Chapter 10 - Beneath the Lake
The boat drifted toward the concrete supports of the old bridge.
Samuel tried the engine again.
Nothing.
Mara checked her phone.
“No signal.”
Adrian looked back toward the shore.
The scarred man had disappeared.
“They’re using a jammer,” Mara said.
Eleanor examined the river current.
“We can reach the eastern bank.”
“Not before the men from the club catch us.”
Samuel opened a storage compartment and found two emergency paddles.
They moved in silence.
Behind them, another boat entered the river.
Its engine was far more powerful.
Mara raised her weapon.
“Keep down.”
The approaching boat slowed fifty yards away.
No one fired.
A bright light flashed twice from the bow.
Samuel stopped paddling.
“What does that mean?” Adrian asked.
“Military extraction signal,” Eleanor said.
The light flashed once, paused, then flashed three times.
Samuel responded by raising his flashlight and covering it with his hand.
Two flashes.
The other boat turned away.
Adrian stared at them.
“Who was that?”
Samuel looked at Eleanor.
“Thomas used that sequence.”
The engine of their fishing boat suddenly restarted.
Mara checked beneath the dashboard.
“No mechanical failure.”
“The device killed the signal,” Eleanor said. “Then he restored it.”
Adrian wrapped his coat around himself.
“He saved us.”
“Or directed us,” Mara replied.
By morning, they reached a secure apartment belonging to one of Mara’s former academy instructors.
Adrian sat at the kitchen table, staring at a disconnected phone.
He had stopped demanding a lawyer.
Eleanor placed the copied deed before him.
“We need access to the lake entrance.”
“My father’s security controls the park at night.”
“You know the codes.”
“They change daily.”
“You know who receives them.”
Adrian looked at her.
“If I help you, I testify against my father.”
“You have already helped us.”
“I haven’t given you anything.”
“You identified Thomas.”
“I said I wasn’t sure.”
Eleanor leaned across the table.
“You are sure.”
Adrian looked away.
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
“He stayed in the guesthouse for seven months. My father told me he was an architect recovering from an accident.”
“What happened after seven months?”
“One night, they argued. Gray said the archive was not Victor’s to control. My father said someone called the Director would decide.”
“Director of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened to Gray?”
“He left in the black SUV.”
“Alone?”
“No. Chief Cole drove.”
Mara stepped forward.
“Did your father ever use the phrase Crown Committee?”
Adrian shook his head.
“He called them investors.”
“What about the broken-crown ring?”
Adrian looked at Eleanor’s photograph of Victor.
“My father didn’t start wearing it until last year.”
“That means he was promoted,” Samuel said.
“Or marked,” Eleanor replied.
Adrian reached for a sheet of paper.
He wrote six numbers.
“This was yesterday’s gate code. Tonight’s will be similar. My father uses dates connected to his victories.”
“The council vote is tomorrow,” Mara said.
“What victory would he choose?”
Adrian thought for a moment.
“The warehouse fire.”
Eleanor felt the room become colder.
“What date does Victor consider the fire?” she asked.
“November eighteenth.”
Mara wrote the numbers.
111802.
That night, the eastern gate accepted the code.
Eleanor, Mara, Samuel, and Adrian entered Ashford Park at one forty in the morning.
The lake reflected the city lights.
They found the concealed hatch beneath the stone railing.
Adrian entered the second code.
The hatch unlocked.
A steel staircase descended beneath the waterline.
The air smelled of stone, oil, and damp paper.
At the bottom was a corridor lined with electrical cables.
The archive door stood open.
Inside, shelves contained hundreds of black boxes labeled with dates, project names, and city departments.
Mara opened the nearest box.
Bank records.
Samuel opened another.
Photographs of judges accepting envelopes.
Adrian found a box marked MERCER, VICTOR.
He removed a digital recorder.
Victor’s voice played through the speaker.
“Adrian will create the disturbance at the park. Once Samuel appears publicly, Cole will remove him. Eleanor will lead us to the locker.”
Adrian went still.
Another voice answered Victor.
It was distorted electronically.
“And if your son fails?”
“He has failed at everything else. No one will be surprised.”
Adrian lowered the recorder.
The archive door slammed shut behind them.
Red emergency lights activated.
A speaker near the ceiling crackled.
Chief Cole’s voice filled the room.
May you like
“Officer Quinn, you should have learned from your father.”
Water began pouring beneath the door.
