Chapter 8 - The Tunnel Beneath the Hotel
The elevator doors closed on three federal agents shouting Serena’s name. She immediately pressed the emergency stop between floors. Celeste stared at her. “You realize that did not improve this plan.” “You came with me.” “You are carrying my granddaughter.
I was not letting you disappear into a basement alone.” Malcolm had stepped into the elevator at the last second as well. He leaned against the wall, bruised but steady, and checked the magazine in the recovered pistol.
“I would like the record to show that I strongly object to both of you.” “Noted,” Serena said. She called Lena. The agent answered with enough anger to cut steel. “Start the elevator again.” “Victor has Maya.” “I know.” “He wants the key.”
“We know that too. Adrian is stalling him. My team is moving through the south corridor.” Serena looked at the floor plan from room 317, now damp and folded in her hand. “There’s another approach. Old laundry tunnel on the north side.”
“How do you know?” “My father marked it.” Lena went quiet. Serena traced the red line on the plan. “If your team comes from the south, Victor expects them. Malcolm can take the north tunnel and give you a second angle.” “And you will stay in the elevator.”
Serena looked at Celeste. “Absolutely.” Lena did not believe her, but she accepted the tactical information. “Restart the elevator. Basement one only. My agents will meet you there.” Serena pressed the button. The elevator descended. Her next contraction arrived before the doors opened.
She bent forward, breathing hard, both hands around her belly. Celeste supported her elbow. “How long?” Serena asked. “Two minutes and forty seconds.” “That seems bad.” “It is not ideal.” Malcolm looked uncomfortable. “I fight people for a living. I have no useful contribution to this part.”
The doors opened on basement one. No agents waited. Only an empty concrete corridor stretched ahead. Lena’s voice came through the phone. “Hold position. They’re thirty seconds away.” Then a scream echoed from below. Maya. Serena moved before thought could stop her.
A stairwell door stood ten yards away. She pushed through it and descended one flight, Celeste and Malcolm behind her. Basement two smelled of oil, wet concrete, and hot electronics. Red emergency lights pulsed along the walls.
Somewhere nearby, servers hummed with the low mechanical sound of a sleeping city. Maya’s voice came again. “Let him go!” Serena followed it. They reached an intersection overlooking the old maintenance tunnel. Victor stood near a steel door with Maya in front of him.
One arm was locked around her shoulders. His pistol pressed beneath her jaw. Maya’s wedding gown was gray with dust, her veil gone, her face streaked with tears. Adrian stood fifteen feet away with empty hands. The second gunman covered him from behind a concrete pillar.
Victor saw Serena and smiled. “I knew you would come.” Adrian turned. The anger in his face was almost frightening. “What are you doing?” “Saving my sister.” “I told you not to come.” “And I told you tonight was over for making decisions for me.”
Even now, Maya let out a small, hysterical laugh. Victor tightened his arm around her. “Enough.” Serena held up the tiny key. “This is what you want.” “Yes.” “What does it open?” Victor’s eyes flicked toward the steel door behind him. Serena followed the glance.
A brass plate beside the door read ARCHIVE 401. Her skin went cold. The folder on Daniel’s hard drive had been labeled C-401. Room 317 had not contained the final secret. It had contained the map to it. “Let Maya go,” Serena said.
“Then you get the key.” Victor laughed. “You still think this is a negotiation.” “No. I think you need me to choose cooperation.” He looked at her belly. “You are in no condition to threaten anyone.” “That is where you keep making mistakes.”
Serena took one step forward. Adrian shook his head almost imperceptibly. Malcolm had vanished from beside her. Good. He was moving toward the north tunnel. Victor did not notice. “Throw me the key,” he ordered. Serena closed her fingers around it. “You killed my father for this door.”
“I killed your father because he believed evidence was the same as power.” “And Edward Vale?” “Edward wanted forgiveness without consequences.” “You seem to remember their flaws better than your crimes.” Victor’s mouth tightened. That was what Serena wanted. Angry people looked at the person angering them.
They stopped looking at everything else. Behind the pillar, the second gunman shifted. A shadow moved in the north passage. Malcolm. Serena lifted the key. Victor’s attention followed it. A federal agent stepped silently into position beyond the tunnel.
Then Serena felt a crushing pressure low in her body. This contraction was different. Her knees nearly buckled. Adrian moved instinctively toward her. The gunman raised his weapon. “Don’t!” Victor shouted. Everything happened at once. Maya drove her heel backward into Victor’s shin.
Adrian lunged toward the gunman. Malcolm fired into the ceiling, forcing the man to duck. Federal agents surged from the south corridor. Victor shoved Maya aside and aimed at Serena. She saw the barrel. She saw Adrian turn. She saw Celeste reach for Maya.
Then Lena Ortiz appeared behind Victor and struck his gun arm downward just as he fired. The bullet hit concrete. Adrian tackled Victor. They crashed into the steel door. The tiny key flew from Serena’s hand and skittered across the floor. Victor saw it.
May you like
So did Serena. He crawled for it. Serena stepped on the key with her bare heel. Victor looked up at her. For the first time all night, the certainty left his face. Lena put a knee between his shoulder blades and cuffed his wrists.
“Victor Kane,” she said, breathing hard, “you are under arrest.” Serena looked down at him. Then another contraction hit. Her legs gave way. Adrian caught her before she reached the floor. “Serena.” She grabbed his collar. “The baby,” she gasped. Sirens sounded somewhere above them. And for the first time that night, they were coming to help.
