Chapter 9 - Ten Minutes Underground
Smoke thickened rapidly.
Detective Bell ordered everyone to cover their mouths and move toward the rear of the bunker. Officers attempted to override the elevator controls, but the system had locked them out.
The countdown reached nine minutes.
“Archive purge could mean fire suppression,” Owen said.
“Or destruction of evidence,” Laura replied.
Claire searched the desk.
“Grandma built this room. She would have included another exit.”
“Unless Thomas changed the system,” Anna said.
Daniel slammed a chair into the wall.
The metal frame bent.
Stephen shouted at him to stop wasting oxygen.
Vivian clutched Melissa’s arm.
Owen returned to the computer and opened the facility plans.
“Most files are encrypted.”
“Use Claire’s check code,” Anna said.
Claire entered the numbers.
A new menu appeared.
EMERGENCY CONTINUITY ACCESS
The system requested a voice authorization.
Claire pressed the microphone icon.
“Claire Bennett.”
ACCESS DENIED.
Owen tried.
Denied.
Anna tried.
Denied.
The countdown reached eight minutes.
Claire remembered the name the vault attendant had used.
She pressed the icon again.
“Claire Rose Bennett.”
The screen turned green.
ACCESS GRANTED TO ROSEBRIDGE CUSTODIAN.
A map appeared.
The emergency exit was located behind the northern wall of the records chamber.
They found a recessed lever hidden beneath Richard’s empty folder hook.
Bell pulled it.
Part of the wall opened, revealing a narrow service tunnel.
Everyone entered while smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Claire remained at the computer.
“What are you doing?” Anna asked.
“Copying the files.”
“There isn’t time.”
“If the archive burns, Thomas wins.”
Owen connected his flash drive.
The progress bar moved slowly.
Fifteen percent.
Twenty-three.
The countdown reached six minutes.
Laura returned.
“You need to leave.”
“Not yet.”
Thirty-one percent.
Heat spread through the bunker.
A deep mechanical sound began inside the walls.
Anna grabbed Claire’s shoulders.
“Your grandmother did not choose you because you would die for documents.”
“How do you know why she chose me?”
“Because she told me.”
Claire looked at her.
“What did she say?”
“She said you were the only Bennett who understood that wealth means nothing if people are treated as disposable.”
The progress bar reached forty-eight percent.
Anna continued.
“Do not become another person who sacrifices the living to protect the company.”
Claire ejected the drive.
They entered the tunnel with four minutes remaining.
The passage rose toward a hatch beneath an abandoned rail platform.
Bell forced it open.
One by one, they climbed into the snow.
Police vehicles surrounded the factory.
The black sedan was gone.
Behind them, the underground archive erupted.
A column of smoke rose from the building, but the main structure remained intact.
The family stood in the cold, coughing and shaken.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Did you save the files?”
“Some of them.”
“Enough to restore the checks?”
Claire stared at him.
“That is still what you care about?”
His face flushed.
“I lost five million dollars.”
“You threw it into a candle.”
“I thought it was fake.”
“That was the test.”
“I didn’t know I was being tested.”
“That is when character is usually revealed.”
He looked away.
Detective Bell received a call.
He listened, then motioned Claire aside.
“Malcolm Reeves is awake.”
“What did he tell you?”
“He says Evelyn contacted him two months ago and asked for help creating the appearance of an abduction.”
“Why?”
“She believed Thomas had returned. She wanted to draw him out.”
“Did Malcolm take her to the river?”
“Yes. The blood came from an injury he suffered while staging the car.”
“Where did he take her afterward?”
“To the Halcyon factory.”
Claire looked toward the burning vents.
“She was here?”
“Until approximately two o’clock this morning.”
“What happened then?”
“Thomas arrived.”
“Did Malcolm see him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he call the police?”
“Thomas had information that could send Malcolm to prison for the rest of his life.”
Claire thought of the empty folder hook.
“Thomas took Richard’s file.”
“Possibly.”
“Where is Malcolm now?”
“In protective custody.”
“Can I speak to him?”
“Later.”
Bell’s phone rang again.
This time his expression became severe.
“What?” Claire asked.
“A body has been found near the rail station.”
“Grandma?”
“We don’t know.”
They drove to the scene.
The body lay beneath a white sheet near an unused platform. A pair of expensive black shoes extended from one end.
Claire recognized them.
Richard had worn them to Christmas dinner.
A detective lifted the sheet.
It was not Richard.
The dead man was Dr. Samuel Kirk.
A five-million-dollar check had been pinned to his coat.
The payee line was blank.
On the back, someone had written:
ONE FALSE DEATH DESERVES ANOTHER.
Anna turned away.
Claire stared at the message.
“Thomas killed him because he helped fake Mom’s death.”
Bell did not respond.
An officer approached holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside was Richard’s watch.
It had been found beside the body.
Bell looked at Claire.
“Your father is now a suspect.”
Claire’s phone vibrated.
A video call request appeared from a private number.
She answered.
Richard’s face filled the screen.
He was sitting in a dark room.
His lip was bleeding.
Behind him stood Thomas Bennett.
Claire’s grandfather placed one hand on Richard’s shoulder.
“Hello, Claire,” Thomas said.
“Where is Grandma?”
“She is deciding whether you deserve to see her again.”
“Let my father go.”
Thomas smiled.
“After everything he has done?”
“I want him alive to answer for it.”
“A noble response.”
“What do you want?”
“The original check.”
Claire looked toward Bell.
Thomas continued.
“Bring it to the Bennett Meridian merger meeting in three days.”
“Why?”
“Because the check is not merely an instrument of payment. Evelyn printed the succession authorization inside its security pattern.”
Claire glanced at the document in her bag.
“With it, you can stop the merger,” Thomas said.
“And without it?”
“Sentinel Crown will own Bennett Meridian before sunset.”
“You already control Sentinel Crown.”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you need the merger?”
“To gain what Evelyn stole from me.”
“She built Halcyon.”
Thomas’s smile disappeared.
“Your grandmother built nothing without my name.”
Behind him, Richard raised his eyes toward the camera.
He mouthed two words.
May you like
Do not come.
Thomas ended the call.
