Chapter 12 - The Trap in the Deep
"Cover your mouths with your shirts!" Clara ordered, her voice cutting through the rising panic. She scrambled to her feet, shining her beam toward the emergency maintenance shaft near Pillar 12. "The blueprint has an auxiliary storm-drain bypass that empties directly into the city sewer line! Follow me!"
The gas was descending quickly, cold and suffocating. David stumbled, his knees buckling under the chemical haze, but Clara grabbed his utility harness with both hands, dragging him forward through the pooling water on the floor.
Her security guard threw his weight against the iron emergency hatch. "It’s chained from the outside!"
"Shoot the hinges!" Clara coughed, tears streaming down her face from the acrid fumes.
BANG. BANG.
Two rounds blew the rusted lock pins clear off the frame. The guard kicked the heavy steel door outward, and a rush of cool, wet night air flooded into their lungs.
Clara shoved David out first, followed by the guards, before pulling herself up the ladder into the pouring rain of the rear alleyway.
Gasping on the wet asphalt, Clara looked across the fenced perimeter. Parked beneath a malfunctioning streetlight fifty yards away was a beat-up pickup truck with Idaho plates. Behind the steering wheel sat Julian, staring at the alley with wide, manic eyes.
When he saw Clara emerge alive, his expression warped from smug anticipation into absolute terror.
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Julian slammed the truck into reverse, tires screeching against the wet pavement as he spun the vehicle toward the street.
"Don't let him leave the perimeter," Clara commanded her security team, wiping rain and soot from her forehead. "And call my father. Tell him to activate the port authority lockdown."
