Chapter 17 - Five Minutes
The hidden room had no windows.
The steel door at the top of the staircase could not be opened from inside.
Preston’s footsteps disappeared down the corridor.
Ruiz radioed for the bomb squad.
The signal failed beneath the ballroom.
David examined the duffel bag without touching it.
“Could be real.”
“Could be meant to scare us,” Lena said.
“He used Sophie to scare me,” I replied.
“Assume it’s real.”
The timer reached four minutes.
Marcus searched the architectural plans on his tablet.
“There’s an old freight tunnel.”
“Where?” Ruiz asked.
“Behind the north wall.”
Officers moved shelves aside.
Solid brick appeared behind them.
The tunnel had been sealed during renovations.
Three minutes and thirty seconds remained.
David found a fire ax inside an emergency cabinet.
He began striking the wall.
Two officers joined him.
Each blow sent dust across the room.
I searched the shelves for anything that might help.
Behind the box labeled BOARD, I found a narrow metal lever.
I pulled it.
A section of shelving shifted forward.
A hidden ventilation passage appeared.
It was barely wide enough for one person.
Ruiz looked inside.
“Where does it lead?”
Marcus checked the plans.
“Up to the old orchestra platform.”
Two minutes and forty seconds.
Ruiz ordered everyone into the passage.
I crawled behind Lena.
Concrete scraped my hands and knees.
David followed last.
The timer’s beeping echoed through the room.
At the end of the passage, Ruiz kicked through a wooden panel.
We emerged beneath the abandoned ballroom stage.
One minute and fifty seconds.
We climbed through a trapdoor.
The old ballroom stretched around us beneath faded murals and broken chandeliers.
The exit doors were chained shut.
David fired twice at the chain.
It broke.
We ran into the service corridor.
The explosion came before we reached the stairwell.
The floor lifted beneath my feet.
A wave of heat and dust threw us forward.
The corridor filled with smoke.
Sprinklers activated.
Alarms screamed throughout the hotel.
But the blast was smaller than Preston intended.
The thick concrete walls contained most of it.
The hidden records were damaged but not destroyed.
Police sealed the building.
Security cameras tracked Preston moving toward the roof.
I followed Ruiz despite her orders to evacuate.
We reached the top floor as officers surrounded the roof access door.
Wind roared beyond it.
Ruiz looked at me.
“You stay here.”
Then a child’s cry came through the door.
“Mommy.”
May you like
My blood froze.
Sophie was on the roof.
