CHAPTER 4 The Secret Beneath Sterling Manor
Darkness swallowed the bunker.
The only sound was Leo's uneven breathing.
Then came the metallic clang of another steel door slamming shut somewhere in the tunnel.
One exit.
Then another.
Whoever was outside knew the layout.
"They're sealing us in," Clara whispered.
Harold Benson's weathered face remained calm, but his hands moved with startling speed. He crossed the room and pulled open an old electrical panel hidden behind a shelf of dusty binders.
"They've found the maintenance tunnels," he muttered.
"I thought nobody knew about them."
"They didn't."
He looked at Leo.
"At least... they weren't supposed to."
Flashlights pierced the darkness outside.
Their beams swept beneath the gap under the bunker door.
One voice barked an order.
"Search every room!"
Another replied,
"He's still alive. The old man said the boy must not leave the estate."
Clara froze.
"The old man..."
Richard Sterling.
Harold slowly nodded.
"I was afraid of that."
Leo's face tightened.
"My grandfather..."
Nobody answered.
Silence became its own answer.
Harold reached behind an old filing cabinet and pressed a hidden switch.
A dim emergency light flickered to life.
The bunker glowed in a faint red haze.
It was just enough to see.
Clara turned back to Arthur's recorded message.
The monitor had gone black when the generator failed.
"Can we restart it?" she asked.
Harold shook his head.
"Not now."
"We need to know what Arthur was trying to tell us."
"I know."
"But if we stay here another minute..."
He glanced toward the steel door.
"...we won't live long enough to hear the rest."
Leo pointed toward a large blueprint spread across a table.
"What's that?"
Harold unfolded it.
Sterling Manor.
Every hallway.
Every staircase.
Every hidden passage.
But something caught Clara's attention.
Beneath the mansion...
There was another level.
She frowned.
"I've worked here for ten years."
"There isn't a basement."
Harold gave a humorless smile.
"There isn't supposed to be."
He tapped the blueprint.
"This isn't a basement."
"It's a vault."
Leo leaned closer.
"A vault?"
Harold nodded.
"Arthur discovered it by accident during renovations."
"What was inside?"
"I've never seen it."
"You've never been there?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because only two people ever had the key."
"Arthur..."
"And Richard Sterling."
A loud bang echoed through the tunnel.
Someone was trying to force open the bunker door.
The hinges rattled violently.
Another hit.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
"We're running out of time," Clara said.
Harold nodded.
"There isn't another exit."
Clara stared.
"What?"
"There isn't another exit..."
He hesitated.
"...unless Arthur was telling the truth."
"What truth?"
Harold looked directly at Leo.
"Your father once said..."
"'If the day ever comes, trust the lion.'"
"The lion?"
Leo frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Harold walked to an enormous bronze statue standing in the corner of the bunker.
It depicted a roaring lion.
Clara had assumed it was decorative.
Harold placed both hands on its head.
"It always seemed like a strange place for artwork."
He twisted.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Outside...
Another crash.
The bunker door bent inward.
One more hit and it would fail.
Harold stepped back.
"It isn't moving."
Leo stared at the statue.
"My dad never used both hands."
Harold blinked.
"What?"
"He always used one."
"One hand?"
Leo nodded slowly.
"He'd scratch behind its ear."
Clara looked at the lion.
Its right ear was polished smooth.
Not from age.
From repeated use.
She reached toward it.
Pulled gently.
Click.
The statue rotated silently.
A narrow stone staircase appeared beneath it.
Harold let out a breath.
"I've been trying to solve that for six years."
The bunker door exploded inward.
Metal screamed as it hit the floor.
Flashlights flooded the room.
Three armed security contractors rushed inside.
Black uniforms.
Body armor.
No company logos.
One pointed his weapon.
"There they are!"
Harold shoved Leo toward the hidden staircase.
"Go!"
Clara grabbed the boy.
They disappeared below just as bullets ricocheted off the bronze lion.
The statue slowly rotated back into place.
Sealing the entrance.
The staircase spiraled downward.
Much deeper than Clara expected.
Cool air replaced the heat of the burning mansion.
After nearly two minutes of descending...
They reached solid ground.
A vast underground chamber stretched before them.
Stone pillars supported the ceiling.
Old electric lamps lined the walls.
Everything looked untouched for decades.
Leo whispered,
"This place..."
"...it's older than the house."
Harold nodded.
"Much older."
Rows of wooden crates filled the chamber.
Most carried the Sterling family crest.
Others bore faded government markings.
Clara brushed dust from one label.
Another.
Another.
"This isn't storage," she said.
"No."
"What is it?"
Harold answered quietly.
"The Sterling Archive."
Leo wandered toward a wall covered with framed photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Every generation of the Sterling family.
Business deals.
Political dinners.
Presidents.
Governors.
Judges.
Foreign diplomats.
The Sterlings had photographed everything.
Then Leo stopped.
"Clara..."
His voice trembled.
She hurried over.
"What is it?"
He pointed.
A photograph dated eleven years earlier.
The day after Arthur's funeral.
Everyone stood outside Sterling Manor.
Richard.
Eleanor.
Lawyers.
Executives.
Employees.
Everyone.
Except...
Arthur.
Except...
Leo.
That wasn't what shocked him.
Near the edge of the photograph stood a tall man in a black suit.
His face partially hidden.
Clara's breath caught.
"I've seen him."
"Where?"
"Tonight."
"The man outside your bedroom."
The same broad shoulders.
The same posture.
The same black gloves.
He had been there...
Eleven years ago.
Harold slowly removed the frame.
Behind it...
Someone had hidden an envelope.
Yellowed with age.
Arthur's handwriting covered the front.
FOR LEO ONLY
Leo reached for it.
Before his fingers touched the envelope...
The chamber lights flickered.
One.
Two.
Three times.
Then a calm voice echoed through hidden speakers.
"Congratulations."
"You finally found it."
The voice was unmistakable.
Richard Sterling.
"But unfortunately..."
Metal doors slammed shut all around the underground chamber.
"...you've just locked yourselves exactly where I wanted you."
The floor beneath them began to shake.
Then, somewhere in the darkness beyond the pillars...
An engine roared to life.
Something enormous...
May you like
Was moving toward them.
END OF CHAPTER 4
