Chapter 5 - THE ROOM BENEATH THE ROOMMy deputy slammed his shoulder against the vault door.
Nothing.
The locking mechanism was electronic now.
Someone had overridden it from outside.
Alexander grabbed his phone.
No signal.
Lily started breathing faster.
I knelt beside her.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“You’re safe.”
A metallic sound echoed through the corridor.
Then another.
The ventilation system stopped.
My deputy looked upward.
“They’re cutting the power.”
I knew immediately what that meant.
This old vault had an emergency air system.
It lasted twenty minutes.
Maybe thirty.
Whoever locked us in knew the building.
I opened the vault plans on the emergency tablet.
There was one maintenance tunnel.
But it was sealed behind an old archive room.
“Alexander.”
He looked at me.
“There’s another way out.”
We moved.
The archive room was filled with broken shelves.
I found an old panel.
Behind it was a narrow passage.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Lily squeezed between me and Alexander.
The tunnel descended.
For several minutes, we moved in complete darkness.
Then a light appeared.
Not at the end.
Below us.
A pale blue glow.
We reached a second chamber.
And found a medical bed.
Straps.
Medication.
A security camera.
A television.
Someone had been kept there.
Recently.
There were photographs taped to the wall.
One of them showed a woman with dark hair.
Amelia.
Alive.
Alexander stumbled backward.
“No.”
A speaker crackled.
A woman's voice came from the ceiling.
“You always were slow, Alexander.”
He spun around.
“Amelia?”
Static.
Then the voice returned.
“I wondered how long it would take you.”
Alexander ran toward the speaker.
“Where are you?”
“You should ask who has been lying to you.”
“Tell me where you are!”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows.”
“Who?”
Silence.
Then:
“Victor.”
The speaker went dead.
Alexander stood frozen.
My deputy searched the room.
There were documents.
Medication records.
A small child's drawing.
And a surveillance still showing Amelia sitting in a chair.
Her left wrist was bruised.
Someone had restrained her.
But the date on the photograph was recent.
Only two weeks old.
“She’s alive,” Alexander whispered.
Lily touched the drawing.
It showed three people holding hands.
A woman.
A man.
A little girl.
Underneath it, a child had written:
Mommy, Daddy, Me.
Alexander closed his eyes.
The little girl in the drawing was wearing a yellow dress.
Lily stared at it.
“She’s the girl from the hotel.”
I turned.
“What?”
“The blue coat lady.”
Lily pointed at the photograph.
“She had the same eyes.”
Alexander grabbed my arm.
“Your daughter saw Amelia?”
“No.”
Lily shook her head.
“Not Amelia.”
Everyone froze.
“Then who?”
Lily pointed at the picture of the little girl.
“Her.”
Nora.
The daughter Alexander never knew was alive.
A sound came from behind us.
Footsteps.
Someone was entering the chamber.
We turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
Marcus Reed.
Alexander's supposedly dead security chief.
Marcus smiled.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Alexander stared at him.
“You died.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
He raised a gun.
“I disappeared.”
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