Chapter 12 - FIVE MINUTES TO DROWNThe first explosion shook the corridor.
Water burst through a maintenance wall at the far end, knocking two prisoners from their feet. Alarms screamed as the underground flood system activated.
“Higher ground!” Judge Cross shouted.
“There is no higher ground,” Sterling replied. “These levels were built beneath the river line.”
Vincent grabbed the doctor.
“How do we stop it?”
“Main control chamber. Gabriel has Leo there.”
“Another route?”
Sterling pointed to the security display.
“Through the medical wing, but the doors are sealed.”
Tommy fired at the nearest electronic lock.
The bullets flattened against reinforced steel.
Celia looked toward the open cells.
“Daniel built this place. He left another way.”
She ran down the corridor, searching for the carved C symbol.
Water rose around her shoes.
Margaret followed despite her injured leg.
“You said Dad survived the accident,” Celia called to the elderly prisoner.
The woman introduced herself as Ruth Mercer.
“He escaped through the water system.”
“Where?”
“I never saw. He said he was following the sound of trains.”
Celia pressed her ear against the wall.
Above the alarms and rushing water, she heard a faint vibration.
Tracks.
She followed the sound to Cell 27.
The room was empty except for a metal bed attached to the wall.
Carved into the bed frame was a message.
FOR MY CELIA, WHO ALWAYS FINDS THE LIGHT.
Her knees weakened.
Her father had written those words.
Margaret covered her mouth.
“He was alive.”
Celia ran her fingers over the carving. Beneath it was another C-shaped mark.
She pressed it.
The bed shifted away from the wall, revealing a vertical ladder.
“Here!”
Prisoners crowded toward the opening.
The ladder led upward to a narrow service tunnel.
Judge Cross began organizing the escape.
“Elderly and injured first!”
Vincent looked toward the medical wing.
“I’m going for Leo.”
Celia grabbed his arm.
“You can’t reach the control room through the sealed doors.”
“I will find a way.”
“You’ll get trapped.”
“He is my son.”
“And these people are here because of your family.”
His eyes flashed.
“I did not put them here.”
“No, but you inherited the doors.”
The words stopped him.
Water reached their knees.
Celia looked toward the ladder and then toward the medical wing.
“We split up. Tommy and Evelyn lead the prisoners out. My mother goes with them.”
“No,” Margaret said.
“Mom.”
“I lost Daniel because we separated when we should have stayed together.”
“You can barely walk.”
“Then you’ll help me.”
Vincent turned to Pike.
“Can you open federal emergency channels?”
“If we reach the surface.”
“Tell them the lower tunnels are flooding. Send rescue crews to the west maintenance entrance.”
Pike nodded.
Tommy objected.
“Boss, I’m not leaving you.”
“You are getting these people out.”
“I protect the family.”
Vincent looked toward the prisoners.
“Tonight, they are the family.”
Tommy’s face changed.
He began directing people toward the ladder.
Celia, Vincent, Margaret and Sterling entered Cell 27. Instead of climbing, Celia searched beneath the bed mechanism.
A second opening descended behind the wall.
“Daniel built two paths,” she said. “One out. One deeper.”
They entered the lower passage.
The water followed.
Sterling carried the remaining antitoxin above his head. Vincent moved ahead with a flashlight and gun.
The passage ended at a rotating ventilation fan.
“Can we stop it?” Celia asked.
Sterling examined the controls.
“Power line is behind the panel.”
Vincent fired twice into the motor.
The fan slowed.
They squeezed through one at a time.
On the other side stood a medical laboratory filled with rows of hospital beds. Old equipment lined the walls. Cabinets contained records labeled with names and dates.
Margaret stopped beside one file.
DANIEL JACE.
Celia opened it.
Inside were medical photographs of her father after the staged construction accident. Broken ribs. Severe burns. Surgical notes.
The final page contained a transfer order signed by Gabriel Vale.
DESTINATION: SITE C.
“Where is Site C?” Celia asked.
Sterling looked at the code.
“Chicago Lakeside Behavioral Center.”
“That hospital closed ten years ago.”
“Officially.”
Vincent took the file.
“Your father may still be alive.”
Celia stared at him.
“No.”
“The record shows no date of death.”
“He would have found us.”
“Unless Gabriel kept him from doing so.”
A child’s cry echoed through the laboratory speakers.
“Papa!”
Leo.
Vincent rushed toward the sound.
A glass wall separated the laboratory from the central vault chamber. Gabriel stood on the opposite side with Leo. Simon paced nearby, shouting into a dead phone.
Water poured into their chamber from overhead pipes.
“You lied to me!” Simon yelled at Gabriel. “You said we would remove Vincent and divide the territories.”
Gabriel adjusted his bloodstained cuff.
“You wanted to be respected, Simon. I merely allowed you to pretend.”
Simon raised the blade hidden inside his cane.
Leo stepped away from both men.
Gabriel seized him.
Vincent struck the glass.
“Let him go!”
Gabriel looked toward the countdown.
Two minutes remained.
“You’re late.”
Sterling searched the laboratory console.
“I can stop the flooding, but the system needs authorization from inside the chamber.”
Celia lifted her father’s file.
“What does Gabriel want more than the vault?”
“Control,” Margaret said.
“No. He already has control.”
Celia looked at Gabriel.
“He wants Daniel.”
She activated the intercom.
“Gabriel, I found Site C.”
His expression changed.
The reaction was small but unmistakable.
“You found an old transfer file.”
“I found proof Daniel survived.”
“Your father died years ago.”
“Then you won’t mind if the FBI searches the hospital.”
Gabriel glanced at the countdown.
Celia continued.
“Open the chamber and give us Leo, or Site C becomes the first thing every freed witness tells the government.”
“You have no functioning communication.”
“Pike is already climbing to the surface.”
Gabriel looked toward the security screens. The escape tunnel was emptying.
For the first time, he had lost control of information.
Simon saw the distraction.
He attacked.
The cane blade struck Gabriel’s arm.
Leo broke free and ran toward the chamber door.
Vincent shouted instructions through the glass.
“Red lever, Leo!”
The boy pulled it.
The chamber door opened halfway before emergency locks engaged.
Vincent forced his body into the gap.
Gabriel fired.
The bullet struck Vincent beneath the ribs.
Celia screamed.
Vincent remained standing.
He reached through the opening and pulled Leo toward him.
Simon attacked Gabriel again.
The two men struggled beside the flood-control console.
Thirty seconds remained.
Sterling pointed through the glass.
“The blue switch! Someone has to hold it down manually.”
Leo was small enough to crawl through the half-open door.
“No,” Vincent gasped.
Celia looked at the narrowing gap.
She pushed through.
The steel door crushed against her shoulder, but she entered the chamber.
Water swirled around her waist.
She reached the console and pressed the blue switch.
The countdown stopped at three seconds.
The flooding slowed.
Behind her, a gun fired.
Simon collapsed.
Gabriel stood over him.
Then Gabriel turned the weapon toward Celia.
“You really are Daniel’s daughter.”
He fired.
Vincent stepped between them.
May you like
The bullet struck him in the chest.
He fell into the rising water.
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