Chapter 8: The Tunnels
Chapter 8: The Tunnels
We scrambled down into the basement command center. Smoke was already seeping through the floorboards above us. My father didn't stop at the monitors; he moved to the heavy steel door at the back of the room and pulled it open, revealing a dark, earthen tunnel reinforced with timber.
"This leads to an old mining shaft half a mile away," he explained, tossing me a heavy flashlight. "Move fast. Silas won't be stopped by a few explosives."
We ran through the damp, narrow passage. The air was thick with the smell of wet soil and age. Above us, the muffled sounds of gunfire and the crackling of the burning cabin echoed like distant thunder.
"What about the data?" I asked, panting as we hurried along. "We left the servers!"
"The servers were rigged to wipe the moment the blast went off," my mother assured me from behind. "Everything they wanted is gone. The only thing left is us."
We finally reached the end of the tunnel, emerging into a cavernous, abandoned mining shaft. An old, rust-covered Jeep Wrangler was parked in the center, prepped and loaded with supplies.
As my father reached for the door handle, a voice echoed through the cavern.
"You really think I didn't study the blueprints of this mountain, Frank?"
Silas stepped out from behind a massive stone pillar, his weapon trained directly on my father's chest. He was covered in dirt and soot, his face bleeding from the explosion, but his eyes were deadly calm. Beside him, handcuffed and bruised, was Robert.
"I brought a peace offering," Silas said, pushing Robert forward. "The asset who failed us. I figured you'd want to kill him yourself, Mia."
Robert fell to his knees, sobbing pathetically. "Mia, please! Tell them I was just doing my job! Please!"
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I looked at the man I had once called my husband. He was broken, terrified, and utterly pathetic.
"I don't care about him," I said, staring directly at Silas. "He's nothing."
