Chapter 47 - The Catacombs of Rhône
They plunged ten feet down a slick, algae-covered stone chute before slamming into the freezing, waist-deep waters of Geneva’s ancient subterranean drainage channels.
Gabriel landed on his feet, his knees absorbing the brutal shock, his arms wrapped around Nora to ensure her head remained above the dark, surging water. Sarah crashed into the torrent beside him, gasping for air as the ice-cold alpine runoff knocked the breath from her lungs.
Above them, through the vertical stone conduit, the roar of the explosion faded into a dull, muffled rumble, followed by the sound of furious shouting in German and French.
"Keep moving!" Gabriel commanded, hauling Sarah to her feet with one hand while holding Nora against his chest with the other. "The fire will starve the shaft of oxygen. We have five minutes before the smoke fills these tunnels!"
The underground aqueduct was a subterranean maze built during the eighteenth century—damp, moss-covered limestone arches stretching into infinite darkness. The water pulled hard against their legs, rushing toward the outflow where the Rhône River exited Lake Geneva. The only light came from the tactical penlight clipped to Gabriel’s collar, cutting a thin, dancing beam through the wet mist.
Nora was shaking violently from the freezing water, her lips turning a faint shade of blue. She clutched Gabriel's neck, her small teeth chattering so hard she could barely form words.
"M-Mr. Gabriel..." the little girl whimpered. "The white lady... she smelled like Mommy’s funeral."
Gabriel felt a cold fury settle into his marrow. "She won't touch you again, Nora. I promise you that."
"Gabriel," Sarah gasped, sloshing through the water beside him, clutching her side where shrapnel had grazed her ribs during the breach. "Where does this tunnel lead? If we come out in the main river basin, Beatrice’s harbor patrols will be waiting for us!"
"Julianna’s note mentioned an old secondary sluice gate beneath the industrial rail yard," Gabriel replied, navigating by memory of the city's antique civil engineering blueprints he had memorized years ago during an extraction assignment. "The water levels are controlled by a manual bypass valve half a mile east. If we breach that gate, we come out directly behind the freight depot."
They trudged through the subterranean current for twenty agonizing minutes, the water rising to Gabriel’s chest and Sarah’s collarbone as the tunnel narrowed. Nora was held high above Gabriel's shoulders now, her small hands resting on his wet hair, her eyes wide as she watched the shadows dancing along the vaulted brick ceiling.
Suddenly, Gabriel stopped dead.
Ahead in the dark, through the dripping mist of the tunnel, two green tactical laser lines sliced through the darkness, sweeping across the surface of the black water.
*Beatrice’s contractors hadn't waited for the smoke to clear.* They had mapped the tunnel exits and sent an advance team down the auxiliary access shafts.
Gabriel immediately killed his penlight. Total, suffocating darkness engulfed them.
"Sarah," Gabriel breathed, his lips barely grazing her ear. "Take Nora behind the third brick buttress to the left. Do not move. Do not make a sound, no matter what you hear."
"Gabriel, there are at least two of them with night vision," Sarah whispered, terror threading her words. "You can't fight them in the dark without goggles!"
"They have night vision," Gabriel whispered back, his voice completely stripped of fear. "I have the water."
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Gently passing Nora to Sarah, Gabriel slipped backward beneath the freezing surface of the black river water, vanishing without creating even a single ripple.
***
