Chapter 18 - NOAH’S VOICE
"Marcus, take Noah and run toward the 4th Street service grate!" Adam hissed, trying to hand his son to the paramedic.
"No, Adam," Leah interrupted, grabbing Adam’s arm. Her eyes were blazing in the dark. "They have night vision. They’ll hunt you down before you climb the ladder. The only way out is through the substation power grid."
Leah remembered the municipal utility maps she had studied during her paramedic rescue training. The old subway line ran directly beneath the Gilded Room’s commercial block.
"Jordan told us the Gilded Room sits right above the central electrical vault for this entire district," Leah whispered urgently. "If we hit the emergency breaker, we blind their night vision and shut down their comms."
"I'll draw their fire," Marcus said grimly, chambering a round. "You three move through the maintenance conduit."
"Marcus, no—" Leah started, but Marcus was already breaking into a sprint toward the right platform, firing two controlled shots that ricocheted loudly off the tunnel walls, drawing a deafening volley of suppressed automatic fire from the mercenaries.
"Move!" Adam roared, pulling Leah and Noah into a narrow concrete crawlspace marked *HIGH VOLTAGE.*
They scrambled through the dust and cobwebs, the ceiling so low their backs scraped against raw concrete. Behind them, the sounds of gunfire echoed like thunder trapped in a bottle. Noah didn't cry now. The boy seemed frozen in shock, his small hand locked tightly around Leah’s fingers.
"Leah?" Noah whispered in the pitch-black crawlspace.
"I’m right here, Noah. Keep crawling, buddy."
"The lady from the restaurant... she gave me a piece of candy before I fell," Noah said softly.
Adam froze in front of them. "What did you say, Noah?"
"Before I climbed the railing," Noah snuffled, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "The pretty lady with the gold earrings gave me a red lollipop and said if I climbed over the pretty gold bars to look down at the big light, my mommy would be waving at me from heaven."
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A suffocating, murderous stillness settled over Adam Sterling. The realization that Evelyn had deliberately baited an innocent child to his death by weaponizing the memory of his deceased mother transformed Adam from a terrified father into a man possessed by absolute vengeance.
"She dies tonight," Adam whispered, his voice shaking with terrifying resolve.
