim?”
The child shook her head.
Adrian removed his coat.
“I’ll carry her.”
The screen flashed.
Three minutes thirty seconds.
Julian opened the file cabinet.
“We came for evidence.”
“We came to survive,” Elena said.
He grabbed folders and shoved them into a waterproof case.
Adrian found a drive attached beneath the desk.
The final message remained waiting on the screen.
PLAY FINAL MESSAGE?
He pressed the button.
Isabel appeared.
Her hair was wet from rain. A bruise marked her cheek.
“Adrian, I do not know whether you will ever see this.”
He stopped moving.
“If you do, understand that I did what I believed would keep Sophie alive. The accident was arranged. I was supposed to die on the road. When I survived, they changed the plan.”
The video flickered.
“I cannot return home. Not yet. The person controlling Owen and Stephen is close to you. Closer than either of us understood.”
Adrian whispered, “Who?”
Isabel looked over her shoulder.
“I have hidden the original trust documents. They prove Sophie is not the only heir.”
Julian stared at the screen.
“What does that mean?”
A loud alarm interrupted the recording.
One minute forty seconds.
The rest of Isabel’s message became distorted.
Three words remained audible.
“Do not trust…”
Then static.
The ceiling vents opened.
Liquid sprayed across the room.
Adrian pulled the drive from the computer.
“Move.”
The hatch opened.
Black water rushed into the room.
A narrow tunnel descended beneath the lake.
Adrian secured Sophie against his chest with his belt and jacket.
Elena entered first.
The water was freezing.
Julian followed with the case.
Behind them, sparks fell from the ceiling.
They moved through the flooded tunnel in darkness.
Elena’s hands touched rough stone.
Her lungs burned.
The passage seemed endless.
Then she saw pale light ahead.
She broke the surface near the lake’s northern shore.
Julian emerged next.
Adrian did not.
Elena turned back.
“Sophie!”
She dove.
Underwater, Adrian was caught beneath a collapsed metal grate. Sophie struggled against his chest.
Elena pulled at the grate.
It did not move.
Julian dove beside her.
Together they lifted it.
Adrian pushed Sophie through.
Elena dragged her to the surface.
The child coughed violently.
Adrian emerged seconds later.
Behind them, a deep explosion shook the lake.
Smoke rose from the hillside.
The bunker had burned.
But Julian still held the case.
Adrian still held the drive.
And Sophie was alive.
They returned to the shore near the house.
One of the security vehicles was gone.
Two guards lay unconscious beside the remaining vehicle.
The third guard was missing.
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On the windshield, written in red paint, were the words:
ISABEL SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD.
