Chapter 13 - EIGHT MINUTES
We had no time for a full bomb squad sweep.
Chief Reed ordered immediate evacuation.
Fire crews headed toward the Azure Crown.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“The underground archive has a manual fire lock.”
“So?”
“If the system goes into emergency seal, anyone below is trapped.”
Chief Reed looked at him.
“How many people?”
“Night maintenance crew. Evidence technicians. Maybe twelve.”
We raced to the beach club.
Seven minutes.
The pavilion that had been filled with champagne and cameras three hours earlier was now surrounded by flashing emergency lights.
Officers shouted people toward the beach.
Daniel led us through the kitchen.
A service elevator opened behind the wine cellar.
We descended.
Five minutes.
The underground archive was larger than I expected.
Rows of climate-controlled cabinets.
Servers.
Legal files.
Property documents.
Three evidence technicians were still inside.
“Out!” Reed shouted.
An alarm began screaming.
Steel fire doors started closing.
Tom grabbed one and forced it back.
“Move!”
Everyone ran.
Then Daniel stopped.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“My father’s private cabinet.”
“Forget it.”
“He designed this archive.”
“Daniel—”
“If Hale said the real ledger is here, it’s in that cabinet.”
Four minutes.
We reached a steel compartment marked R.V.
Locked.
Daniel entered his father’s birthday.
Rejected.
His mother’s birthday.
Rejected.
I stared at the keypad.
“What mattered most to Richard?”
Daniel looked at me.
Then at my scar.
“No greater love.”
He typed 1513.
The cabinet opened.
Inside sat one red ledger.
And a cassette recorder.
Three minutes.
I grabbed both.
The alarm changed.
AUTOMATIC SEAL IN SIXTY SECONDS.
We ran.
The first fire door closed behind us.
The second dropped halfway.
Tom slid under.
I followed.
Daniel came next.
Chief Reed was last.
The door jammed at his shoulders.
“Go!”
I grabbed his arm.
He shouted, “Elena, go!”
I pulled.
Tom pushed from the other side.
Daniel wedged a metal bar beneath the door.
Together we dragged Reed through.
The steel door slammed behind his boots.
Thirty seconds.
We reached the elevator.
Dead.
“Stairs!” Daniel yelled.
We climbed.
My ribs screamed.
The scar felt like fire.
Ten seconds.
Five.
We burst through the wine cellar.
Everyone dove behind a concrete wall.
Nothing happened.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Then a deep explosion rolled beneath us.
The floor jumped.
Windows shattered.
Smoke burst from the stairwell.
But the building remained standing.
Hale had expected the underground blast to destroy the archive.
Instead, the reinforced foundation contained most of it.
Daniel looked at the red ledger in my hands.
“We got it.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Vanessa.
Her voice shook.
“Elena.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m not at police headquarters anymore.”
My stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
“My lawyer got me released pending charges.”
“Vanessa—”
“You need to listen.”
She began crying.
“Hale wasn’t working alone.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
A pause.
Then she whispered:
May you like
“Daniel’s mother just disappeared.”
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