Chapter 7 - The Escape from Sub-Level 3
The deafening roar of the automated alarm system rattled the concrete walls. Heavy steel blast shutters began to slide down over the corridor windows, locking off section by section with terrifying, hydraulic force.
"She’s initiating a chemical purge!" Agent Torres yelled over the sirens. "The system is venting industrial nitrogen into the lower chambers to destroy the biological labs!"
"We have to get that door open!" Daniel roared, throwing his shoulder against the reinforced glass of Suite 101. The impact shattered the outer layer of laminate glass, but the heavy steel frame held firm.
Inside the room, little Maya dropped her plush rabbit, covering her ears, crying out in terror as the red lights strobed across her bedroom walls. Eleanor Vance grabbed the child roughly by her arm, dragging her toward a hidden service elevator at the back of the bedroom.
"Maya!" I screamed, slamming my hands against the glass. "Maya! Look at me!"
The seven-year-old girl turned her head toward the window. Through the cracked, spider-webbed glass, her dark grey eyes met mine. In that split second, despite the chaos, despite the sirens, despite the fact that she had been raised in a gilded subterranean cage, she saw my face.
She saw the exact same crescent-shaped birthmark on my collarbone exposed by my unbuttoned coat.
"Mommy...?" Maya’s tiny voice carried through the intercom system.
The word cut through my soul like a lightning bolt.
"Arthur! The breach charges!" I commanded, turning to my head of security.
Arthur didn't hesitate. He pulled two commercial breaching charges from his tactical vest, slapped them against the heavy steel hinges of the door, and pushed me and Daniel back around the corner of the corridor.
"Cover!" Arthur shouted.
BOOM!
A brilliant flash of orange fire and a shockwave of dust blew out into the hallway. The heavy steel door blew inward, collapsing off its frame onto the carpeted floor of the bedroom.
We charged through the smoke into the room.
Eleanor Vance had her hand on the service elevator control panel, holding a terrified Maya in front of her like a human shield. She pulled a small, nickel-plated revolver from her handbag, pointing it directly at my chest.
"Step back, Clara!" Eleanor shrieked, her aristocratic composure dissolving into unhinged, senile madness. "This child belongs to the Vance Trust! She is the true lineage! You will not take her from us!"
"Drop the weapon, Eleanor!" Agent Torres commanded, raising her Glock, flanked by two federal marshals. "You are completely surrounded! The upper grounds are secured!"
"You think you've won because Arthur and Julian are in prison?!" Eleanor laughed hysterically, her finger tightening on the trigger. "Sterling is in Zurich! He controls ninety million dollars in bearer bonds! As long as we have this child, the Vance name will never die!"
"Look at her, Eleanor," I said, taking a slow, steady step forward, placing myself directly in the line of her gun. My voice was calm, serene, and ringing with an absolute authority that filled the room. "Look at the girl you've kept locked under the earth."
Eleanor's hand trembled slightly. "She is the heir..."
"She is an innocent seven-year-old child," I said, stepping closer. "She is my daughter. And you are an old, pathetic ghost holding a rusty gun in a dying basement."
Before Eleanor could process my words, Daniel moved with lightning speed from the left flank. He grabbed Eleanor’s wrist, driving the barrel of the revolver toward the ceiling just as a deafening shot echoed through the room—BANG!
The bullet shattered a ceiling light, sending glass showering down.
Arthur lunged forward, sweeping Eleanor’s legs out from under her, slamming her onto the floor, and pinning her arms behind her back as cold steel handcuffs clicked tightly around her wrists.
I dropped to my knees on the carpet, reaching out my arms to Maya.
The little girl didn't hesitate. She ran across the room, throwing her tiny arms around my neck, burying her face into my shoulder, sobbing hysterically as the heavy nitrogen vents in the corridor outside began to hiss.
May you like
I lifted her into my arms, wrapping my heavy wool coat around her small body, holding her tight against my heart.
"I've got you, Maya," I whispered into her dark hair, tears streaming down my face as Daniel wrapped his arms around both of us. "I've got you, baby. You're coming home."
