Chapter 11 - The Woman in White
Heat began rising through the vault floor.
Marcus searched the walls for a manual release.
Adrian tried the emergency phone.
Thomas connected his laptop to the control panel.
Rachel remained beside Daniel.
“Who was in the ballroom?” she asked.
Daniel closed his eyes, forcing memory into order.
“White dress. Blond hair.”
“Celeste?”
Victor’s head snapped toward him.
“My sister does not control the Circle.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Not Celeste.”
Rachel remembered the elegant woman who had spoken to her beside the brooch.
Celeste had worn ivory.
But dozens of women had worn white or cream.
“Can you remember her face?” Rachel asked.
“Older now.”
“Who?”
Daniel’s fingers tightened around hers.
“Victor’s daughter.”
Victor stepped into the chamber.
“My daughter died thirty years ago.”
“No,” Daniel said. “She disappeared.”
Thomas looked at the photograph of the little girl.
“You said the missing child was connected to the Circle.”
Daniel nodded weakly.
“She founded it.”
Victor’s expression twisted between disbelief and terror.
“She was eight.”
“She was taken at eight. Raised by people your father financed. She returned under another name.”
The countdown reached seven minutes.
Thomas typed rapidly.
“The system is not responding.”
Victor looked at Marcus.
“There is a maintenance shaft behind shelf twelve.”
They moved boxes from the shelf and uncovered a narrow panel.
Marcus opened it.
A vertical shaft extended upward into darkness.
“Where does it lead?” Adrian asked.
“The generator room.”
“Can someone fit?”
“An adult cannot.”
Everyone looked at Emily.
Rachel immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Emily stared into the shaft.
“I can do it.”
“No.”
Daniel reached for Rachel.
“The system will burn everyone.”
“She is a child.”
“She is our child.”
“That is why I won’t send her into a dark shaft.”
Thomas examined the opening.
“I can guide her through the maintenance map. It is fifteen feet up, then a short crawl to the manual release.”
Rachel looked at the countdown.
Six minutes.
Victor removed a small radio from the control panel.
“This connects directly to the shaft.”
Emily took it.
Rachel caught her hand.
“Listen to me. You do exactly what Thomas says. You do not touch anything else.”
Emily nodded.
“If you become scared, you come back.”
“What if I’m almost there?”
“You come back.”
“Mommy.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
Marcus lifted her into the shaft.
Emily climbed.
Rachel listened to every breath through the radio.
“Three steps up,” Thomas instructed. “There should be a metal handle.”
“I found it.”
“Pull.”
A panel opened above.
Emily crawled into the horizontal duct.
The countdown reached five minutes.
Smoke began entering the vault.
Daniel coughed.
Rachel wet a cloth and held it over his mouth.
Thomas guided Emily left, then right.
She reached the generator room.
“I see lots of wires.”
“Do not touch them. Find a red wheel beside the floor.”
“There are two.”
Victor approached Thomas.
“Tell her the one marked V-seven.”
Thomas relayed the instruction.
Emily found it.
“Turn it clockwise.”
“It won’t move.”
“Use both hands.”
Rachel heard Emily struggling.
The countdown reached three minutes.
Marcus and Adrian tried forcing the vault door.
Victor stood perfectly still, watching the numbers descend.
Rachel looked at him.
“You expected to die here.”
He gave a faint smile.
“I expected many things. Death was always among them.”
Two minutes.
Emily cried out over the radio.
Rachel’s heart stopped.
“What happened?”
“I hurt my hand.”
“Come back.”
“No. The wheel moved.”
The countdown paused.
Everyone stared.
Then it resumed at one minute fifty-nine seconds.
“It only slowed the system,” Thomas said.
Victor seized the radio.
“Emily, listen to me. Behind the wheel is a gray box.”
“I see it.”
“Open it.”
“There’s a keyhole.”
Victor looked at the Bennett Rose still inserted in the vault mechanism.
“The brooch.”
Rachel removed it.
“How do we get it to her?”
Marcus pointed to a pneumatic document tube built into the wall.
Victor placed the brooch inside the capsule and sent it upward.
Emily received it.
“Put the long end into the keyhole,” Victor said. “Turn it until you hear three clicks.”
One minute.
First click.
Second click.
The vault floor became painfully hot.
Thirty seconds.
“Emily?” Rachel called.
“It’s stuck.”
“Pull it out,” Victor ordered. “Rotate the ruby.”
“How?”
“The flower opens.”
Ten seconds.
Thomas shouted, “Turn the center stone.”
Emily gasped.
“I found it.”
Three clicks sounded over the radio.
The countdown stopped at four seconds.
The steel door opened.
Fresh air rushed inside.
Rachel nearly collapsed.
Victor took the radio.
“Stay where you are. Marcus will come for you.”
“No,” Emily said.
Her voice had changed.
“Emily?” Rachel asked.
“There’s someone in the generator room.”
A woman’s voice came faintly through the radio.
“Hello, Emily.”
Rachel recognized it.
The woman in the ivory gown.
May you like
Celeste.
Then Emily whispered, “She has a gun.”
